Center for Machine Learning and Health
Fellowships in Digital Health Innovation
2024 CMLH Fellowships in Digital Health Innovation Application: NOW OPEN!
Applications Due April 2, 2024
Review the information and application requirements on this page carefully before submitting.
We invite applications for the Center for Machine Learning and Health (CMLH) Fellowships in Digital Health Innovation. Each fellowship provides full support for one year for a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University who is pursuing cutting-edge research that advances digital health, broadly defined under one of the themes below.
For answers to common questions and more detailed policy information, check the fellowship Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. For any remaining questions, contact cmlh@cs.cmu.edu.
New for the 2024 Fellowship Applications!
The following three themes have been selected as criteria for the proposal submissions. Your application should identify which theme(s) your work falls under and argue why the project will advance the identified themes. Proposals without a strong connection to one of these themes will not be reviewed. However, you may interpret the themes broadly, and examples are included for each theme below.
- Patient Care and Health Monitoring: Remote monitoring; alternatives to traditional monitoring solutions, leveraging digital technologies; telehealth; monitoring and tracking patient medication compliance; preventative screening reminders.
- Engagement and Operational Improvement: Decreasing medication errors; reducing adverse events; reducing diagnostic errors; reducing readmissions; quality improvement initiatives; tools for sharing of and compliance with best practices; using data for improvement objectives; reducing physician and nurse burnout; improving physician adoption of technology and digital tools.
- Augmented or Virtual Reality: Use of augmented or virtual reality technologies to improve patient care; for teaching in medical education settings; and for improving outcomes in areas such as, but not limited to, mental health, pain management, and cognitive impairment such as dementia.
The CMLH encourages applications from across the university developing creative technological solutions that advance one or more of the above themes. We welcome applications that involve diverse approaches and disciplines that apply to healthcare, including — but not limited to — machine learning, computer science, robotics, language technology, computational biology, electrical and computer engineering, biomedical engineering, chemistry, biological science, neuroscience, economics, psychology, sociology, public policy, business administration, law, human-computer interaction, and statistics.
Who Is Eligible?
- Full-time, currently enrolled Ph.D. students at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Students with a primary research project related to digital health in one of the above themes.
- Students must be enrolled in the Ph.D. program for a full academic year for the duration of the fellowship.
- We welcome projects at any stages, both initial and mature.
- No other fellowship should support the student throughout the duration of the award. The CMLH Fellowship in Digital Health Innovation cannot be combined with any other fellowships.
What You Get
- One year of tuition and stipend support (including summer stipend).
- $3,000 in funding to support the underlying research, including conference travel for paper presentation, equipment and human-subject experiments.
Proposal Submission
Applicants must submit a three-page research proposal that describes the proposed work to be carried out during the fellowship. There are no specific format requirements and no template. Citations in a bibliography at the end are preferred. The three-page limit does not include the bibliography. Proposals that do not follow this format will not be considered.
- Provide a title and state which theme you selected at the beginning of the proposal.
- The proposal should answer the following questions about digital healthcare.
- Which problem will be addressed?
- What are the main research questions driving the work?
- How will the work advance a solution in the chosen theme?
- What new technique, idea, approach or method is proposed to solve the stated problem and how does it relate to prior work of the applicant?
- How will success be determined?
- What is the timeline of work and what are the expected outcomes to be completed within the one year of the fellowship?
- What resources are needed, if any, namely in terms of data, collaborators and computing to complete the proposed plan and how will you obtain the resources?
- Include a current CV of the student.
- Supply two letters of recommendation from researchers who know the student (e.g., the research advisor and another faculty member). Ideally, these letters should address both the merit of the proposed research, and the qualifications of the student candidate. A faculty member may supply a letter of support for at most ONE applicant.
Review of Proposals: The research proposal will be reviewed according to its fit within a theme, its innovation, feasibility and the overall quality of the project as measured by its contribution to fundamental research and potential broader impacts in digital healthcare. The evaluation committee will consist of faculty from CMLH and across CMU working in digital health and related areas from a broad spectrum of perspectives. The proposal should be written so the impact and plan are understandable to a researcher who is knowledgeable broadly about computation, machine learning and digital health, but who is not an expert in the chosen theme.
Final Selection: We expect to award several fellowships under this call.
Requirements of the fellowship: By accepting the CMLH Fellowship in Digital Health Innovation, you agree to the requirements stated below. Please contact the CMLH with any questions regarding the requirements before accepting the fellowship.
Fellowship Requirements
- The CMLH Fellowship in Digital Health Innovation requires a start date of either summer 2024 or fall 2024. The start dates for the fellowships will not extend past fall 2024. If a student has already accepted another fellowship for the cycle of 2024-2025, please do not apply for this fellowship. We award our fellowships with the intention that your research will be devoted to the work presented in your proposal for the 2024-2025 cycle.
- The student is responsible for the requirements of the fellowship and must notify the CMLH if a change in status or project direction occurs.
- Must be a full-time Ph.D. student working on a project related to digital health at CMU for the duration of the fellowship.
- Provide your photo, project title and project summary to be placed on the CMLH 2024 Fellows website.
- Fellows consent to the CMLH to use their photo, project title and project summary at the discretion of the CMLH including, but not limited to, social media posts.
- Allow sharing of your project title and project summary with UPMCE and other potential CMLH sponsors.
- Submit a progress report after six and 12 months of funding to the CMLH.
- Project summaries, progress reports and presentation slides should not include proprietary information.
- Fellows are expected to follow university intellectual property (IP) and research policies.
- Present the research at a CMLH seminar series during or following the term of the fellowship. Fellows must present at a public event hosted by the CMLH. Invitees to the event will be at the discretion of the CMLH.
- Provide your CV, project summary and presentation slides to CMLH and allow the CMLH to share these materials with our sponsor, UPMCE.
- The fellow should endeavor to attend various CMLH seminars and social/virtual events.
- Acknowledge the CMLH in any of your publications related to the CMLH-funded work and send the CMLH any of the papers that result.
- Fellows must abide by and uphold the community standards of the university.
- The student must be in good standing in their Ph.D. program for the duration of the fellowship.
- Fellowships are nontransferable between students. If a fellowship recipient leaves the program prior to completing their 12-month term, any remaining fellowship funding is retained by the CMLH.
- Students who are awarded a CMLH fellowship and their faculty advisor(s) may be asked to review proposals in future rounds of CMLH funding.
How To Apply
- Make your CV and research proposal into ONE PDF file. Only PDF files will be accepted!
- The student should mail the CV and Research Proposal PDF to cmlh@cs.cmu.edu.
- References letters, with the name of the student as the subject of the email, should be sent directly by the letter writer to cmlh@cs.cmu.edu. Each reference letter should be a PDF file.
- Your application will not be considered complete until we receive both letters of recommendation. We cannot review your application until these letters have been received by our center. We will not consider late applications.
Important Dates
- Applications and Two Reference Letters Due: Midnight (EDT) on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.
- Funding Decisions Expected By: Monday, April 29, 2024.
- Funding to Start: Beginning of Summer or Fall of 2024.
Please contact the CMLH via email with any questions at cmlh@cs.cmu.edu.