I'm new to this forum, and I must say I'm smitten. There's tonnes of extremely useful information for prospective applicants. Below is my statement of purpose for the graduate program at Georgia Tech, I will revise my other SOPs accordingly. Hope to get it reviewed, thanks!
Nine months into my tenure at the Micro and Nano Characterization Facility (MNCF) in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Dr. Abdul Kalam, former Indian president and nuclear physicist, visited our lab. After a brief discussion with us, he said before leaving "I hope your work here will one day benefit society". It summed up the impact technology has on our everyday lives, especially electronics; I'm sure this essay even, is being read on a computer, a tablet pc or on printed paper. The engineering and the implications involved in scaling down these devices is more than one can fathom, this is best exemplified by the technology node now reaching 22nm. My goal is to contribute to this technological revolution through the graduate program at Georgia Institute of Technology.
The journey towards my goal began with positive experiences at SSN College of Engineering. Through the years I developed an interest for circuit design, analysis and its integration. My final year project was on design of power efficient multi-bit arithmetic CMOS circuits using adiabatic (energy recovery) logic. These circuits are ubiquitous in processors. Optimization of these will enhance performance of the system as a whole. With device scaling, adiabatic computing has gained much interest due to its lower energy dissipation. It verified the importance of having an efficient circuit topology. Our results were published in 2 international conferences and are indexed in IEEE Xplore. The 8 months spent on literature survey, design and analysis gave me a flavor of the kind of discipline required for research. Overall, it was a great experience.
Undergraduation bolstered strong fundamentals but the opportunity to work at IISc was a turning point in my academic career, everyday a learning experience. MNCF is a research center that houses a plethora of precision characterization tools. My experimental work here involves characterization and analysis of its results for various samples. I also assist professors in conducting courses on characterization techniques for graduate students of IISc. I became adept with a myriad of characterization and fabrication techniques in a short span of time. I also took up courses on nano-electronic device physics, its design and characterization and fabrication techniques for MEMS and electronic devices. This gave me an insight into the multidisciplinary progress of future electronics engineering, and the exciting prospects it holds.
The projects I've worked on at IISc best reflect this multidisciplinary progress, the first being studying the growth and electrical properties of Silicon nanowires. These have brought about a lot of interest due its exciting properties of high aspect ratios, electrical sensitivities and quantum confinement. The second one initiated by the Reserve Bank of India, involves studying material and structural properties of smart counterfeit currency notes, to help track sources of the same.
Advances in fabrication and characterization techniques have increased the drive towards "more than Moore" technology. Through my experiences, I saw a glaring need for continual development of these techniques for satisfying future scaling goals. Also, the transistor moving towards non-classical designs obligates the need for improved materials and interfaces. An advanced graduate program will help address such key obstacles for device scaling. Prof. Mark. G. Allen and Farrokh Ayazi's work provide potential solutions to these issues with their novel fabrication processes for MEMS devices. I would also be honored to work with Prof. Alan Doolittle and John Cressler, whose work involves incorporating such hybrid materials for enhancement of device performance. With cutting-edge facilities like the Centre for MEMS and Microsystems Technologies, a masters from Georgia Institute of Technology will provide enriching research experiences to carry forward for my doctoral studies, that being my ultimate academic goal
Firstly, I would like to thank you greatly for taking the time out to review my Georgia Tech undergrad essay :)
Secondly, your essay, in my opinion, is very concise. And that's really good. You're not beating around the bush. You speak about what you have done, what you are doing, what you want to do, and how doing your masters in Georgia Tech fits into your plans. So there's nothing I think that needs to be added.
Just a couple of small grammar bits that could be corrected :
-The engineering and the implications involved in scaling down these devices are more than one can fathom. (also, may I advice maybe saying The engineering implications? I don't know if it would hold the same intended meaning but it would certainly sound better and more precise)
-My final year project was on the design of power..
My experimental work here involves characterization and analysis of its results for various samples - maybe just add a word or two regarding what samples and/or results just for clarification.
Just a few notes^^
Best of luck with your application!
Thanks for your review, appreciate it!
I didn't spot those two mistakes until you just pointed them out. I'll change that. Also I wanted to stress upon the engineering, and its implications separately because in this case these are 2 entirely different things, i'll try changing it to what you suggested and see how it fits.
And about the 'samples' well i was not sure what to add there too, because if i start listing I'd exceed my character limit (4000). I'm just about 4000 already, so wanted to keep it short. I've added a description of the same in my CV, so I thought I'd keep it concise here.
Thanks again!
I'd like some more feedback on the essay. thanks!
Hello,
Your essay is well structured however you just scratch the surface. For most Engineering graduate programs, I would say that this essay is fine, however, since GA Tech is arguably THE TOP program in the nation, your essay has to be better. You never go into any real detail about any of your past projects. You never talk about YOUR contributions to the project. You name drop a lot of technological jargon but the professors who read the graduate applications will very quickly see through that. You need to select one or two projects, go into detail about what you did on those projects. What were the results? Were the results what you had expected? What inspiration did you receive from working on those projects? Also Because this is a statement of purpose, try to include bits of your life in general. Give the reader a real sense of who you are all around, not just academically - AAO
P.S - What is undergraduation?
Thanks for your view!
What you said makes sense, I wish i could add all that you said. But the problem is Georgia Tech wants an essay not more than 4000 characters. Mine's about 3990 already. So unless I can take something off, I can't add anything more. Plus they ask us to talk only about our academic interests and why georgia tech for graduate studies. So I addressed all that, well yes It would be better if i could some more information about myself but there just isn't any space left.
Can you suggest something that i could remove?
Thanks!
