Virtual Internship
Participation in the Research Internship Program requires that you are physically located in the United States or Canada for the duration of the internship.
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. Our researchers and engineers 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.
Exciting reinforcement learning (RL) research internship opportunity!
The Azure Cognitive Services Decision AI team is looking for exceptional candidates for a Research Intern position.
During the internship you will evaluate and improve upon the current state-of-the-art reinforcement learning (RL), meta RL and/or imitation learning (IL) algorithms in the real-world scenarios. The practical settings we care about often have high-dimensional observations, large action spaces, multiple goals/tasks, non-stationary dynamics, and sparse rewards – providing plenty of challenges and opportunities for cutting-edge research. Suggesting the project direction or project extension that’s related to one’s own research or interests is highly encouraged.
The research intern hired for this position will have a chance to explore real-world RL applications in recommender systems, control, logistics and other areas. They will interact with Microsoft’s applied scientists, researchers, and research engineers to extract research questions that need to be answered to deliver autonomous and self-learning AI systems to our customers. It’s a unique opportunity to understand the role of research in the industry and find inspiring real-world scenarios to drive your future research.
Successful internship may be concluded with a publication written in collaboration with MSR researchers and/or prototype of a novel technique to be shipped in one of Microsoft’s products.
Responsibilities
Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world’s best researchers, interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Interns not only advance their own careers, but they also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, students are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other 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.
Additional Responsibilities
- Analyze and improve performance of advanced RL/Meta-RL/IL algorithms on large-scale datasets and environments reflecting real-world industry needs.
- Implement prototypes of scalable systems in AI applications.
- Collaborate closely with team members on developing systems from prototyping to production level.
- Develop solutions for real world, large-scale problems.
Qualifications
In addition to the qualifications below, you’ll need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position. 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.
Required Qualifications
- Must be accepted or currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science or related STEM field and will have a minimum of one quarter, semester or term to complete after finishing the internship.
- 1+ year of experience in Python.
- 1+ year of experience (classroom or work related) in machine learning.
Participation in the Research Internship Program requires that you are physically located in the United States or Canada for the duration of the internship.
Preferred Qualifications
- Relevant work experience, including industry experience or as a Researcher in a lab.
- Experience with advanced reinforcement learning topics, like meta RL, offline RL, imitation learning, etc.
- Experience in leveraging and augmenting machine learning code base and libraries/toolkits to deliver new solutions.
- Strong publication record.
- Experience in deep learning and reinforcement learning.
- Proficiency inat least one deep learning toolkit (like PyTorch, Tensorflow, etc.).
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
