Ms. Burns and Mr. Crowley at this year's Webby Awards.

Here's one way to win the tech talent war. Barry Diller's IAC announced today that it's committing $250,000 towards the IAC Teaching and Research Fellowship Fund for top post-grad students from ITP.

ITP, or Interactive Telecommunications Program, is a graduate program in interactive media run out of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts which boasts Internet famous alum like foursquare's Dennis Crowley. (An ITP mention at most Silicon Alley event is likely to get few whoots from the crowd.) ITP founding chair Red Burns was awarded a Webby this year by Mr. Crowley. "Red Burns has been a seminal leader in creating ITP, long before the activity of interactivity became a prime driver of innovation and commerce in New York," said Mr. Diller.

According to the press release, the fellows will function like TAs at ITP while they lending their recently-honed academic skills to IAC, of course:

"IAC Fellows will work directly with IAC mentors, leading business and strategy executives at the company and its brands, to discuss ongoing research, tackle challenges, and build a framework for a sustainable and successful career, post-fellowship. The fellows will also participate in a part-time internship within one of IAC's divisions."

Of the four fellows named today, two (Patricia Adler and Mike Knuepfel) will work at IAC's in-house incubator Hatch Labs and two (Calli Higgins and Chika Iijima) will work at Vimeo.

Sorry folks, that's four less people showing up at the Silicon Alley job fair this Friday.