From gesture recognition to Asimov-the robot, intelligence in systems has not merely advanced; it has grown by leaps and bounds. Artificial Intelligence indeed turns fiction into fact, and what better path for a career than to be a part of this surreal revolution. However the complexities involved in developing such systems should not be undervalued. I believe that research is of prime importance. Hands on experience in real time applications accompanied with in-depth knowledge of the subject, would surely help me contribute to this field which is at its bleeding edge now. Therefore, I truly feel that the most natural way to justify my passion for intelligent systems is to pursue a PhD in Computer Science.
During my undergraduate course, while subjects like Programming in Java and Data structures, helped me sharpen my analytical and programming skills, it was topics like DBMS, and Oracle that particularly intrigued me. During the analysis and research phase of my final year project on database analyzers, I encountered data mining and soon found myself wondering about the importance of patterns of data in the development of Intelligent Systems. With a burning desire to know more about the concept, I had no doubt whatsoever that I wanted to pursue a career in research, and a Master of Science would be an eminent step towards achieving this goal.
At graduate school, I made a conscious effort to move out of my comfort zone, and started digging into the field of operational research. The fact that the scheduling problems and the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) encompasses topics as diverse as processor scheduling and railway scheduling baffled me and I quickly saw its practical importance. When I approached Prof. Abhijeet Gole with my convictions, he channeled my ideas by entrusting and delightfully stunning me with a research assistantship under him. .
Under his guidance, I explored a part of the scheduling problem-the School Time Tabling Problem as my second year project at graduate school. As a part of this research I and a co-student proposed a heuristic for generating school timetables. After studying this problem in a systematic and exhaustive manner, I made a central contribution to the team by including the ideas of learning system in the heuristic. The algorithm I proposed avoids clashes between system constraints entered by the user and major advantage of this technique is that it develops a time table without a training data to start with.
Long hours in the lab, brainstorming sessions almost to point of frustration and testing times paid off when my algorithm was accepted by the International Conference of Machine Learning and Computing (ICMLC) 2011 and would be presented at Singapore in Feb 2011. The acceptance of my paper at international level aroused a proud sense of belonging to the research fraternity and has only motivated me to go the extra mile. I have since continued work on the improvement of this algorithm.
Graduate School also helped me realize another goal, to teach. I have always strived to explain complex subjects in the simplest manner so that my audience will have little difficulty to work on it further. This has now become a habit and manifests itself in everything I do. My faculty recognized this ability and asked me to handle courses like Advanced Database Management Systems, Data Warehousing and Data Mining for the Graduate Fresher's as a Teacher Assistant under Prof Gole. I took upon this opportunity with an exciting vigor and passion, thoroughly enjoying my interactions with Graduate Students.
It's often found that this thinking out of the box is manifested when one pursues activities contrary to their chosen field. Keeping this in mind, I have always been a keen participant in most of the extra-curricular activities conducted in my college. I have been the head of the Organizing Committee of CyberStrike, the technical festival of my college during my undergraduate course. It was our team that had for the first time managed to make CyberStrike an inter-collegiate event. In addition, during the three years of my undergraduate course, I was also elected as the class representative for a class of 60. While working for the National Service Scheme for my college, I took part in the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2006 India for Habitat for Humanity International, near Pune, India. I have also been a part of the Animal Angels project. Here with the help of animal therapy, I had the privilege to work with the elderly to help them experience the love of animals in the later stages of their life.
I am deeply interested in contributing to research being conducted in the fields of Learning Systems and Search techniques. My objective as a PhD student would be to surmount my logic and intelligence to develop systems that can think and learn like humans. A success in this will mean a definite change in the way most computing devices work at present.
I believe that making existing systems develop intelligence by learning on their own is an extremely powerful proposition that would form the core paradigm of this ambitious realm of Computer Science. It is the continuous encouragement of your university's department of Computer Science, which has drawn me to apply here. University of ___________, I believe, offers a conducive environment for graduate studies that is ideally suited for my research goals and work ethics. I am sure that with the reputed faculty my journey through the PhD degree would not only be inquisitive and experimental but also intellectually enriching.
As a student with exposure to a variety of situations and the ability to walk out as a winner are my biggest assets. The virtues of never giving up and learning from every situation have been my best companions through both good and tough times. This, backed with a determination and willingness to walk that extra mile, will help me strive to the best of my abilities to exceed the high standards of the University of ____________. Sharing the stage with the best and the brightest individual from all around the world and interaction with the student body promises to be an enriching experience for me. I am excited and confident to make a significant contribution to the Department of Computer Science as a doctoral Student.
I look forward to being a part of University of ________ as a graduate student.
Manisha P.Pai
