ETH AI Center Doctoral Fellowships

The ETH AI Center offers a unique fellowship program for doctoral students, designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and a positive impact to society.

The ETH AI Center promotes trustworthy, accessible, and inclusive AI systems. For this goal, we bring together interdisciplinary research teams of AI foundations, applications, and implications across all departments and look at AI from many different angles like mathematical principles, medicine, architecture, robotics, and social sciences / future of work. We enable research of high quality, industry innovation, and AI entrepreneurship.

About AI Center fellowships

The ETH AI Center faculty comprises more than 110 professorships representing all sixteen departments of ETH Zurich and five external research groups (from University of Zurich and University of St.Gallen). The ETH AI Center Fellowship program is one of Europe’s premier Post-Doc programs focused on advancing interdisciplinary AI research. This can be inside AI foundations or between AI foundations and application areas. Fellows work with two excellent PIs who are from different fields and carry equal weights in the supervision.

Your mission

Within the doctoral fellowship program you will conduct research that impacts the future of AI. You will be working on your own project (that you will propose) and continuously have the opportunity to exchange with other teams and professorships, participate at faculty retreats, symposia, summits etc. Fellows have their primary office at the ETH AI Center and enjoy excellent employment conditions. The center offers plenty of opportunities to strengthen your career path through an optional entrepreneurial or industry track that provides you with valuable hands-on experience to turn your research into practical impact.

What we offer

We offer 5 - 8 doctoral positions and the occupation normally runs for three years. For Fellows with good progress, it can be extended for a maximum of one year to complete the doctoral thesis (decision to be taken by the ETH AI Center Doctoral Selection Committee, without additional interviews). Starting date is flexible but typically in September 2024.

Transparent salary: CHF 72,058 in the first year, CHF 77,183 in the second year, and CHF 82'328 in the third year. The advancements are automatic. The positions are remunerated according to a rate 5 doctoral position at 100% level.
Co-mentorship by two excellent PIs of different fields
Training and continuing education activities and language courses
Services and offerings to support work and family life

Requirements

you are expected to have completed or be close to completing a Master’s degree in computer science, machine learning, statistics, physics, engineering, applied mathematics, or other relevant fields or are close to completion.
you have an excellent track record and must meet the general admission requirements for a doctorate at ETH Zurich (available at https://www.ethz.ch/en/doctorate.html).
your level of English allows you to discuss your topics with your colleagues and report your findings in writing.
you look forward to working with an interdisciplinary team that longs to find solutions together.

Applications are encouraged from candidates with a keen interest in doing research on interdisciplinary AI topics. Each recipient of an ETH AI Center Fellowship will have the opportunity from two mentors from different fields and often different departments that are envisaged to carry equal weights in supervision. In the application form, candidates can provide preferences for specific mentors and also have to select interest areas in AI foundations and application areas to get a better understanding of a potential research direction.

Candidates select interest areas in AI foundations (AI theory, foundations, methods, and systems) including but not limited to:

Mathematical or statistical foundations of ML, AI, and Data Science
Interpretability and Explainability
Safety, Reliability, and Robustness
Fairness & Bias of AI Systems
Computer Vision
Natural Language Understanding
Reinforcement Learning and Data-driven Control
Neuroscientific Foundations
AI Edge and Networked Computing
Privacy-Preserving AI Systems
AI System Design & Engineering

In addition they select interested AI application areas including but not limited to:

AI for Good & Sustainability
Augmented Reality & Human-Centered AI
Digital Health & Medical ML
AI in Finance & LegalTech & Digital Services
AI in the Sciences & Engineering
AI in Education & Future of Work
AI in Industrial & Manufacturing
AI in Robotics & Autonomous Systems
AI in Retail & Smart Cities & Mobility

Guidelines & Process

Before applying, please read carefully our Downloadofficial guidelines for the ETH AI Center PhD Fellowship (PDF, 68 KB) and visit our FAQs. The deadline for applications is November 22, 2023. Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.

More detailed information on the application process can be found on the guidelines page which also contains a list of the faculty member and their research interests.