SOP Sample 1

I was exposed to a stimulating academic atmosphere where learning and research go hand in hand throughout my undergraduate studies in the department of Computer Science and Engineering at ****. I have had a lot of opportunities here. I’ve discovered that I have a good affinity for the type of work involved in research and have learned to love doing it. I’ve made the decision to make active research my career. I would like to apply to your university’s PhD program with this goal in mind.

At the graduate level, I want to focus on the theory of asynchronous systems in the field of distributed computing. I think that in computer science, theory and application go hand in hand. The successful creation of applications for heterogeneous and fault-tolerant systems depends on the understanding of theoretical distributed systems. I’m fascinated by the research possibilities in this area.

Theorems characterizing the computability of jobs in asynchronous systems that can withstand numerous failures have emerged as a result of recent research in the theory of asynchronous computation. In an asynchronous system, efforts are also being made to fully quantify the power of various synchronization primitives. is a component of my senior thesis for my B.Tech under Dr. yyy I’m now studying the prospect of employing some of these concepts to completely express the power of concurrent objects as well as extending these results to stronger synchronization primitives. I’ve enrolled in Dr. yyy’s graduate-level course Foundations of Parallel Computation to deepen my grasp of these issues.

I have excelled in academics at every step in my education. Throughout twelve years of schooling I have always been ranked among the top of my class. I was introduced to Computer Science in junior college. I was awarded the Merit Certificate for my performance in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination – 100% in Computer Science, 99% in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. I was also placed seventh in the state wide Physics Talent Test of the Physics Society, Madras. In the highly competitive entrance examination to the *** I was ranked 134th among over 100,000 students. The broad curriculum at **** provided me with a strong foundation in all branches of Computer Science. Of these I have pursued those, which have particularly appealed to me. During the summer of 1994, I worked on a `learning’ program for the gam {Othello} using Neural Nets that I had initially developed as part of my course work. For my seminar (junior thesis) I studied {smart recompilation and incremental parsing techniques} under Dr. yyy. Efficient implementation of these techniques can substantially reduce compilation time in large software systems.

I have also gained considerable teaching experience in ****. I have been a course assistant for the Institute level freshman course, Computer Programming and Utilization for two consecutive years. I have also delivered lectures and given demonstrations on UNIX at various workshops conducted by the Computer Science and Engg. Association. All of these have been well received and have made me confident of developing into a very good teacher. I have also taken the Test for Spoken English in November 1995 . I have worked for two months at ARCUS, Bangalore, and a company that develops VLSI tools and also for Rational, USA at their third party development centre in Bangalore.

My undergraduate program has given me sufficient exposure to various avenues for research and I have chosen Distributed Computing for which I have both an aptitude and a liking. A good graduate program is now essential for gaining a deeper insight and to make significant original contributions to this field. I am confident that I possess the motivation, intellectual ability and preparation to succeed in a demanding graduate program.

My interest in the theory of distributed computing makes UCLA a natural choice for graduate study. Professor yyy is one of the leading researchers in this field and I have studied his work as part of my ongoing thesis and he has encouraged me to apply to your program. Working under an expert whose work can serve as a model will set me on the path to contributing significantly to the ongoing research at UCLA. The research interests of the other faculty members cover a large number of topics in Computer Science and this will enable me to keep in touch with the latest developments in these fields. The excellent facilities offered by your department will provide an environment conducive to successful graduate work. The faculty at **** has also strongly recommended UCLA for pursuing graduate studies.

I look forward to joining UCLA as a graduate student at your esteemed department.