Research Intern - Applied Sciences Group (Computer Agent)

Research Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized scientists and engineers, who pursue innovation in a range of scientific and technical disciplines to help solve complex challenges in diverse fields, including computing, healthcare, economics, and the environment.

The Microsoft Applied Sciences Group incubates disruptive technologies for Microsoft’s next-gen Windows and Surface products. Operating as a startup within the company, this team works closely with several research and product teams to bring compelling new experiences to the market. A lot of these experiences will be powered by speech, computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLM) – and as part of this team, you will have the unique opportunity to develop machine learning (ML) algorithms and deep neural network (DNN) models for such exciting projects.

Required Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD or master's program in machine learning or closely related fields.

Other Requirements

• Research Interns are expected to be physically located in their manager’s Microsoft worksite location for the duration of their internship.
• In addition to the qualifications below, you’ll need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position as well as a cover letter and any relevant work or research samples. After you submit your application, a request for letters may be sent to your list of references on your behalf. Note that reference letters cannot be requested until after you have submitted your application, and furthermore, that they might not be automatically requested for all candidates. You may wish to alert your letter writers in advance, so they will be ready to submit your letter. 

Preferred Qualifications

• 2 years of experiences with algorithm development on deep learning and deep neural networks.
• Paper publication as a first author in top-tier conferences such as ICML, ICLR, and NeurIPS.

Applied Sciences IC2 - The base pay range for this internship is USD $5,460 -$10,680 per month.

There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, with the San Francisco Bay area and New York City Metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $7,040 -$11,640 per month.

Applied Sciences IC3 - The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,550 -$12,880 per month.

There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $8,480 - $13, 920 per month.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: 

Microsoft accepts applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

Research Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world’s best researchers, Research Interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Research Interns not only advance their own careers, but they also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, Research Interns are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other Research Interns and researchers, present findings, and contribute to the vibrant life of the community. Research internships are available in all areas of research, and are offered year-round, though they typically begin in the summer.

We are looking for a Research Intern in the field of computer agents, which involves expertise in computer vision, NLP, sequential decision-making, and deep learning techniques to help our devices understand the user better and make decisions to augment the human experience in a computer environment. The ability to analyze multimodal sensor data and interpret various human and human-object interactions is key to Applied Sciences’ mission of enabling a seamless set of human computer interactions. As part of this team, you will be working with a growing team of talented researchers already dedicated to this mission and use data and hardware only available to a select few. Naturally, the opportunity for you to push the state of the art in this field is huge.