The CSSE@GT Ph.D. Fellowship: From Prototypes to Products

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2025 Call for Proposals

The Center for Scientific Software Engineering at Georgia Tech (CSSE@GT) is pleased to offer a new, competitive two-semester fellowship opportunity for current Ph.D. students who wish to take their research software prototypes and transition them into production-quality, open-source research products.

Background

CSSE@GT was established in 2022 through a generous grant from Schmidt Sciences, a philanthropic organization dedicated to accelerating scientific discovery. CSSE@GT is one of four centers that compose the Virtual Institute for Scientific Software (VISS). Each center employs full-time research software engineers (RSEs) whose primary goal is to bring modern, rigorous software engineering methods to bear on the task of building robust, reliable, and reusable software for science. CSSE@GT’s full-time RSEs come mainly from industry and bring many decades of collective experience to their work. Thus, these RSEs can be a unique resource for students whose projects involve software development.

Fellowship Benefits

Fellows will receive the following benefits, which go beyond the usual form of financial support offered by similar programs.

  • Partial graduate research assistant (GRA) support for up to two semesters. In their first semester, a Fellow’s research advisor provides half of the GRA and CSSE matches the other half. Toward the end of the first semester, CSSE evaluates the student’s progress. If the funded project shows sufficient promise, the center can provide full GRA support in the following semester (subject to availability of funds).
  • Shadowing RSEs on real-world engagements. Each Fellow will be paired with an RSE mentor, who will help teach them best practices of professional software development and the “tools of the trade” for creating and maintaining a sustainable open-source project. This learning will happen in part through direct observation: the Fellow will be invited to observe their mentor during certain phases of their work, which may include ideation and brainstorming, talking to customers and collaborators to develop shared goals and requirements, code review, and handover of the final product.
  • Mentorship from an RSE. In addition, the RSE mentor will help the student plan and execute their own project, mirrored on the structure of their mentor’s typical engagement. The goal is for the Fellow to create strong foundations for an open-source software artifact that can have a significant impact on their scientific community.
  • Social activities. Fellows are considered part of CSSE@GT during their fellowship and will be invited to participate in various informal and social events held within the center.

Interactions like these have proven effective in the software industry and represent best practices in helping new team members learn and grow. Additionally, they represent a unique opportunity for personal/professional growth within the academic environment while accelerating a Fellow’s research.

Values

Because Fellows are welcomed into the CSSE@GT during their fellowship award, they are asked to abide by the values and principles shared among its RSEs. These include Georgia Tech’s core values, namely:

  • Student well-being is our top priority.
  • We strive for excellence.
  • We thrive on diversity.
  • We celebrate collaboration.
  • We champion innovation.
  • We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression.
  • We nurture the well-being of our community.
  • We act ethically.
  • We are responsible stewards.

In addition, a Fellow of CSSE@GT is expected to have the …

  • … desire to learn and grow;
  • … ability to learn new concepts across different academic domains;
  • … desire to work with an exceptional team that pushes the boundaries of science and software;
  • … humility and respect for the ideas and feedback of others.

Eligibility

Candidates for the CSSE@GT Ph.D. Fellowship must be:

  • Full-time, residential Georgia Tech Ph.D. students, in any degree program, who have passed their qualifying exam and are currently advised by a thesis supervisor.
  • Not enrolled in any non-audit classes during their first semester of the fellowship, so that they can have time to participate in shadowing activities and development of their own software artifacts.
  • Not receiving another fellowship or graduate teaching assistance-ship (GTA) during their time as a Fellow.
  • Have a functioning prototype of some research software artifact that will serve as the basis for their Fellowship project.

Prior experience with open-source or industrial software engineering is not required, although the overall quality and promise of the submitted software prototypes will be considered as part of the selection process.

How to apply

To apply, candidates must propose a Fellowship project, keeping in mind the overall goals and activities of CSSE@GT, which aims to accelerate scientific discovery through the development of high-quality open-source software artifacts. Candidates must submit the following materials:

  • Cover letter (1-page maximum) indicating why the candidate wishes to apply.
  • CV or resumé
  • Project proposal (2-page max + extra space for references; see below)
  • Software prototype, as a pointer to the software prototype that the candidate will aim to enhance or advance (see below)
  • A support letter, submitted separately by the student’s research advisor (2-page max)

The project proposal should directly answer the questions of the classic Heilmeier Catechism [link]. The most successful proposals will clearly articulate the importance of the problem the proposed artifact will solve, as well as the potential impact the software artifact could have, using minimal jargon. (RSEs with different levels of domain experience will review proposals, so making them accessible is paramount.)

A “software prototype” can be written in any language (e.g., Python, C/C++, MATLAB, JavaScript, Fortran, Rust). Ideally, the submitted pointer to the software prototype would take the form of a code repository on either GitHub or Georgia Tech’s GitHub instance (github.gatech.edu). The prototype need not be a highly polished artifact or well-documented. However, artifacts with the most promise—evidenced in part by being in “better shape”— will naturally receive priority for consideration. Note that Georgia Tech’s Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is part of CSSE, and OSPO staff can assist applicants and awardees in evaluating and adhering to open-source best practices for their prototypes.[1] At the other end of the spectrum, projects that are already mature open-source products will receive lower priority as the purpose of the fellowship is to help transition prototypes to products (and impart onto Fellows the skills to do so).

For full consideration, these materials must be received by December 3, 2025, AOE (anywhere on Earth), for a Fellowship expected to begin in the Spring 2026 semester.

Requirements of Fellows

Beyond adhering to CSSE’s core values, Fellows will be asked to attend meetings, write 1-2 milestone reports and give 1-2 poster or oral presentations on their project, in addition to releasing their final artifact publicly as open-source software.[2] Fellows must also conduct at least one service activity in which they “give something back” to a peer community. As examples, this activity can be accomplished by giving talks or tutorial presentations related to software engineering within their research group, to an extracurricular student organization, or to a group in their local communities of interest.

Questions?

Questions regarding the fellowship and application process may be directed to our contact form here. Please use the subject “2025-2026 CSSE Fellowship”.

Office hours for applicants. In addition, we will host both in-person and virtual office hours to answer questions on:

  • Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 11 am to noon, in Klaus 3123 or on Zoom (see the InfoReady page for link).
  • Tuesday, November 25, 2025, 11 am to noon, in Klaus 3123 or on Zoom.
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[1] OSPO best practices resources can be found at https://ospo.cc.gatech.edu/releasing-open-source/ and https://github.com/gt-ospo/oss-maintainer-resources/blob/main/OSS_MAINTAINERS_CHECKLIST.md

[2] See https://ospo.cc.gatech.edu/releasing-open-source/ for guidance on Georgia Tech suggested licenses and release guidelines.