Hey, I post the first time here. I hope you guys can give me criticism of my first sop.
BTW, Did I talk too big with limited details?
As a senior undergraduate student from XX univ , I tend to earn a PhD to be a researcher in my area. I find my research interest through meditating the history of science. Since the Industrial Revolution, machine largely replaced human labor. After stepping into twentieth century, electricity serves as signal and energy to introduce automation which made efficiency greatly enhanced. However, currently how to control these signals become the vital issue because an efficient algorithm implies underlying productivity. although controlling signals involves broad directions, I would like to focus on signal processing and communication related to my experience.
After mastering amount of courses, in my junior year, I started by implementing an applied project with my team aimed to built a smart car automatically track an existing line based on sensors. We did met obstacle and then tackled them with ideas borrowed from pertinent research literature. This gave the reason to do some valuable research. However, my university offers satisfactory education but limited research opportunities.
So I chose to contact professors in XX univ to convey my intention to do research about networking and signal processing there. I successfully got permission, Professor Nenghai Yu advised me to participate in a research time and conduct an independent research. The experience in XX univ gave me adequate guarantee that research is the kind of thing I love to do. Among those days, my team focused on an algorithm for "sea-land segmentation" related to digital image processing. I had never learn that before. But I got full confidence to quickly adapt to new research environment after learning unfamiliar theory and techniques instantly. I found that excitation comes from every tiny progress just compensated for our rigorous endeavors. Besides, I conducted my independent research to explore my interests and enhance my ability to research on my own. The issue of security of online social networks attracted my attention. It was also unfamiliar to me. I had to read books about cryptology and investigate reference materials. Finally, I wrote a comprehensive survey about it. I did not perceive it as something great. But Joy and inspiration did came to me with the awareness that research life was indeed time-consuming and sacrifice-demanding.
Another significant experience in XX univ gave me reasons to apply for the PhD program in XX univ. I was lucky enough to listen to a lecture by Professor xx during the Sixth International Conference of Image and Graphics (ICIG) held by my lab. In that lecture, Professor XX talked about real-time multimedia communication and informational processing. I was excited to meet my true interest that later caused me to pondering about the history. So I read several papers of ProfessorXX related to real-time multimedia communication and real-time multimedia streaming mining system. I think that real-time issue represents a tendency of signal processing and networking because people do not only seek for high efficiency and convenience, but also thoughtful intelligence of application and system. The fact Siri is so welcomed might result from its excellent adaptability to all new and changing environment, which is quite similar to the scheme to choose multiple algorithms based on adapting and evolving rules. Therefore, I would like to focus my research on the issue of real-time communication and information processing.
Research career, however, requires more than interest and commitment, but also interpersonal skills and effective time management. I served as the minister of department of science and technology of student union during my senior year, in charge of organizing academic and scientific activities. Organizing one academic activities one week before from my TOEFL exam, studying nine major courses and preparing for my GRE exam in that year might explain how they greatly sharpen my will. I have firmly held a belief for years, that perseverance with calmness and brainstorming with sharpness could definitely earn extra efficiency, thereby achieve what I aimed for The precious experience did teach me lessons about time management, as I have to strike a balance among studying, research and working. It is true that to be accustomed to the mentally rigorous life while reaping many gains is a lot fun.
Considering all above, I deem XX is my only choice since I can focus on research interest there. I am very happy to predict the fact that community can be served by research done by our team. I consider research as achieving something great by doing what I love to do. Although pursuing a PhD degree is a kind of lifestyle that not anyone understand, I am sincerely looking forward to studying and researching in XX.
The overall structure is good, my comments are: a large portion of the contents are vague, e.g., what exactly did you do in the projects? you mentioned so many things are new to you, how did you learn them? Remember the purpose of the SOP is to demonstrate how well you are prepared for PHD studies.
