“Being a PhD student in Europe is one of the best experiences of my life.”
The ELLIS PhD Program is rich with inspiring stories of young AI scientists and their impressive research journeys, and this is one of them: Zhijing Jin, an ELLIS PhD student nearing the end of her dissertation phase, is about to embrace a new challenge. She will soon begin her career as an Assistant Professor in Natural Language Processing (NLP) at the University of Toronto in Canada, where she will hold a CIFAR AI Chair and be a faculty member at the Vector Institute. Originally from Shanghai, she studied in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the USA before joining the ELLIS network, benefiting from joint supervision at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Germany and ETH Zurich in Switzerland. In this interview, she shares her experiences as a young researcher in Europe, her future plans, and her reflections on the ELLIS PhD Program.
ELLISPhD ProjectsBuildingOnELLIS
ELLIS PhD Program attracts global AI talent to Europe: 120 early-career researchers join the network in 2024
The ELLIS PhD Program has once again set a new record: more than 3,160 interested candidates from around the globe responded to the 2023/2024 central recruitment call and registered on the application portal - an increase of roughly 60 percent compared to last year. Following a thorough evaluation process involving over 220 machine learning researchers from the ELLIS network, 120 excellent applicants were finally accepted into the program. For these talented individuals, a new chapter in their careers will soon begin. Supervised by some of the best academic and industrial AI scientists in Europe, they will work on cutting-edge research projects across a diverse spectrum of machine learning-related fields, and have the opportunity to expand their professional networks through exchanges within the ELLIS community.
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ELLIS Winter School in Amsterdam showcases Europe’s top expertise on Foundation Models
150 participants from 90 different institutions and with 40 different nationalities: The ELLIS Winter School on Foundation Models organized by the ELLIS Unit Amsterdam was a vibrant gathering place for young scientists and top AI researchers from all over Europe. During three days, the school provided an in-depth look into how Europe is guiding its own research agenda in the crucial field of foundation models and contributed to bringing the European research community closer together.
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"You meet top researchers and build up a network"
For early-career researchers, exchanging ideas with top scientists in their research field is crucial. It allows them to benefit from senior researchers’ experience, understand current research trends and deepen their own knowledge through dialogue. The ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program connects PhD students and postdocs from all over Europe with top experts in all areas of machine learning - both in research and industry. The program also enables its participants to spend six months at a partner institution abroad. PhD student Tobias Lorenz is currently enjoying the benefits of the ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program in Oxford. Tobias usually works at the CISPA Helmholtz Centre for Information Security, in the research group of Professor Dr. Mario Fritz, who also coordinates the ELSA Network of Excellence. ELSA researchers like Fritz support and expand the PhD & Postdoc Program of ELLIS.
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Call for proposals - Organisation of ELLIS Summer/Winter Schools (2024) or ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (2025)
Deadline: October 31, 2023 - Who can apply: ELLIS Units
As a grassroots initiative, the ELLIS network thrives on the distributed efforts of its members and units. As part of this strategy, the ELLIS Society is now issuing a call for the organization of summer/winter schools for 2024, to be held over one week.
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ELLIS Doctoral Symposium 2023: Top European AI minds convene in Finland
It was an eventful week of inspiring interactions about machine learning: The ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (EDS) was held for the third year, this time hosted by the ELLIS Unit Helsinki at Aalto University in Finland. The symposium is the highlight of the year in the ELLIS PhD Program, giving young researchers from the European machine learning community an opportunity to discuss their research during keynote talks and poster sessions, to network with leading machine learning experts, and to interact with each other at social events.
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ELLIS PhD Program: Call for applications 2023
Apply by November 15, 2023, to join the ELLIS PhD Program in 2024
* The call is closed *
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ELISE Mobility Program for PhD students and postdocs: Two participants share their experiences
Fostering cooperation and exchange among outstanding AI researchers in Europe is a key objective of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). The opportunity to meet in person is essential in this context, as it stimulates scientific discourse, helps pool resources and strengthens professional relationships. To facilitate the mobility of junior researchers across Europe, the ELISE network runs the ELISE Mobility Program for PhD students and postdocs. It is aimed at PhD students and postdocs in the ELISE network who want to initiate a collaboration with a Fellow or Member at another site. We asked two researchers who participated in the program to share their experiences with us.
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ELLIS PhD Program: More than 1,900 interested candidates in 2022
The ELLIS PhD Program is gaining popularity: This year’s call for applications attracted more than 1,900 interested candidates from 81 countries around the world. Following the ongoing selection process, the most talented young researchers will be offered the chance to advance their scientific career as an ELLIS PhD student co-supervised at two labs in a European AI network of excellence.
ELLISPhD
ELLIS PhD Program: Call for applications 2022
Apply by November 15, 2022, to join the ELLIS PhD Program in 2023
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ELLIS Doctoral Symposium 2022: 150 PhD students and leading AI researchers discuss the latest findings in Alicante
It was the highlight of the year in the ELLIS PhD Program: 150 PhD students from 18 countries gathered at the ELLIS Unit Alicante in Spain for the second ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (EDS22). Focusing on ‘AI for Good’, the five-day event marked a unique opportunity for young researchers to meet with world-renowned machine learning experts and innovative tech companies to discuss the latest research in a field that will help tackle some of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.
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ELLIS Alicante hosts the ELLIS Doctoral Symposium on Artificial Intelligence at the University of Alicante
In cooperation with the ELLIS PhD Program, the ELLIS Unit Alicante is organizing the second ELLIS Doctoral Symposium (EDS) from September 19th to 23rd. The focus of the event lies on Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. The Symposium will bring together 150 PhD students, world-renowned experts in Machine Learning such as Nuria Oliver (ELLIS) and Lama Nachman (INTEL), and 18 technology companies. It’s the first ELLIS doctoral conference in Spain.
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Call for proposals - Organisation of ELLIS Summer/Winter Schools or ELLIS Doctoral Symposium
Deadline: August 31, 2022 - Who can apply: ELLIS Units
ELLISPhD
More than 50 outstanding talents join the ELLIS PhD Program in 2022
The ELLIS PhD Program is expanding once again: More than 50 exceptional early-career researchers from 20 different countries have joined the program following the 2021/2022 central recruitment round.
ELLISPhD Press release
ELLIS holds its first-ever PhD and Postdoc Summit
Have you ever wondered what role causality may play in addressing some of the core problems in machine learning, how industries use machine learning to optimize and scale business processes or what inspired the pioneers of the European machine learning community to do what they do today? These are some of the questions that the first cohort of ELLIS PhDs and Postdocs discussed with leading scientists at the first ELLIS PhD and Postdoc Summit in July
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