My fascination by Modeling and Simulation. Statement of Purpose for Master in Computer Science

The practice of Modeling and Simulation

The school bell made a short ring- indicating the start of the next class in very first day at my new school. All of the students made a quick rush towards the computer laboratory, while I was there following them with much curiosity and anticipation all over my head- what might it like be- Computers. I was among the few in seventh grade who until then didn't have any cognizance with the computers. I felt so disquiet that upon reaching my home, I incontinently asked my father for a computer, but, to my dismay, he declined my request stating it will impair my study. Three years passed, but my father didn't have a change of heart and so did mine. After so many failed attempts, finally he agreed to afford me a computer but with a tough stipulation he put forward me- I had to achieve distinction marks in my School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam, to which I gave my full commitment. My continuous strenuous effort finally paid off - I got distinction marks in my SLC exam and a computer too, the happiest day of my life. Not being able to handle computers so cautiously, it was not long before I had to take it for repairs, that also too frequently. It was during these times, I learned the basic of computers- about its hardware and software configurations, its processing techniques and also a basic programming concept with QBASIC that proved to be an impetus for my interest towards the world of computer.

Upon completion of my high school, I opted for studying engineering for my undergraduate level. My decision for engineering was shattered when my father persuaded me to go for Agricultural Science pointing out my weakness in math and physics. Although I was apathetic towards biology I could not defy his request and decided to take an entrance exam for both fields. The results were astounding and antithetical to what I had speculated. The chances were much higher for me to get admission in governmental university of Agricultural Science. Nonetheless, at the last hour, I was fortunate enough to be enlisted in the third merit list for admission in one of the colleges at Institute of Engineering (IOE), Tribhuvan University (TU).

Joining Electronics and Communication Engineering proved to be much facilitative in understanding the core of basic electronic components like diodes, transistors, flip-flops, Integrated Circuit (IC), etc. While I was studying about the Intel 8085 and 8086 microprocessor, it was then I learned about the circuit design with simulator like Proteus and coding with Keil. In my third year, I did a minor project in "Automatic Bridge Lifting" using the Intel 8085 microprocessor. It was the prototype, designed and programmed to control a stepper motor, which was automatic with sensors detecting the arrival of ships. It could automatically raise itself up and shut down for making passage to water transit and road traffic respectively as per the requirement. My next project in the final year included "Electronic Voting Machine". The system could use fingerprint scanners to identify voters and had a user-friendly interface to select candidate through the LCD touch screen which would then process the information to give results in no time. These projects proved to be efficacious not only in providing much deeper knowledge on designing and programming of circuit, but also in understanding the consequence and making out most through the team-work with friends and teachers.

I got an opportunity to teach Computer Science, voluntarily for ninth and tenth grade students, in a governmental school nearby my hometown for six months. It was an overwhelming experience which furnished my teaching skills along with the competence to elucidate students about their queries in a simple yet effective way. It was the moment of proud to see more than ninety percent of students who passed the exam, where formerly only sixty percent had passed. For the next six months, I worked as a paid trainee for a local software company, which enhanced my knowledge on JAVA programming and web-designing using HTML5 and CSS. Further, this opportunity led me to understand UI/UX Design and Development to create an interactive and responsive web application and how a webpage is designed professionally in the real world through the teamwork.

I have been fascinated by one of the most emerging and prominent disciplines of Computer Science- Modelling and Simulation, which includes use of model- physical, mathematical and logical representation of a system as a basis for simulation. This area has helped revolutionize the engineering science by reducing production cost, increasing quality of the products along with being more realistic and safer than conducting traditional experiments with final prototype of the product. Recent advancement in diverse computer science areas like system theory, system engineering, software engineering and artificial intelligence have greatly influenced the development of Modeling and Simulation (M&S). The practice of Modeling and Simulation is thus sure to provide the most promising method to ensure the safety and quality of the system and products by running the computer version of the model over time to study the implication of the defined interaction.

Computer Science, since long, has been much useful in understanding and revealing the different aspects of biology and nature through different disciplines like Bioinformatics and Astroinformatics. It has been a field of my interest to work toward these areas. The Citizen Science Grid, run by Travis Desell, an assistant professor at Department of Computer Science at University of North Dakota has specially drawn my interest towards the projects being carried out like Milkyway@Home, DNA@Home and Wildlife@Home. These projects being carried out through volunteer computing using BIONIC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) platform have necessarily helped in finding different facts about our universe and nature. The use of BIONIC platform has been very useful to create highly accurate three dimensional model of the Milky Way galaxy, to discover what regulates the genes in DNA and to study habitats and ecology of different wildlife.

In the future, I am looking forward to work in the field of Modeling and Simulation (M&S). In my country, where the economic development is occurring in much slower pace, there are not so many industries, factories and research activities going on. Furthermore, the practice of modeling and simulation to ensure the quality and safety of any products or system in a cheaper, realistic and faster way is far beyond our reach. Thus, my interest lies in gaining knowledge, skills and experience in modeling and simulation by involving in research activities which will lead me towards achieving my professional goals. In addition to this, I also have great heed towards understanding the enigmatic features of nature and the universe which have always enthralled me. The ongoing projects at University of North Dakota (i.e MilyWay@Home, DNA@Home and Wildlife@Home) are the best demonstration of how Computer Science can be used to study and comprehend different aspect of nature and universe. I have great eagerness to work in such project so that I would be able to implement my knowledge and skills in my country to work in the field of wildlife and nature conservation.

I am extremely pleased that I have applied to your university, renowned for its distinguished faculty and excellent facility, which makes the graduation program ideally suited to my professional goals. In the modern world of globalization, where the opportunities for professional endeavors and education have transcended the physical space, the international education is sure to provide me with the necessary skills, knowledge and caliber to compete with global challenger. Moreover, as a matter of fact, the USA is far more ahead than any other country in the field of Computer Science and would thus provide me best infrastructure and the opportunity to pursue my graduate studies and professional endeavors. I am sure, the quality education and impeccable guidance at your university will pave the way for me towards constant growth as a person and a professional. To conclude, I would like to state that if granted admission into your university I would perform to the best of my abilities and hope to acquire knowledge and skills that will help me realize my dreams. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank you for enabling me to express myself.

and so did mine -> and neither did mine

As a reader of your essay, I could clearly understand how you became interested in computer science and how the projects you completed during your undergraduate years helped you better understand the field and made you want to study more about computer science.

One thing I could suggest though is that you could work on providing more details on why you applied to that school among other graduate schools with master programs for computer science.

For example,

I am extremely pleased that I have applied to your university, renowned for its distinguished faculty and excellent facility, which makes the graduation program ideally suited to my professional goals. -> Anyone could say this; if you want to make your application more attractive, you need to go the extra mile and provide more details.

Biswas, when you write a statement of purpose for masters degree school, you cannot go all the way back to high school for your discussion. The correct start of the discussion point for this essay will be from your college days. That discussion should then be followed up by your professional experience in computer science. Let me start at the very beginning in order to give you a proper outline of how to develop this paper.

In the first paragraph, you can discuss what kind of professional experience that you currently have in the field of computer science. Where you are working now, what your position is, responsibilities assigned, and the question that you have regarding computer science or the application of it in your workplace that led you to the realization that you need higher level academic and practical training already.

The second paragraph, should discuss how your college education, in summary form, prepared you for this career. As an employee of this particular company, what kind of seminars and training programs were you encouraged to participate in? What were the inclusive dates of these training? Did the training help you to improve your abilities in the field? Or did it leave you with more questions about your job?

The third paragraph should clearly outline the purpose of your higher studies at this point. Now that you have expressed the desire to learn more about a specific field of computer science. What do you hope to achieve through higher education? What is the purpose? What situation do you want to correct or what question do you want to find an answer to? A summarized research question would best illustrate the purpose of your essay.

The fourth paragraph, should determine why you have opted to study at this university in particular. What is the specific reason that you feel that your education can only be accurately completed at this institution? How can the university help you do that? What is it about the academic demands and offerings of this university that tells you that you will be able to perform better on the job after studying and training with them?

As you can see from the format above, your essay is overly informative but not necessarily focused on providing the correct information to the reviewer. You can still use the information that you have here, you just have to properly format the paper and adjust the content to make it more aligned with the required contents of an SOP.

@Holt
Thank you for reviewing my essay.
If the job I am doing do not necessarily align with the field of computer science I want to specialize in- how should I write in my essay? For eg. I am working as a web developer bt I want to concentrate in Network and Security in my graduate.

Can you go for more detail reviewing and correct my grammatical and other errors, if any?

Biswas, you are talking about changing your career from one to another, unrelated field in this instance. Therefore, it will be a bit more complicated for you to write this essay. For starters, you do not have to tell the bleeding heart story of how you wanted to take computer classes or that your father did not want to get you a computer, or have stipulations for giving you a computer to the reviewer. He does not have any interest in that background story. This is a statement of purpose for a masters degree course. This is not a personal statement for a college application essay. So all of that information is totally irrelevant to your application and will not be considered in the end. In fact, it so totally deviates the essay from the prompt requirement that there is a very good chance that the reviewer will not be interested in reading further into your essay beyond the first paragraph.

What you should be doing, is opening the statement with the fact that you have a background in EEE but have experience in teaching about computers. That will make the logical connection between your academic background, and your interest in a MS in computer science. In order to better present the information. You should try to improve the opening statement.

In the first paragraph. immediately explain that you have a background in Engineering but that your actual professional experience found you working in the computer science field as a teacher. That way you eliminate the need to discuss your college background. Instead, offer information about the training and seminars that you have attended as a teacher. That will take the place of the non-existent computer science college background for you. From there, you can just discuss why you were inspired to take higher studies in a course that you have no background in, but hope to be able to excel in the field through late education training. Don't forget to create a purpose for your application. Just because you have the inspiration for it doesn't mean that you have a purpose for it as well.

Try to revise the essay in the aforementioned format. I think that it will better serve your purpose for application at this point. I look forward to reading your new essay soon.