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Sample Personal Statement for Electronic Controls
A lot of myths have been created about child prodigies, most of
whom prove mediocre when they become adults. In China, there is a
special place which train child prodigies not to end in mediocrity but
in sustained excellence—XX, the University of XX. Having been a
student from such a class, I would like to scale new heights of
academic excellence by applying for a Ph.D. program in Electronic
Controls from the esteemed XX University. I am not interested in being
a child prodigy but in developing myself into an academic leader in
tomorrow’s Electronic Controls research.
XX has produced the first generation of leading scientists of the
People’s Republic of China, who in turn advocated the establishment of
the XX, with special support from the central government. What is
special about XX is that it is a 5-year program instead of the usual
4-year program; its educational system is completely integrated with
western system, with a unique curriculum, teaching programs,
emphasizing the study of foundational courses of mathematics, physics,
English, information science, interdisciplinary subjects. Students are
encouraged to participate in advanced student research programs,
involve in seminars and join faculty’s research projects. Above all,
students are taught to cultivate innovativeness and team spirit.
In this exceedingly competitive environment, everyone tries to be the
better of the best. I am no exception. My entire undergraduate program
in electrical engineering can be divided into three distinctive
stages. For the first two years, I allowed my academic interests to
develop freely by choosing a wide range of subjects so that I managed
to lay a solid foundation. I liked to attempt at some tentative
experiments through computer simulation, and program software to
process experiment statistics so that I could improve my hands-on
abilities. As I entered the third year, I started to focus on signal
processing as my major and paid special attention to develop my
computer skills. In one semester I took ten courses. But my hard
efforts paid off. My GPA reached 3.24, ranking among top 20% among a
total of 84 students.
My real academic development happened in the last two years, when I
was recruited in Oct. 2002 into the Communication and Signal
Processing Laboratory of our university. There I attended many
presentations, received technical trainings particularly designed for
lab’s new comers, read a large quality of scholarly journals and
technical literature, and cooperated with some outstanding doctoral
and Master’s students in the lab. Since Feb. 2003, the director of the
lab offered me an exception on account of my strong mathematics
background by allowing me to participate in the regular seminars for
doctoral students to discuss matrix theory and its application. On one
of those seminars, I did a thematic presentation regarding the norms
of vectors and matrices, which was warmly received. As an
undergraduate, I made full use of those rare opportunities to
cultivate my research potential.
By far, my most important research achievement is my thesis that I
independently completed from Jan. to August 2003. Entitled XX, my
thesis offers an in-depth analysis of the statistical characteristics
of the amplitude phase position of the analog modulated signal under
the AWGN interference. Based on this, I presented the new key feature
values and the value threshold, with a study of the statistical
characteristics of the values. Finally, I incorporated the novel idea
of soft judgment in accordance with the large number principle and
central ultimate limit principle. Unlike conventional algorithms, my
algorithm took into account the effect of noise, applicable to low
Signal/Noise Ratio (SNR) above 0db; the idea of soft judgment is
absolutely original. Scored 95 /100, my thesis was given highly
positive comments from my advisor who has recommended it to a leading
scholarly journal for publication.
Since September, I have been engaged in XX. My responsibility in the
research group is to simulate the process of the multi-resolutional
detection of the watermark and select different threshold to analyze
the error probability. The research group consists mostly of doctoral
students from whom I have derived useful research experiences. By
working in close collaboration with them, I have learned the
importance of making concerted efforts for the fulfillment of a common
objective.
To undertake your Ph.D. program in electronic controls, I believe
that, apart from my ample research experience, I have two unique
advantages. First I have an unusually solid foundation in mathematics.
My academic transcript indicates that I have excelled in Analysis
Mathematics, Linear Algebra (whose textbook, written by senior
professors of XX and Chinese Academy of Science, is said to be the
most difficult in Asia), Ordinary Difference Equation Methods in
Mathematics and Physics, Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics,
Stochastic Process, and Discrete Mathematical Structure. Your program
in Electronic Controls poses very high requirements on the student’s
mathematical aptitudes and my talents in mathematics will make me a
strong candidate for your program.
Next, as a student of electrical engineering, I have studied most of
the specialized courses as required by your program. As a matter of
fact, the courses in my undergraduate specialty of signal processing
overlap heavily with your curriculum. My academic performance in
Signals System (mostly about Fourier Transformation), Digital Signal
Processing (which analyzes discrete signals and systems), and
Statistical Analysis of Signals has been well above average. At
present, I am self-studying several subjects on electronic controls.
With those necessary preparations, I would like to identify Prof. XX
as my potential advisor because the coursework I have done in the
above-mentioned fields is extremely relevant to the Discrete Events
Systems that Prof. XX specializes in.
Among several XX universities that I apply for, I prioritize on XX
University. As one of the three most prominent universities in XX,
your university has enjoying increasing academic reputation,
especially in the field of engineering. Among a wide variety of
research programs offered by the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, the largest department in the XX College of Engineering,
I am most interested in Electronic Controls. I will first undertake a
research-oriented Master’s program. I will start by taking specialized
courses ranging from Control Systems II, Nonlinear Control Systems,
Discrete Event Systems, Systems and Optimal Control, Identification
and Adaptive Control, Stochastic Control, to Advanced Control System
Design. Through coursework in those subjects, I expect to enrich my
theoretical knowledge in Electronic Control. As my undergraduate
research focused on Pattern Recognition, I believe I am well grounded
for my future studies.
The past century witnessed the entire process how the subject of
control has evolved from the primitive use of feedbacks in windmills
and steam engines to the modern theory and application in
telecommunications and space process industry, with new components of
digital computers. It represents a rather challenging discipline. It
is my wish that I grow as this discipline itself grows.
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