Gennady Pekhimenko, a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department, and Jeff Rzeszotarski, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, are among 12 students of U.S. universities who are recipients of 2013 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowships.

Pekhimenko's research focus is improving energy and performance characteristics of modern memory subsystems. In particular, he is applying new compression algorithms to on-chip caches and main memory to provide higher capacity with minimal hardware changes to existing designs.

Rzeszotarski studies how crowds of people generate content online and how to improve the content that they create. By looking at the behavior of people as they produce content, his research identifies places where people may be going wrong, so interventions can be developed to help them make better contributions.

The two-year fellowship covers all tuition and fees for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 academic years and includes a travel allowance, the offer of a paid internship, and a $28,000 annual stipend.