SOP PhD, Indiana University

I was first introduced to computers through the elementary programming courses in my school days. In my high school I took Computer Science as an additional subject. This fascination for computers lead me to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the ****, one of India’s foremost educational institutes. The course structure, a good balance of theory and programming laboratories, and excellent faculty introduced me to the stimulating field of research. I got a complete exposure to the core fields of Computer Science and Mathematics. I started to enjoy the problem solving techniques and appreciate the pleasure of success after endless hours of frustrating work. All this has lead me to decide on a career of research and academics.

Ten years from now I envisage myself doing active academic research in a good university. I believe that teaching a subject is the best way of learning the subject. Hence my immediate goal is to enter the Ph. D. program at {Indiana University}. My main fields of interest are Distributed Systems, Real Time Systems and Concurrent Programming Languages}. Presently I am doing my B. Tech project under Dr. yyy on implementation of the Communicating Reactive Processes (CRP) model. In the first stage of the project I have studied the various distributed algorithms for Communicating Sequential Processes implementation and other related fairness issues. An impossibility result regarding the problem has been proved and an algorithm has been proposed. I am planning to shape this into a journal paper.

As part of the Operating Systems course I did a study of the Group Communication protocols in the Amoeba Distributed Operating System. Next semester I am crediting a post-graduate elective—Foundations of Parallel Computation. I am a student member of the IEEE computer society. I am also interested in Computer Architecture and had presented a home paper on the 6811 Motorola microcontroller.

My decision to apply to Indiana University is based on a careful examination of the department brochure, World Wide Web information and talking to my guide Dr. yyy. Indiana has a strong faculty in Programming Language Design. Entering the Ph. D. program here will be ideal for me. My academic record reflects that I have always been a consistent performer. In school I was always in the top five of the class and in the Secondary Certificate Examination I stood second in my school. I secured 126th rank in the All India Joint Entrance Examination for ****. At the end of my first year I was ranked 10th in the institute. After seven semesters I have a CGPA of 8.83/10.00 and I am in the top ten of my class.

I have been a tutor for a first year introductory course in Computers. This involved guidance of the students in the programming assignments and correction of papers. I enjoyed the experience and would love to teach. I also have been an organizer in UNIX workshops held in our department. I am a hardworking, steady and quiet person. My final aim is to be blissfully involved in Distributed Systems and Programming Languages. I hope I can join Indiana University and achieve my dream.