All Things Urban

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world. We do business in 170 countries and are made up of 114,000 passionate employees dedicated to fulfilling our mission of helping you and your organization achieve more.

Microsoft Research provides 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. The Urban Innovation Initiative at Microsoft Research pursues state of the art science and technology development for urbanization. Lines of research focus on climate change and mitigating the environmental impact of our increasingly urban world, ensuring equitable economic growth, and building strong communities. With more than 2 billion additional urban residents projected by 2050, humanity is rapidly becoming increasingly densely populated. Simultaneously, through the internet, mobile devices, and sensors and wearables, data and technology play an increasingly important and complex role in nearly every aspect of modern urban life, influencing communication, privacy and information exposure, mobility and transportation, environmental impact, economic equality and opportunity, and even the food we eat. With backgrounds in computer science, ethnography, social sciences, engineering, biology, chemistry, and design, researchers on the Urban Innovation Initiative thus bring a multidisciplinary approach to leverage these trends to understand sociotechnical systems in urban environments and help build the future of technology in the service of society. The Urban Innovation team seeks Research Interns in computer science, engineering, environmental science, social science, and economics to help advance this agenda.

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. Interns will collaborate with one or mentors on a full life cycle research project, from project selection to research publication. Thus, interns will be responsible for participating in background research, some combination of project development, deployment, and/or analysis, and paper writing.

In addition to the qualifications below, you’ll need 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 Qualification: - Must be currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science or a related STEM field, or a quantitative social science field, including urban planning/development. Preferred Qualifications: - Demonstrated ability to develop original research agendas. - Must be able to collaborate effectively with other researchers. - Excellent interpersonal skills, cross-group, and cross-culture collaboration. - Ability to think unconventionally to derive creative and innovative solutions.

Unfortunately, it seems like this job is not available for international candidates. Unless you’re eligible for a work visa otherwise, please double-check with the company.