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Living in a world where change is inevitable, I aspire to be one among those whشo Design, Develop and improve mechanical solutions for a better life. I draw inspiration from alternate energy and it is an area where I would focus on while pursuing my masters in Mechanical Engineering

From my schooling times, I displayed very keen interest in the subjects of mathematics and science, which comprehensively enhanced my analytical and quantitative skills. These two key areas of academic strength helped me score a staggering 90.77% in my tenth grade having got 97% in science and 98.66% in mathematics respectively. Throughout my academic successes, my competitive spirit acted as a catalyst in me. After completing my high school, I felt that Engineering would be the area, which would give me the opportunity to learn and explore how the fundamentals of science are applied to create technology for practical and real purposes. Moreover, my innate strengths have always been creative abilities and the power of imagination; which made me take up a discipline that would allow me to channel them in the best possible way. Thus, Mechanical engineering was a direct consequence of my convictions.

My undergraduate program has given me a wide and comprehensive exposure to numerous courses that I found interesting namely, Machine Design, Dynamics of Machines Thermodynamics, Robotics, and Kinematics of Machinery. The theory coupled with practical implementation helped clear my concepts. I strongly believe in learning practically by doing; it is the hope of coming up with path breaking results through experimentation that I find very fascinating. I took my study beyond the walls of my classroom- by involving with numerous industrial visits. I was selected as a summer project intern in India’s premium nuclear research facility “Bhaha Atomic Research Centre” (BARC) based in Mumbai and got an amazing opportunity to learn and analyse important aspects of research and development under eminent scientific officers from BARC. My project was “Study of Solar Thermal Power Plant and analysing thermo-physical properties of molten salt”. This helped me to inculcate a steady approach to observe and study intricate systems to make world class and zero maintenance products.

During the final year of my bachelor’s degree, I undertook two projects namely– “Design and optimization of Flexible shaft” and “Process improvement of Mechanical Pokers”. In the former one, we designed flexible shaft for application of mechanical pokers and then optimized the same with probability collective algorithm. In the latter one, we had designed and implemented “Single Piece Flow – Lean Principle” for assembly line of Mechanical Pokers. These projects taught me the ability to deal with numerous practical difficulties in the implantation of ideas and tasks and overcome them with limited resources. Both the above-mentioned projects were sponsored and highly appreciated by “Atlas Copco India Ltd. I successfully completed the projects on time, with the guidance of technical experts in my College. Working on these projects spiked my learning curve and I was reassured that my real interest lies in mechanical engineering.

I had never let my academic pursuits dampen my spirit for participating in extracurricular activities. During my undergraduate study program, I was also an active student on campus. As a sophomore, I was the coordinator for technical events in annual fest. I was elected as the President of “Mechanical Engineers Student Association (MESA)” in our college. During this tenure, I successfully carried a National level technical event of “MechHeaven” at our college. This event was a huge success and received a great response and appreciation received from District Industrial Hub. During my final year, I served as a liaison between students and Training and Placement department. I am always enthusiastic to build network and help people. Thus, I successfully managed my time to work on academic and campus activities and built an all-round personality.

The globalization of the multinationals and my strong desire to understand the business process further propelled me to accept an employment opportunity before pursuing graduate studies. Hence, after completing my Bachelor’s Degree, I joined ABB Ltd as a Graduate Management Trainee and after a year chose to work in Design and Development. This was a great exposure in the world of design for which I had been vying for. I learned important aspects of product design with application based approach. In this period of more than two years, I had been working on new product development and gathered rich experience of complete value chain, starting from product requirement to product launch. I started using simulation tools effectively and became the concerned person in charge for motion simulation. I had participated in design review and risk mitigation activities regarding interlocking of SafeLink CB front. I also analysed all the issues regarding Product maintenance and CAPA, provided solutions with validation and implemented the same for production within time frame. I actively contributed in suggesting and incorporating innovative ideas for market penetration. I provided support to the operations and quality team for manufacturing jobs which were type tested for Re-certification. This enriching work profile has further aroused my curiosity to deepen my technical skills and knowledge in the field of Mechanical Engineering.

The pursuit for knowledge has been the supreme goal in my life. We are in an era of global and technological changes where boundaries are fast disappearing and the greatest challenge tomorrow holds for us is to manage continuity of change. To satiate my curiosity and to fulfil my ambitions I have decided to pursue a master’s program in Mechanical Engineering. I would like to get involved in research work in this area. Although there is a vast scope for research in this area, the scope for research in India is limited. The need for exposure to a wider environment has prompted me to seek an opportunity to study in the United States. The ever-increasing part played by computers in every discipline of Engineering and their synergetic role in manufacturing procedures called ‘Computer Integrated Manufacturing’ or CIM has encouraged me to learn various design application software packages like Auto Cad 2002& Pro-E.

After the completion of my masters, I would like to work in the research and development department of an organization, which specializes in the field of design. As a long-term goal, I would want to use the experience gained to make vital contributions to the sectors, which incorporate deep design and manufacturing know-how such as defense, safety systems, and construction machinery. The four years of degree undergraduate course has not only provided me strong fundamentals but also has encouraged me to learn more and goaded me to continue research-related activities. My primary objective is to obtain a master’s degree in Engineering followed by a PhD and research oriented career in industry or academia. The choice of a good university with a faculty dedicated to teaching and research and an atmosphere conducive to learning, thus becomes extremely necessary.

The prestigious opportunity of completing my masters from your esteemed university would boost my career tremendously. The Department of Mechanical Engineering at your University has a very. 

As a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student with an ardent interest in the industrial work environment, I have learned the principles of mechanical engineering that are applicable to most machines, tools, and processes, which naturally widens my scope of learning and research. This has intrigued me to explore the option of pursuing a master’s course in Mechanical Engineering from your prestigious university, which I believe will not only supplement my knowledge that I have acquired but also provide me with the best possible platform for the attainment of my future goals. I draw my inspiration towards this field from my mechanical engineer father, who serves as a Mechanical Supervisor in a government-run organization, National Fertilizers Limited. He was the one who introduced me to machines like Lathe Machine, Gear Cutting Machine, Hydraulic Cutting Machine, Steam Turbines, Compressors, etc., and plants like Steam Generation Plant, Ammonia Plant at a very impressionable age. This naturally triggered in me a desire to know more about what happens inside these machines and the reason behind their precise and accurate working. Also, my frequent visits to the industry enabled me to retain as well as enhance my keen interest in the field and thus, influenced me to pursue my undergraduate course in Mechanical Engineering.

Due to my innate interest in the field of Mechanical Engineering and impressive performance in the engineering entrance examination, I secured a seat in this discipline of engineering at the coveted Punjab Technical University, Punjab. My undergraduate major has given me a wide exposure to numerous subjects like Thermodynamics, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning, Heat and Mass Transfer, Mechanics, Mechanical Vibrations, etc. My under graduation has been a rewarding experience as I got numerous chances to visit industries to gain a close look at the application of mechanics and its related theories. I possess an immense quest for knowledge, which enabled me to score more than 90% marks in practical labs of all the above-mentioned courses. In addition to this, with the increasing role of computers in every field of engineering, I underwent career-enhancing certifications like AutoCAD and pro-e, which helped me to learn various design aspects.

Owing to my interest in the concepts pertaining to Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning, Thermal & Fluid Sciences, Heat & Mass Transfer, I submitted a project in the final year based on Regenerative Braking System for an Electric Bicycle, which works on the principle of conservation of energy, i.e., converting the heat lost on applying brakes into electrical energy, which was well received and appreciated by department professors and H.O.D as well. The concept for this project is to demonstrate a regenerative braking system on an electric bicycle. The ultimate goal is to use the energy regained from the R.B.S. as an acceleration “boost” on the bicycle. Although the final goal of repur•posing the stored energy into an acceleration boost was not achieved, a fully functional electric bicycle with regenerative braking was built. The regenerated power was even stored in a capacitor, so finding an appropriate use for that electricity should not be difficult.

In the years 2011 and 2013, I gained immense exposure to the industry on the basis of my internships, which I undertook as a part of my syllabus. Here, I got the opportunity to work in the Manufacturing and Maintenance Department at India’s leading fertilizer supplier National Fertilizers Limited. During this internship, my immense effort in increasing the efficiency of boilers and steam turbines under the guidance of the Chief Engineer of the Department was highly appreciated by the Department personnel. The most important thing I learned during the internship was that Steam Turbines are one of the main energy-consuming equipment, even though not much attention is paid to them. Trimming of operating parameters such as Steam Inlet Pressure and Steam Inlet Pressure are essential for the efficient operation of steam turbines. Huge benefits can be reaped by optimizing operating parameters, by minor modifications, and even by replacing old inefficient turbines.

After completing my internship, I joined “Hotel the Royal Plaza” as an Engineer in the Maintenance and Operations Department, where my major responsibilities included handling refrigeration equipment, chiller plants, and boilers. Working alongside mechanical engineers, I not only applied the principles I had learned during my undergraduate study, but I also become familiar with different types of machinery. Working together and managing a team of 25 technicians initially was a challenging task, but gradually it developed in me effective leadership skills along with enhancing my technical expertise. Now, after attaining an experience of more than 15 months and achieving a level of expertise, I feel the need for higher education, and after exploring all the available and feasible options, I find that a prestigious University like yours is the best choice for me.

At this juncture of my career, I feel that my educational and professional qualification coupled with the opportunities arising out of tremendous industrialization have reinforced my goals and have developed a keen desire in me to pursue my master’s course in Mechanical Engineering from your university, which would definitely equip me with comprehensive and specialized skills as an outcome of rigorous training in all aspects of Mechanical Engineering.

Browsing through the information given on the website of University XXX, I am highly impressed with the accomplished faculty members, environment, and the facilities the university has to offer to its students. I also realize that the syllabus offered at this university is designed to meet the demands of the present-day industry, covering Manufacturing, Production, and R&D & Maintenance aspects, amongst others. There are as many as 25 research labs and 18 teaching labs in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the university is ranked amongst the top in Canada and in the top 450 among world universities, which indicates its high standard. Given these facts, I believe that there cannot be a better platform than this university to obtain advanced knowledge of the mechanical field. I have come to the conclusion that the Master in Engineering program offered by the Department of Mechanical Engineering at XXX University is excellently structured to match my requirements. I believe studying in your university with high-tech facilities, excellent faculty, and a highly suitable environment are of the utmost necessity to achieve new heights in life.

I am fully aware of the fact that pursuing this course requires a high level of intelligence, dedication,

and immense sacrifice. I am confident that I have the capability to contribute positively towards your esteemed university, and with great hope, I eagerly wait for your benevolent act of accepting me into your fold and granting me admission in my desired course.

My primary research objective and interest is in the area of Human Computer Interaction. I am currently studying computer science at Stanford University, with HCI as the specialization. I believe that the most important HCI investment for the next decade would be in the management of vast amounts of data. Through my research, I want to make it easier for people to organize, manage, and make sense of data. I plan to continue research after my Ph.D., as a faculty in academia.

1 Research

While I always had a passion for building software tools, initially I focused mostly on the system building aspect of it. It was only during CS 376 (Research Topics in Human Computer Interaction), a course taught by Prof. Scott Klemmer at Stanford University, I started thinking about research seriously. As part of the course, I did a research project called Redprint , which later got accepted at UIST as a demo paper . After Redprint, I got involved with two more very interesting research projects which I will discuss in detail, in the following sections.

1.1 Redprint

Joel Brandt’s thesis work at Stanford, explored the roles that code examples play during software development. As part of this work, he built Blueprint, a search interface integrated into the Adobe Flex Builder development environment that makes it easier for programmers to locate and use instructive code examples.

Blueprint helped programmers a lot as they could find task specific code examples from within the IDE. However, when I tried to closely observe the programmers using a Blueprint kind of IDE (a custom IDE I had built for experimental purposes), it was surprising to see that they still visited search engines like Google during coding. The interesting part though, was that their search queries were different this time. They were looking to find API (Application Program Interface) documentation and samples to understand the APIs used in the borrowed code.

My Redprint work extends Blueprint to provide API specific “Instant Example” and “Instant Documentation” display interfaces within the development environment. These display interfaces do not require the programmer to enter any search query; there is a continuously running background search that looks at the cursor position in the editor window and updates these interfaces with the related API’s documentation and sample code. This significantly reduces the cost of searching and the time to develop software.

1.2 Visual/Design Search, Style Based Search

Current search engines are largely text based, and the text vocabulary that they use is a poor match for the style based concerns. Search engines return pages based on content match with the keyword query; they cannot be used for searches along stylistic attributes such as ‘pages with funny backgrounds’.

I am working on a system that will allow users to query on stylistic attributes. The search query could be either language-keyword based or it could be based on examples i.e. a user can select a design and ask the system to show other examples in the corpus that are similar (or dissimilar) to the designs in the query. For example, a user can select a header element in a web page, and query the system for other pages with similar (or dissimilar) headers. I am also thinking of a search interface that can allow users to create abstractions (user can draw nested rectangular boxes and affix known semantic labels to them (header, logo, image, etc.)) to describe a design layout and use that as a query. The system could search for pages that mimicked the layout exactly, with similar content blocks positioned in similar relative locations.

I am using a machine learning technique to solve this problem. Given a set of training examples consisting of web design’s tree representation and a style label distribution, the labels are used to learn the parameters of the system via a back-propagation neural network which is applied recursively to each node in the binary tree representation of the web page. Once these parameters are learned, the system can predict the style distribution for any given Web page. Example-based querying can be implemented on top of this representation.

This work is a part of the Bricolage4 project, being led by Ranjitha Kumar, a Ph.D. student at Stanford, advised by Prof. Scott Klemmer.

1.3 Data Wrangler

Data Wrangler5 is an interactive system for creating data transformations. It combines direct manipulation of visualized data with automatic inference of relevant transforms, enabling analysts to iteratively explore the space of applicable operations and preview their effects.

I am collaborating with Sean Kandel (a Ph.D. student at Stanford, advised by Prof. Jeff Heer), who is the primary investigator for this project. My work focuses on building a high level language, which abstracts the low level script/sql query and allows users to express the transformations in a much more simple and intuitive way. Since the direct manipulation techniques don’t scale well for large data cleaning tasks (because it requires a lot of human effort like drag, drop, mouse clicks, etc..), this high level scripting language can be used for describing the specification. It involves some classic HCI problems like threshold and ceiling trade-off, how to provide a path of least resistance, etc.

2 Teaching

Currently, I am TAing CS 247 (HCI Interaction Design Studio), a graduate course in HCI, taught be Prof. Jeff Heer. In the Fall, I TAed CS 249A (Object Oriented Programming from Modelling and Simulation perspective), taught by Prof. David Cheriton.

3 Related Courses

To get a good understanding of the topics related to HCI, I took the HCI sequence offered at Stanford – ‘Intro to HCI’, ‘HCI Interaction Design Studio’ and ‘Research Topics in HCI’. One other course that I found very useful, was ‘Designing Computer Science Experiments, Klemmer and Levis’ – it helped me understand the experiment design aspect of computer science research. I attend Stanford HCI seminar regularly, for keeping myself updated about the interesting research problems in the area of HCI.

4 Industry

I spent about 3 years, working in the industry. Last summer, I interned at Oracle, where I worked on the user interaction for iPhone and Android based clients for their OPAM (Oracle Privileged Account Management) workflow. I also wrote OPAM client SDK. This work manifested into a patent application which has already been submitted, and is pending approval. Prior to coming to Stanford, I worked for a little more than 2 years at BMC Software as a Product Developer for their Marimba products. Some of my key contributions include – Intel AMT (Active Management Technology, a.k.a vPro) integration and a Java SDK for programming AMT, x64 architecture support for Marimba, and auto relay mechanism for WOL (Wake on LAN) to work across WAN.

5 Conclusion

Having spent some time in industry and then two years at Stanford for my Masters, I now want to pursue a Ph.D., as it would allow me to do a much focused research. In my research, I want to go beyond building prototypes, and build production quality software systems such that they are used by other people for their daily work. As Prof. John Ousterhout suggests, designing for production use forces us to think about important issues that could be ignored otherwise, and measurements of usage allow us to evaluate our ideas more thoroughly.

At Stanford, Scott Klemmer and Jeff Heer are working on the research problems related to different aspects of management of vast amounts of data.

Most of Scott’s research are in the area of leveraging the online information to increase the quality of people’s creative work – especially interface design and programming. This opens many sub-areas of research which I would love to explore.

I am also interested in Jeff’s research, especially related to investigating the factors involved in making sense of data – especially visualization tools.

I would love to work with either Scott or Jeff at Stanford.

On my career plan, I hope to work in Computer Labs as research scientists or be a professor in university. After accumulating enough research experience, I will consider turning into Management field or a consultant. If I have enough resources, I’ll try to create my own business.

Absorbing new technologies is always a pleasure to me. Since I like to be ahead of others in knowing new technologies, so I choose to study further. Studying abroad has been my dream since I was in junior high school. And I think contacting with the whole world broaden one’s view.

First of all, I wish to get a Ph. D. degree on Media Arts and Sciences, then I will pursuing for another degree on MBA, or other related fields. While I study further in the field of Media Arts and Sciences, I hope to implement my ideas in the best environment, including a good studying atmosphere, the best faculties, superior students, and good computing facilities. I choose your department because you offers the best environment based on those conditions.

For helping to achieve my final goal of study the field, books, papers and source codes will be the main resources I use. I’ll like to improve my programming skills and experience by writing more programs. In the rest of this statement, I’ll show you that I am well prepared for entering your department to pursue for a degree on Media Arts and Sciences.

During high school, I spent most of my time on extracurricular activities. I joined Forensic Art club, Student Association, Mathematics club, and Graduate Students Association. I was awarded the honor for “Excellent performance in group life training” when I graduated from my high school. I entered Mathematics Department of National Central University. For broadening my knowledge, I chose courses in different areas of Mathematics and Computer Science. These courses ranges from Analysis, Algebra, Topology, Differential Equations to Wavelet and Fuzzy in Mathematic area, and Data Structure, Network, Assembly Language to Security in Computer Science field.

Working is my main source of learning. I worked in the Mathematics Computing Labrotary as a System and Network Administrator for 3 years. I was in charge of 4 Sun workstations, 1 DEC Alpha, and 40 PC. I established our WWW server in both Chinese and English, a collection about the Math resources on the web, which is the first and the best one in Taiwan. The editor of “HopeNet CD-ROM Monthly” found my article on the network and then invited me for writing columns introducing newest technology of WWW, which lasted for 14 months until I entered the army. I also work for the “College Entrance Exam Center”, teaching WWW and HTML, and developed some Web-based remote database system, like “Exam result query system”.

As an active character of Taiwan Academic NETwork (TANET), I contributed a lot during college years. The FTP server of my department is the first CPAN mirror site in Taiwan, which I maintained. I also maintained a Perl resource homepage written in Chinese. I have translated Xanadu FAQ into Chinese, while Perl FAQ is still being working on. I am the first who introduced HyperNews for TANet users. More than 400 articles posted or followed on different network newsgroups. You can refer to my resume attached for works I did. After I graduated, I joined the army. I served in the Data Processing section of Management Information Center in Headquarter of Combined Service Forces. My job is administrating TCP/IP network, IBM RS/6000 workstations and Netware servers. I teach Unix and network. I am also responsible for maintaining their Web server. I established their DNS, DHCP, FTP and E-mail services using a few PCs running FreeBSD. Lately, I joined a logistic information system project, offering advice on network architecture and administrating Oracle database.

I have strong background on Unix, database and Network and experience on writing articles for magazines. My main interests are AI, Network, Security, Cryptography and Information Systems. Intelligent Agent is one topic I am interested in, for example. In general, combining AI into Network Information Retrival Systems (like WWW, and HyperWave) will be the main field of my specialization. Cryptography, and Multimedia are also preferred.

“Things that think” project draws my attention while I am browsing your homepage. I have been thinking about the question about “Locating Multimedia Resource”. That will involve the question about locate, identify, and serach for data other than text, like graphics, video, and sound. I would like to concentrate on this question if I can get the admission.

Sincerely Yours,

Dec. 16th, 1997.