Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Amazon has introduced its first-ever AI PhD Fellowship, a $68 million initiative that will sponsor more than 100 doctoral researchers from nine leading U.S. universities, including Johns Hopkins University, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Amandeep Kumar, a doctoral student of Indian origin at Johns Hopkins University, is one of seven scholars chosen for the inaugural fellowship program. Currently in his second year in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kumar works within the Visual Intelligence and Understanding (VIU) Lab under the guidance of Dr. Vishal Patel. His research centres on computer vision and generative AI, with a focus on enhancing the efficiency of long-duration video generation systems.
Before joining Johns Hopkins, Kumar gained research experience at the IVAL Lab of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in the UAE and also interned at the SketchX Lab, University of Surrey, United Kingdom. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from West Bengal University of Technology in India.
According to Johns Hopkins, Amazon selected its AI PhD Fellows based on research proposals with strong potential for societal benefit. The fellowship offers full tuition coverage, a living stipend, travel grants, mentorship from Amazon scientists, and access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud credits.
Ed Schlesinger, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, emphasised the importance of the mentorship component in helping students convert theoretical research into practical applications.
“While the funding empowers our students to push the boundaries of their research, it’s the mentorship that truly helps them turn innovation into impactful, real-world systems,” Schlesinger said.
Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s Senior Vice President and Head Scientist for Artificial General Intelligence, noted that the collaboration bridges academia and industry.
“This fellowship uniquely combines Amazon’s hands-on expertise with the fresh insights of academic researchers, nurturing the next generation of AI leaders,” he said.
At Johns Hopkins, the first batch of AI PhD Fellows comes from five engineering departments, exploring diverse topics—from data-driven clean energy materials to ethical dimensions of large language models. The initiative also strengthens Amazon’s ongoing collaboration with the university through the JHU + Amazon Initiative for Interactive AI, launched in 2022, which has already supported 17 doctoral fellows and several faculty-led projects in AI research.
