Application and request for information (Hod Lipson)
PhD positions in my lab are available either through Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Computational Biology or Cognitive Science graduate fields. I usually recruit about 1-2 new Phd students every year.
Informal inquiries for graduate studies. At Cornell, graduate admissions are handled by committee, not by individually by faculty member (both MAE and CS). You are welcome to contact me directly if you have specific questions about research in the lab, or about how your own interests might line up with lab activities and plans. If you decide to apply, you will need to do so formally through the graduate admissions offices of the departments (links below). Once you have decided to apply, you should concentrate on making sure that your strengths are evident from your application. For example, if you have done any prior research, and especially if you have authored any international publications, be sure to point that out. Obviously, admissions are quite competitive. I strongly suggest that you should apply to several programs to be certain that you will have some good options.
Formal applications. We look at many hundreds of applications. Here are some ideas that might help your application stand out (at least for me):
When you write your statement of purpose, write clearly and at the beginning, what specific areas you are interested in doing research in (avoid lengthy descriptions of your childhood)
If you spotted specific persons you might like to work with, mention their names explicitly. This helps assure they will pay close attention to your application.
Highlight any prior research experience you have. Try to have a research publication submitted to an international conference or journal, and provide a URL to it. Few students are able to do this, so having a publication will definitely make you stand out.
State your rank within your class and the rank of your your university within your country, if not in the US.
Be sure to include references who can talk about your research ability, not just about your personality and devotion, although these are important too.
Financial support. Overall, we provide full financial support for all our PhD students through teaching assistantships (TAs), research assistantships (RAs) and fellowships. Our admissions committee makes the initial decision covering the first semester, and later the form of support can vary semester by semester. Make sure you have applied to any sources of scholarships available to you (even partial support), and mention that in your application.
Are you interested in this research area? Choosing a PhD research direction is a big commitment in life. Do AI, artificial life, evolutionary robotics and design automation fascinate you? To get an idea of the questions this field deals with, have a look at some popular books like Kevin Kelly's Out of Control (you can read it online or get the book). If you want to know more technical details, check out Melanie Mitchel's Genetic Algorithms or Nolfi and Floreano's Evolutionary Robotics, or Chris Adami's Artificial Life. If any of these books get you excited, you have made the first step.
What projects are available? Most PhD students drive their own research, so if our previous research excites you, we'll work together on finding a new project for you.
Thank you for your interest, and best of luck!