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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, who 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. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly depend on breakthroughs in systems and architecture, where hardware, models, and software must be co-designed to scale efficiently. This Research Internship offers the opportunity to explore next-generation AI systems through performance modeling, architectural analysis, and emerging inference mechanisms. Research Interns will investigate topics such as disaggregated inference, sparse/expert model scaling, and new accelerator, memory-architecture, and interconnect technologies. This role is ideal for students passionate about understanding AI systems end-to-end and shaping the architectural foundations of tomorrow’s intelligent datacenters.
Job Responsibility:
Investigate emerging AI system architectures and analyze how hardware, software, and model behavior interact across large-scale inference workloads
Develop and evaluate analytical or simulation-based performance models to identify system bottlenecks, scalability limits, and optimization opportunities
Prototype or assess new inference mechanisms, including disaggregated execution, sparse/expert model scaling, and hierarchical attention techniques
Explore next-generation accelerator, memory-architecture, and interconnect technologies, assessing their architectural trade-offs and cost implications
Conduct experiments, synthesize research findings, and communicate results to mentors and collaborating researchers
Collaborate with fellow interns and researchers to advance new ideas in AI systems and architectural design
Requirements:
Currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related field
Research Interns are expected to be physically located in their manager’s Microsoft worksite location for the duration of their internship
submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position as well as a cover letter and any relevant work or research samples
Nice to have:
Research experience in areas such as computer architecture, AI/ML systems, performance modeling, distributed systems, or hardware–software co-design
Programming skills in Python, C/C++ with experience building prototypes, simulators, or performance analysis tools
Familiarity with modern AI workloads and/or deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch)
Demonstrated ability to define and pursue original research directions in AI systems or architecture
Ability to collaborate effectively with researchers across disciplines and work in cross-group, cross-cultural environments
Proficient communication and presentation skills for sharing complex technical insights
Ability to think creatively and approach system and architecture challenges with unconventional or innovative solutions
Experience with PyTorch, CUDA, Triton, or performance-simulation tools
Background in large-scale system design, AI inference bottleneck analysis, or modeling cost/performance tradeoffs
Understanding of accelerator, memory-system, or interconnect design principles