Letter of Motivation for MAIA Erasmus Mundus Scholarship - what fascinates me?

my dream and passion

The dream and passion to do something novel and unique brought a simple village girl to the technical valley of Electrical Engineering. Being an engineering student, I had a plethora of options available and selection of one was the most difficult task. Fascinated by the human replication i.e. Robots, my interests were locked into robotics. Out of my curiosity, I started studying and digging into the field of robotics. When I dive deeper I found the Artificial Intelligent Systems and Robot Vision more interesting and intriguing as compared to control systems i.e. operating motors. With further studies and discussions with my professors I scrutinized and focused on the vision systems and Image processing at the undergraduate level.

Thus my journey towards Image Processing began with the final year project titled as "Real-time Huanglongbing (Citrus Plant Disease) Detection and Implementation on Embedded System". To formulate the complete system, I had to begin from the very step of data set acquisition to the actuation of motors. First of all, I acquired and preprocessed a database of 1000 images from various gardens. At the later stage various shape, color and texture features were extracted and passed on to a classifier for training. After having classification results either motors were actuated for precautionary spraying or green light indication for no disease was given. Overall, system acquired the accuracy of 89% with the strong classifier i.e. SVM. Finally, I with the help of my supervisor and fellows have submitted the research paper based on this project to the journal of "Real-time Image Processing" and its first revision is under review.

My curiosity was raised and I was highly passionate to dig deeper in the field of medical image processing and computer vision. To quench my thirst for knowledge I enrolled Image Processing and Computer Vision courses on the coursera. In the meanwhile I met Dr. Muhammad Uzair and started studying up to date researches. These studies gave me exposure to the other paradigms i.e. 3D Imaging, video processing, 3D Action Recognition & Scene Understanding. The more I studied the more I was lost in the vast valley of Computer Vision. In March 2017, I availed an opportunity to work as Research Assistant under supervision of Dr. Muhammad Uzair. In this time period I did extensive literature review on Hyperspectral Face Recognition and submitted my first draft of the survey research paper on HS-Face Recognition to my supervisor. Currently I am working on the project "Automated Exam Invigilation System - An application of Action Recognition", for which I am carrying out literature review and prepared a video database.

All these experiences of mine gave me footing in the field of Image Processing, Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Now it was time to set off for higher studies and found Medical Imaging and Applications Master's program as the best match to my interests and experiences. One of the most attractive factor of the program is the course content; it covers very broad spectrum from the basic courses of Image and signal processing to the complex topics of Medical Image Processing and Medical Robotics. And finally an opportunity to carry out industrial research in the final semester.

The other most fascinating factor is dual degree program, an opportunity to travel around three different countries and learn their culture beside the technical studies. This is the best opportunity to learn from highly qualified faculty, an exposure to different cultures and travel around. Conclusively, It is a complete package that merges the studies and fun together.

Anam, the first rule of writing an Erasmus Mundus Letter of Motivation is that you avoid flowery language and overly long introductions. Be direct to the point in presenting your motivation. You are only supposed to write a cover letter that explains why you chose to apply for this scholarship over the other similarly available scholarship programs. There has to be a reason why this program is right for you. Explain why in the letter along with the reasons why you feel that your qualities make you a perfect participant as well.

What is it about your academic background (in summary form) that makes your foundation perfect for the program you chose to enroll in. That will include your strong points as a student and professional and any other training you may have undertaken in relation to your profession. More importantly, talk about what sets you apart from the other applicants. Achievements on the academic and professional front will be good to mention at this portion. Keep it direct to the point. Don't waste the time of the reviewer by writing creatively. This is not the time nor place for it.

The current letter that you have does not have an interesting and informative narrative for the reviewer to consider. He will most likely stop reading your essay after the second paragraph due to its complexity but little applicability to the main purpose of the letter. It would be best for you to revise your letter. Fit all the information I indicated earlier into a letter of no more than 5 paragraphs long. That should fix the presentation and information problem of your letter.