DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship

[pterosaur]

I'm going to put in a plug here for the DOE CSGF: https://www.krellinst.org/csgf/how-apply. It's not as well known as the NSF GRFP or NDSEG, but it has some really great perks. It pays a stipend of $36,000/year and full tuition/fees/insurance charged by the university, plus extra money for funding research and travel expenses. You also get to do a 12-week practicum at any of the national labs, and there's an annual conference with fellows, alumni, and DOE national lab reps.

It's a fellowship for PhD students (either entering or in their first year) doing research related to computational science. This doesn't mean computer science; it includes students in fields from biology to physics interested in taking a computational approach to research, especially with a focus on applying high performance computing.

I'm a first year fellow and really pleased with the program. I'm hoping to get the word out and encourage more people to apply. Bonus: the deadline isn't until January 18, so you've still got plenty of time. And I'd be happy to answer any questions!

[abstract_art]

How would applying to this as an undergraduate senior work? It seems as though the program of study is very specific to your grad school/ it says it requires the approval of an advisor.

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

@marmle -- If you're applying as an undergraduate senior, you really need to be actively talking to an advisor at a university about working with them. On the surface level, this is because they actually need to submit the application for you (if I remember correctly). On a deeper level, they have a better knowledge of courses for the university/program and will have ideas for the sort of research project you can work on with them that utilizes high-performance computing.

The POS for the application isn't that bad -- 2 science/engineering (your department) courses; 2 mathematics; 2 computer science. My 2 department ones were just two courses required for my program (physical oceanography and ocean biogeochemistry); my 2 math ones were partial differential equations and time series analysis; my 2 computer science ones were intro to high-performance computing and parallel processing (pretty standard for CSGF fellows if you aren't doing a computing degree).

The more important part is the short essays on your research plan and how you will utilize high-performance computing. IMO, this is what will sell your application. (Note: Upon my acceptance, they even asked me to change one or two POS courses, so that shows that it isn't super important!) Thus, you really want to talk actively with a potential advisor about project specifics. I spoke with mine on the phone and we came up with the ideal experiment given these resources and proposed that. 

In summary, you can do it as an undergraduate senior, but you just need to be proactive and be talking specifics with an advisor. If there's a potential advisor you're speaking with that is excited about you and potential projects, then they will surely put in a little bit of time helping you out! 

A decent portion of my cohort with @pterosaur came straight from undergrad, so it is definitely doable. Hope this helps.

 

[marty3]

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm also a current fellow, and they helped me when I applied, so I thought I'd share my 2 cents on the POS. I think the proposed POS essay is very important, just much easier to write than the others. I think a big focus of this fellowship is for their fellows to gain a lot of breadth during their graduate studies, and the POS is one way to show that. If you can find 1 or 2 courses outside your field (e.g. math/cs courses for an engineer) that are relevant to your research/HPC essays, it could help a lot. In the 2014-15 thread, similar things were suggested that helped me out.

Also, read all the rules on POS courses, even in the FAQ. My guess is that being asked to change courses usually stems from them.

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

4 hours ago, marty3 said:

I think the proposed POS essay is very important, just much easier to write than the others. I think a big focus of this fellowship is for their fellows to gain a lot of breadth during their graduate studies, and the POS is one way to show that.

You're correct - I didn't mean to gloss over the POS entirely. Just looked back on my application and had forgot about the essay going into depth about the POS. I spoke extensively there about how each course would contribute to my overall research topic.

Another very important thing is that the mathematics and computer science courses must come from the university's APPM/MATH and CSCI departments. They want you to learn math from mathematicians and computer science from computer scientists. 

For example, they would not approve a climate modeling class from another department for me since it wasn't directly from CSCI.

[pterosaur]

@marmle: it is possible to apply successfully without already being in discussion with a possible advisor -- I did. I spent a lot of time looking at the course listings and CSGF website to figure out what courses fit my research goals and the purpose of the CSGF, and had my undergrad research advisor (in a rather different research area) sign off on it. Also remember that you will not necessarily end up going to the university in your application (either due to not being accepted or what turns out to be a better fit), and they're aware of that, too. In trying to tailor my applications to the different fellowships I applied to, I ended up listing a different school for the CSGF and GRFP because I actually proposed rather different research for each of them.

[bananaphone]

Haha jesus, the fellow-to-applicant ratio in this thread is like 4:1.

But seriously, it's an awesome program.

Edited November 30, 2016 by bananaphone

[pterosaur]

I guess a bunch of us hang out here to procrastinate. But maybe someone will run across the thread and give it a shot. I only heard about it from 1 friend, otherwise I never would have known to apply.

Edited December 1, 2016 by pterosaur

[climate_doge]

I'm putting together my application materials now, and I think this is a tougher road to travel than the NSF GRFP because there is so little posted about it online. It's hard to find any advice or samples from past applicants. That said, it's an amazing fellowship so I'm still going for it!

I'm curious to know how others have fit citations within their application essays. With a 2250 character limit per essay, it seems tough to even do an abbreviated reference section for the "Field of Interest" statement.

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

13 hours ago, climate_doge said:

I'm curious to know how others have fit citations within their application essays. With a 2250 character limit per essay, it seems tough to even do an abbreviated reference section for the "Field of Interest" statement.

Personally, I did not have any references/citations for either of the two main research essays. There just isn't enough room, like you said, with the 2250 character limit. The goal here is to convince them that you need their supercomputer resources, so make sure to communicate clearly the demand of supercomputing with your project.

Otherwise, stay somewhat broad in the discussion of your topic -- broad enough that a general audience could understand it and so that you don't need serious citations, but still with enough detail to communicate the issue, if that makes sense. I can go into more detail about my two essay approach if that would help more.

[pterosaur]

@climate_doge - I didn't get terribly specific in my sections, either. It's not a research proposal like the GRFP. Also, remember your audience here: it's being written for people who know computational science but don't necessarily know your field. So that means not a ton of details (you won't have space), but pointing out important connections between your field/interests/research and high performance computing. For my research, that didn't mean supercomputers, exactly, but the power of parallelization for simulating neural systems in robots.

[climate_doge]

Thank you for the advice - I needed the reminder to keep things general and accessible for a general audience, and to save my specifics for where high performance computing comes into play. 

[Argon]

Just chiming in to say I'm applying too. Going to hit the submit button soon. I definitely poured a ton of time into this thing, so we'll see if it pays off. Those character counts were brutal. 

[coldmeteor]

Any idea how many awards they are giving out this year?

[pterosaur]

You can check the website and look at the list of fellows by program year to get the count for the past few years. 2016 was the largest year, I think, at around 27. It was much smaller some of the past years due to funding uncertainty. The funding has since been restructured to hopefully provide more stability. Barring anytheng out of right field from the current administration, of course. 

Edited February 9, 2017 by pterosaur

[Argon]

Just bumping this back up! We are getting close! 

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

Not to freak anyone out, but I got my offer via a phone call last year on Thurs. March 24th. I assume their on a similar timeline this year, so they may be sending out offers in the coming week(s). 

[Platobob]

Right, but the years prior to that they seem to respond only by ~mid April.  Thus, let's not get our hopes up just yet.  Oh the wait... >_<

[pterosaur]

Some of the delay caused in previous years (before last year) was funding uncertainty. Last spring I was expecting to hear mid-April, so I was surprised to hear back before the end of March with the good news.

[Argon]

Looks like the first acceptance is in based on the Grad Cafe result section. 

[Platobob]

Good catch!  I certainly did not expect for it to be this early.  Funny enough, I did miss a call yesterday, with unidentified number...though I doubt they wouldn't call back, if there would be any positive news...time to start freaking out lol

[Argon]

For what it's worth, it seems they call from a 515 area code. 

[coldmeteor]

If we didn't get a call yesterday, does that mean we are either waitlisted or rejected...?

[Argon]

I don't think we have any way of knowing right now. Could be more calls, could be done. Unfortunately, I think the only thing we can do is wait and see. 

[Platobob]

Based on previous years, they send majority of rejections first, and then take their time with acceptance calls.  This is not much, but I think it is not such a bad thing that we haven't heard anything from them yet.