Symantec is offering multiple one-year fellowship awards for Ph.D. students pursuing innovative research in security, cryptography, machine learning, data mining, and information security. The fellowship provides up to $20,000 for tuition fees and research expenses. Fellowship recipients may also be offered a separate salaried internship with Symantec.

The Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship
Symantec is accepting applications for the 2017 Fellowship Program. Award decisions will be made in January 2017.
Symantec will award Symantec Research Labs (SRL) Graduate Fellowships to outstanding Ph.D. students who meet the eligibility criteria listed below. A key goal of the program is to fund innovative research that has real-world value, in areas where Symantec conducts business. We are soliciting applications for the following areas:

  • Next Generation Security: Security, cryptography and cyber-risk assessment and modeling, in the areas of networks, information security, big data analytics, data center, privacy, cloud, etc.
  • Network and Cloud Security: Advance the state of the art in digital certificates, high throughput network security, securing public/private Cloud infrastructure, applications, and services, etc.
  • Machine learning and data mining: Extend and apply predictive-analytics and anomaly-detection algorithms at scale, in support of the security and systems areas mentioned above.

Provisions of the Award
The SRL Graduate Fellowship provides up to $20,000 USD that may be used to cover one year of the student’s tuition fees and to reimburse expenses incurred by the student to engage into research collaboration with Symantec, such as conference registration fees, travel expenses, hardware, etc. If the fellowship is to cover tuition, this portion of the award will be made through the university.

Award recipients are strongly encouraged to take a separate salaried internship with Symantec that they plan to offer to all fellowship recipients. Interns will usually work directly with Symantec Research Labs at one of our locations (Culver City, CA, USA; Mountain View, CA, USA; Dublin, Ireland; Sophia-Antipolis, France) or with another group within Symantec. Each recipient is paired with a mentor from Symantec. A mentor is a top researcher or engineer who can provide ongoing technical guidance on the recipient’s research during graduate training as well as during an internship at Symantec.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Applying students must be enrolled in a Ph.D. program.
  • Preference will be given to students with a desire to work in an industrial research lab and those working on innovative research projects in areas related to Symantec’s businesses such as host-based and network security, cloud computing, virtualization, machine learning, data mining, etc.
  • Recipients will also be selected based on their overall potential for research excellence and their academic progress to date as evidenced by publications.

Required Application Information
Application materials must include the following:

  •  Resume or C.V.
  •  Personal statement of research interests not to exceed 500 words. Applicants are strongly encouraged to articulate the value and novelty of their research.
  • Two letters of recommendation from professors or industry researchers who can evaluate the applicant’s scientific aptitude and potential for research. Letters of recommendation may be sent separately and confidentially.

Application Dates and Process

  • Fellowship applications, including Resumes or C.V.’s, personal statements of research, and letters of recommendation, must be received no later than 5:00pm on December 2, 2016 (Pacific Time Zone).
  • As part of the application process, some candidates may be contacted for telephone interviews.
  • Final award decisions will be announced in January 2017.
  • Applications and letters of recommendation may be sent to Symantec in the following ways:

SRL Fellowship, attention: Kevin Roundy
900 Corporate Pointe
Culver City, CA 90230

Direct questions to the Symantec Graduate Fellowship Program.