This is your chance to get an inside look at the big challenges Yahoo! research scientists are working on while driving your research forward. Learn more about the real-world problems facing our industry, then focus on and solve these fundamental challenges alongside the top minds in the field.

We invite PhD students working in each of our core research areas to review the challenges listed below and submit an application between January 20th - March 9th, 2012 to be considered for the Key Scientific Challenges Program.

Key Scientific Challenges

Web Information Management
Computational Advertising
Machine Learning
Green Computing
Search Experiences
Privacy and Security
Economics and Social Systems
Submit Your 2012 Application

Program Award Benefits

  • $5,000 unrestricted research seed funding which can be used for conference fees and travel, lab materials, professional society membership dues, etc.
  • Exclusive access to select Yahoo! datasets
  • The unique opportunity to collaborate with our industry-leading scientists
  • An invitation to this summer's exclusive Key Scientific Challenges Graduate Student Summit where you'll join the top minds in academia and industry to present your work, discuss research trends and jointly develop revolutionary approaches to fundamental problems
Think TankInterested in finding out more about other exciting industry-based business and engineering challenges? Check out our new Think Tank program page and discover new ways to work directly with Yahoo! engineering teams on their most exciting technical challenges.