Graduate / letter of recommendation for applying the master course of fire safety engineering [2]

Hi, everybody, This is my ML for master course. I am greatful for you revise.
After studying Civil Engineering for nearly six-year, I firmly believe that the core of Engineering is to solve practical problems in common life and assume the responsibility of public safety. Specifically, I put great emphasis on human safety and comfortable during my study. Meanwhile, I am aware of the fire safety in high-rise apartment buildings is a big problem in China or at world scale. Therefore, once coming upon this new international master programme on Erasmus Mundus, I sincerely hope that I can participate in the project in September, 2011.

Public safety may be the greatest responsibility for Structural engineers. We all know that building is to provide shield to human, making people comfortable and secure. However, unfortunately, buildings frequently become the ruthless and predatory killer in such cases as fire, earthquake and so forth. As a structural engineer in future, I believe, the most urgent task is not to blindly follow the on-going construction trend to build a mass of breathtaking high-rises like some big cities in China, but to ensure the safety of people who live in high-rise buildings. Fire safety in high buildings is a significant issue for structural engineers who cannot steer clear of it.

Fire is an ever-present danger for building occupant. Just after the Expo 2010, in Shanghai, China, on November 15th, a fire erupted, apparently within construction materials and scaffolding surrounding an occupied 30-story apartment building under renovation. Unfortunately, the fire killed 58 people and injured 70 more. The shocking news immediately destroyed the painstaking efforts of achieving ''Better City Better Life'' through Expo 2010. Unlike most European countries, due to the housing shortage, city dwellers in China are mostly living in skyscrapers. The fact that more individuals are assembled in a particular location at any one time means that the likelihood of injury or death occurring is higher than low-rise buildings. Furthermore, when an emergency occurs, the evacuation of occupants is hampered by the fact that large numbers of people cannot all leave the structure at once via elevators and emergency exit stairwells. What is worse, In high-rises there is a potential risk of vertical fire spread from window to window as the fire service response will be delayed. As a result, city dwellers always have to face more fire risks of living in these high-rise apartment buildings. But in China, most of big cities are in the midst of vast building booms, which have sown the seeds of similar accidents in years to come. Fire safety problems in high-rise apartment buildings, and their associated fire risk should be given increasing attention.

Fire safety in high-rise residential building has become a growing concern for China. In general, the fire safety design has been conducted by architects instead of structural engineers for over 100 years. The fire-resistant calculation, consequently, cannot be applied in general building design in China. So the fire safety of buildings is only ensured by fire resistance grades of building, which cannot fully satisfy the requirements for public security in modern buildings. Moreover, the performance-based design did not be applied to most codes in China which always determine the duration of fire resistance of whole constructions just according to structural components. This is also a major shortcoming. By the way, from the 2010 Shanghai Fire, it could be found that the fire facilities and escape equipments are not adequate and effective in most high-rise residential buildings in China. For instance, high-rise buildings even don't attach fire escape ladders outside of the windows for easy escape. So the fire safety of high-rise building, especially apartment, would be a big challenge in China. I believe there is something I can do to enable the high-rise multi-family apartment to be designed for fire safety more rationally and efficiently. It is a road less traveled, but in my opinion, also a way that will help people more.

Studying abroad has always been my dream, which I have been pursuing for over 4 years. I would like to make a difference and face up to challenge. It would be a rich life experience to study and do research overseas and to make friends with people all around the world. In order to achieve this, I have been striving hard to improve my qualifications. Specifically, I successfully passed the IELTS, which upgraded my English proficiency dramatically. Besides reinforcing the knowledge of structural engineering, I also investigated the current situation and problems in fire safety of high-rise apartments in China. So if it is possible I want to focus my speciality on performance-based fire safety design on high-rise residential buildings, which is a brand-new and profound topic in China.

After graduated from ABC which is consistently ranked in the top ten universities in engineering in China, I have sound theory foundation of building technology and mechanics. Specially, I have two years intensive research experiences on structural engineering, which is much valued in today's academic circle. In this period, I profoundly comprehend the Structural Dynamics and Structure Analysis as well as software MATLAB and ANSYS. Unfortunately, I lack the knowledge of fire science and fire safety, which is basic to a fire safety engineer. This also is a strong motivation for me to apply for this programme. I'm particularly fascinated by the following research questions: First, how do structure engineers take fire resistance of structures into consideration in its entirety. Second, what is human behavior and method applied in a fire to avoid massive casualty in high-rise residential building especially. Last, I also have an interest in the application mechanism of fire detection and monitoring sensors. Such knowledge is all closely associated with the IMSFE. If I want to further my research on fire and structural engineering and apply the 'avant-garde' engineering techniques to high-rise residential buildings, participating in this project would be an optimal choice.