The Intel Foundation Ph.D. Fellowship Program awards fellowships to Ph.D. candidates pursuing leading-edge work in fields related to Intel's business and research interests. Fellowships are available at select U.S. universities, by invitation only. The fellowship includes a cash award for tuition, travel expenses, and an additional stipend, an Intel mentor, and the opportunity to participate in an internship at Intel. This is a highly competitive program with approximately 40 fellowships awarded annually. For details, see: http://www.intel.com/education/highered/studentprograms/fellowship.htm
 
This year Ahmad Ehtesham Islam, a graduate student in Prof. Ashraf Alam's group, is selected for this prestigious award. Ehtesham’s research involves theory and characterization of time-dependent parametric shifts in hyper-scaled CMOS transistors. His related work on Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) – a leading variability concern in modern CMOS – initiated the concept of degradation-free transistor, a possibility – if demonstrated and adopted – may reshape how circuits are designed and evaluated now-a-days for handling different sources of CMOS variabilities.