Statement of purpose for Data science course - graduate application

short summary:

This is for my graduate application. I am interested in Natural language processing to be specific.
A couple of feedback's that I have received. : too much general info but I feel that I have captured how my interest started in Data Science.

What I intend to do with MS degree and how will it impact my career?

Yet to add: my publication in International journal

Statement of Purpose

Admissions: Master's in Computer Engineering (Computer Systems)
Being Born as Gen Z, I could not have been more fortunate to have witnessed the explosion in the tech world. The Internet was a luxury a decade ago but a necessity today. Cash payments have recently been replaced with a tap of a credit card. Actual currency today is merely a few digits on the monitor/cell phone screens. Social media has got everyone hooked to their platforms, connecting people virtually. Limited TV channels back in the day have been replaced by on-demand shows on Netflix. Cloud services offered by big giants have transformed business. Anything related to tech around us is becoming smarter day by day with the advent of data science. Computer vision today can predict cancer-causing cells with 99% accuracy and read X-rays much better than a doctor could. Getting Autonomous driving cars to market has turned out to be race. Smart refrigerators today can shop on our behalf and order groceries from the supermarket. Human lives have truly been transformed and more organized with the evolution of data science and technology.

I was also fortunate to have been educated at one of the best schools in Bangalore- Baldwin Girl's High School. Until 10th grade I was more inclined towards Math and Science subjects. Losing my father tragically to cancer in Grade 9, I turned my grief into a gritty resolve to make his dream come true and my hard work in high school saw me secure an aggregate of 86.5% with 92% in Math. I was awarded for perseverance in studies with a scholarship for my higher education. Extra-curricular activities are also an integral part of developing one's personality. The National Cadet Corps and Scouts training gave me an opportunity to volunteer in old age homes, inculcating discipline and strong moral values in me.

As I began my Bachelor's degree, I opted for a field of study which required analytical thinking and my passion for Math fired this. I am currently majoring in Information Science and Engineering [ISE] for my Bachelor's degree where I have learnt a plethora of concepts like Object Orientation, Database Management System, File Structures, Computer Networking, and Computer Organization which served to increase my basic understanding of how applications work.

Starting with programming languages like C and C++, I was able to appreciate how Java, Python and C# were more robust languages which could be used to build virtually any software customized to our requirements. Delivering technical seminars on topics and technologies like "Cisco packet tracer" and "DASH-Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP" helped me understand how data is communicated and the process involved in it. I made it a point to gather feedback from my peers on seminars that I conducted and worked out ways to do successive ones better.

During my junior year I came across an article where waste segregation was a huge problem in urban cities. I tried a possible solution to address this issue in a mini project conducted at college. I had been recently introduced to google lens API, which takes the image data as input and outputs inference from that image. It was a mind-blowing invention of Google, as it usually takes days to process billions of images, learn them and get a working model with a great amount of accuracy which was now reduced to a simple API call!. The applications of such work are limitless. So, I decided to build a conveyor belt assembly which brings in the waste. I had a Raspberry-Pi hooked to the internet that was collecting images from a webcam. So, I was able to learn the type of waste [organic or inorganic] being fed to the system with an API call and accordingly segregated it. I feel proud to be awarded the first place in this mini project.

Richard Feynman once said, "You know that you have understood the topic if you can explain it to an 8-year- old". Working as an intern at UXL Technologies further helped me understand how the IT industry works. I was responsible for creating technical content for students aged 8 - 14 to learn concepts and programming

languages like Python and Java. My work was used to further educate around 150 students through the company's online platform. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning process I underwent in this company. I was constantly enlightened about the trending technologies by the CEO of the company. He is a veteran with immense knowledge and experience for over 26 years. Working closely with such an adept professional helped me to understand the basics of "Natural Language Processing" and "Sentiment Analysis". I decided to work on a slight variation of this concept in my Capstone project.

As my Capstone project I have chosen to explore and build a restaurant recommendation system which uses Natural language processing. Data is the new king and I have collected the data from YELP database which consists of user reviews on restaurants. Every review is an opinion from a user, and it gives us the preference of the person which helps us create a user profile. A collection of such reviews about a restaurant gives us a profile of the restaurant. Based on the historical profile of a person, a restaurant can be recommended by matching the profile of the person against the restaurant. It's going to be an onerous task to accomplish but I believe I can do it.

With great power comes great responsibility. Recently I was watching a documentary "The Social Dilemma" which was quite scary, and I felt that my privacy is compromised. Companies such as Google and Facebook know more about us than we know about ourselves. They exactly know which restaurant we visited 5 months ago and which part of the world we are located in and what we are expected to do in the next hour. I feel google ears are on us with google home being in our living rooms. I feel sorry for my uber driver and I am not sure how insecure he feels with autonomous driving becoming a reality. This is just a glimpse of the downside of data science. Nevertheless, as long as my interest and my goals favor mankind I can be a data scientist for good. Climate change, Agriculture, Electricity management are some of the areas where data science can solve complex problems.

Confident in my interests and abilities, I have chosen to take the next logical step - a Master's degree and what really matters to me is choosing a place that provides me the right platform and opportunities. Nothing is more exciting than being in a class with students from all around the world. It would truly be a melting pot of different cultures. Arizona State University, being a reputed public research university is the ideal place that I envision. Not only is the excellent infrastructure and facilities on offer at your institution widely known and sought after, but there also are a few other things that have motivated me to apply. Firstly, Master's in Computer Engineering at ASU offers us to tailor subjects which align with our interests and there is a whole pool of options to choose from [EEE and CSE] - I would be more interested in subjects like Statistical machine learning, Natural language processing, Deep learning, Data mining, etc. Secondly, given a research opportunity, I would be interested to work under Professor Chitta Baral at Cognition & Intelligence lab and my capstone project is in-line with his subject of expertise [NLP]. I am also interested in works of DMML lab which is led by Huan Liu. Thirdly, I did listen to video lectures of Professor Subbarao Kambhampati and thoroughly enjoyed the impromptu version of teaching in AI and would consider attending his coursework. Lastly, ASU ranks number one in innovation for the past 6 years and I do have certain entrepreneurial ideas in the pipeline that I wish to execute, which I am sure, I will be able to convert into reality with incubation labs and right mentors. I thus dare to dream bold and keenly wish to be a part of the academic community at Arizona State University. Thank you for considering my candidature for Master's in Computer Engineering.

The overall essay is not meant as a statement of purpose. This writing, showing the development of the student's interest is suitable as d personal statement, which requires such information. A statement of purpose relates several topics in its presentation:

- Professional reason for advanced education in relation to professional considerations
- Summary of college education
- Thesis project and other evidence of research abilities related to the current occupation and masters course choice
- Work experience covering 2 years relevant experience in relation to the masters course (If applying to a work-experience required masters course)
- Applicability of the masters course to the student's purpose
- Reason for university choice considering the students required theoretical and practical training
- 5 year career plan after graduating
- Any other information as required by the university (optional)

While there is a mention of a college education and reasons for university choice, it does not present itself in a manner connected to the professional purpose.

The statement of purpose requirements above will more than help you represent what you plan to do with such a degree. The 5 year career plan relates to this question. The list of info I provided will help set up the response to that query.