Science Hub Research Opportunities:Call for Applications
Science Hub Research Opportunities: Call for Applications
MIT and Amazon launched the Science Hub in October 2021 to advance the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics in a collaborative and inclusive environment. Hosted by the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, the Science Hub seeks proposals for innovative projects aimed at developing AI tools and technologies that will have a positive impact on society.
Call for Sponsored Project Applications:Prime Video
Current Funding Key Dates:
- Submission Deadline:
January 8, 2024 by 5:00 PM ET - Notification of Awards:
January 2024 - Start of Project:
After February 1, 2024
Eligibility
All MIT faculty and researchers with Principal Investigators status can apply. We welcome applications from diverse candidates including those historically underrepresented in the engineering, computing and mathematics.
With the mission to be the world’s most loved entertainment service, Prime Video continually strives to delight its customers by offering the most engaging video-watching experiences. Prime Video works to solve a broad range of cutting-edge technical problems and is seeking partnership with faculty to advance research in video technology. We welcome proposals related to the following broad research areas in order to accelerate progress in state-of-the-art video watching.
Submissions must fit within one of our five distinct research areas:
1) Video Understanding and Augmentation
2) Video Picture Quality, Compression, and Delivery
3) Search & Recommendation
4) Video Sports Analytics
5) Forecasting, Automation, & Metrics
Proposal Requirements
Proposals should be prepared according to the standard proposal template and should clearly indicate one of the above research areas
Please refer to the proposal template:
Award Details
Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive up to $150K in sponsored project funding (inclusive of university overhead) for one-year projects. The budget should detail all costs including indirect costs. The number of awards will be determined by project fit.
Awards will be judged on their ability to advance our research interests, impact international A/V technology, and meet clear deliverables. Projects should aim for joint publication with Amazon scientists. Please list any open-source tools or data you would intend to use. Project timelines are flexible and proposals should not start sooner than Feb. 1, 2024.
Call for Gift Award Project Applications:Robotics
Current Funding Key Dates:
- Submission Deadline:
February 29, 2024 by 5:00 PM ET - Notification of Awards:
Between May and June 2024 - Start of Project:
August/September 2024
Eligibility
All MIT faculty and researchers with Principal Investigators status can apply. We welcome applications from diverse candidates including those historically underrepresented in the engineering, computing and mathematics.
The Science Hub seeks proposals to advance the state of the art and enable new robotics and AI solutions, in the following topic areas:
1) Robotic Manipulation — for example: picking and packing objects from/to cluttered, confined spaces; robust grasping for a wide variety of many object types, including fragile, deformable, and deconstructable (e.g., lidded shoe boxes); modeling and prediction for fast compliant control
2) Computer Vision — for example: robust 3D scene understanding with low-cost sensors; tracking and predicting the 3D poses of dynamic actors; object damage detection from images
3) Machine Learning — for example: continual learning; sample-efficient model (re)training; applications of ML to robotic planning and control
4) Modeling, Simulation, and Verification — for example: modeling and simulation of deformable objects in contact; closing sim-to-real gaps in synthetic imagery; design of experiments and verification of autonomous systems
5) Autonomous Mobility — for example: safe and fluent navigation in complex dynamic environments; multi-agent planning and coordination (10s–100s of robots); localization and mapping
6) Multi-Robot Systems – for example: task allocation for fleets of 1000+ robots; multi-agent planning and coordination for 1000+ robots
Proposal Requirements
Proposals should be prepared according to the standard proposal template and should clearly indicate one of the above research areas
Please refer to the proposal template:
Call for Sponsored Project Applications:Artificial General Intelligence
Current Funding Key Dates:
- Submission Deadline:
January 23, 2024 by 5:00 PM ET - Notification of Awards:
January 2024 - Start of Project:
After February 1, 2024
Eligibility
All MIT faculty and researchers with Principal Investigators status can apply. We welcome applications from diverse candidates including those historically underrepresented in the engineering, computing and mathematics.
The MIT Science Hub solicits sponsored research proposals with innovative approaches to ground Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) technologies in the mechanical and physical aspects of the world.
This research shall result in two key benefits: 1) Enhance AGI’s ability to respond factually to questions, common sense reasoning, safety and reliability, and 2) Accelerate AGI’s ability to contribute to research and invention in mechanics, aero/fluid dynamics, architecture and physical spaces.
Proposals should seek to advance the state-of-the-art in AGI in the following example topic areas:
1) Spatial perception and reasoning: including indoor and outdoor, quantitative and qualitative relationships, representations, static and dynamic, etc.
2) Materials science: e.g., in mechanical properties such as ductility; micro and macroscopic material structure such as porosity, compressibility, fluids vs solids, and their relationship with how materials interact with each other.
3) Mechanical design: e.g., designing mechanical systems ranging from nano to factory floor, aspects such as efficiency, reliability, human centric.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals should be prepared according to the standard proposal template and should clearly indicate one of the above research areas
Please refer to the proposal template:
Award Details
Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive up to $250,000 in sponsored project funding (inclusive of university overhead) for one-year projects. The budget must detail all costs including indirect costs. The number of awards will be determined by project fit.
Call for Sponsored Project Applications:Artificial General Intelligence
Current Funding Key Dates:
- Submission Deadline:
January 23, 2024 by 5:00 PM ET - Notification of Awards:
January 2024 - Start of Project:
After February 1, 2024
Eligibility
All MIT faculty and researchers with Principal Investigators status can apply. We welcome applications from diverse candidates including those historically underrepresented in the engineering, computing and mathematics.
Large language models have shown tremendous advances in their ability to support interactive conversation with humans across a broad range of applications from entertainment, information seeking, creative content generation, to education. It is critical to ensure that while these systems are increasing helpful, they are also not harmful. They must be safe, factual, explainable, inclusive, and fair.
The MIT Science Hub invite proposals to advance the state of the art in trustworthy and responsible generative AI systems. These proposals can be related (but not limited) to the following topics:
1) Automated discovery of advanced and emerging modeling capabilities and building advanced RAI controls.
2) Development of automated red teaming and blue teaming platforms.
3) Development of optimization algorithms that make LLMs resistant to catastrophic forgetting and/or malicious reversal of RAI training.
4) Development of solutions that allow usage of creative content while respecting the rights of their owners.
5) Development of approaches that enforce reliable and hallucination free model outputs, with particular focus on agentic LLMs.
6) Development of theoretical approaches for calibrating uncertainty of information provided by generation models/LLMs.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals should be prepared according to the standard proposal template and should clearly indicate one of the above research areas
Please refer to the proposal template:
Award Details
Selected Principal Investigators (PIs) may receive up to $250,000 in sponsored project funding (inclusive of university overhead) for one-year projects. The budget must detail all costs including indirect costs. The number of awards will be determined by project fit.
Call for Fellowship Awards Now Open
On a regular basis, the Science Hub will welcome MIT faculty and heads of department to submit nominations for graduate students to be named Amazon Fellows. Selected candidates will receive funding for one semester, or one semester plus summer, to pursue independent research projects at MIT. Awards will usually include funding for tuition, stipend and reasonable research expenses.
Please contact your department head for nomination materials. Submission deadline is April 18, 2023