Undergraduate / Fun and Pranking Essay -- Caltech [2]

Prompt:
Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of humor, whether it be through planning creative pranks, building elaborate party sets, or even the year-long preparation that goes into our annual Ditch Day. Please describe an unusual way in which you have fun. (200 words)

Essay:

I am a spy. Not CIA, MI6, KGB, but a hobbyist spy. When I'm not busy solving differential equations or modelling cancer angiogenesis, I code to encode. From classics like Caesar's cipher to current powerhouses like RSA to military level Blowfish algorithms, name an encryption algorithm, its probably in my arsenal.

Perhaps my favorite form of cryptography is through images. Unlike in the novel The Da Vinci Code, which sparked my interest in encryption, you don't have to write with invisible marker on famous paintings to send messages. I developed a method of hiding messages through random pixel manipulation in images. Through these methods, I once hid the entire text of Les Miserables in just the cover art.

For me, cryptography is more than just a hobby, it's my method of finding patterns in the world, and trying to figure out what data is hidden right in front of our eyes, yet we fail to recognize. The thrill of hiding secrets in plain sight never fails to satiate me. Give me a message, and I'll give you a series of random characters that mean nothing, but to the right pair of eyes, tells a story.

Undergraduate / "Reflection in the Darkness": Common App Essay [4]

Hey,

This is a rough draft I came up with for the 3rd common app essay (the prompt is listed below). Any suggestions, feedback, and advice is appreciated.

Prompt:

Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

Essay:

3 years of physics has told me that darkness is the absence of light rays in an environment. In the very same optics chapters, I've learned that reflections are caused by light bouncing off surfaces. Yet, I find it most surprising that I do my best self reflection in the dark.

The time is 9:00, and my students are just filling in. "Good evening, class. I hope you all had a fine day. Today's lesson is going to be on the various functions of the cell. But first let me take attendance". I scan and see Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Polaris all shining brightly at me. In the corner, Aldebaran looks like he's going to fall asleep.

Throughout the day, teachers dump upon me an amount of knowledge that is near impossible to absorb in such a stressful environment. Now, however, I am ready to go back and tackle the information that was given to me.

I settle back in this uneven plastic chair that rocks back and forth on the pavement, tipped by the gentle breeze that surrounds the night. All of a sudden, I am back in the classroom; this time, as the teacher. I take a moment to collect my thoughts and begin lecturing to the stars. Hydrolytic enzymes. Microfilaments and their effect on cell motility. As I teach biology to these giant balls of gas, I find the gaps in my own knowledge. My attempts to describe cellular movement fail, as I realize that my understanding of the extracellular matrix and interactions with the cell isn't as strong as it ought to be. Yet, after attempting to explain it, I find that I have actually found the explanation. I am not the student in this class, yet still I learn.

My class is quiet, but is attentive. I talk to them about my research, how my clash with cancer angiogenesis proceeds. My developments in mathematical modelling haven't been the result of days of algorithm coding and equation solving, but these simple 30 minute sessions, when I sit back and think about my project so far. Even as I complain to Polaris about how my surface area algorithm for the cancer modelling is slow, I find new ways to make it faster. Orion's Belt reminds me of Linkin Logs, a visual that allows me to tackle the algorithm in a whole new way.

People often see my session with the stars much like a Unix programmer piping their output to /dev/null, as a fool's folly. Yet behind all of it is a purpose. The stars might not receive my sound waves for 2 billion years, yet in that short 30 minutes I sit outside,I learn productively, discover different methods, and make new connections.

By now, the ambiance is darker,the stars glow brighter, and the crickets have started chirping in unison. A quick glance at my watch tells me that my class has ended, and ceremoniously, I get up from my rickety lawn chair and make an exit from my lecture hall. As I make the journey, I think about the new algorithm that I'm going to code and the new journey that my research will take me. They say it is darkest before the dawn. For me, I find my dawn in the darkness.

Undergraduate / Legos -- MIT Significant Challenge Essay [2]

MIT Essay-

This is a rough draft of my essay for MIT. Any comments are welcome

Tell us about the most significant challenge you've faced or something important that didn't go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?(*) (200-250 words)

"Time to completion: 1000 minutes" The lines of code are burned into my brain by now. I've experimented and researched for weeks, but the algorithm still eludes me. I want to keep searching , yet I wonder if this problem would capsize my project.

Over the last two years, I have researched cancer proliferation, focusing on the spread of blood vessels to feed tumors. An important aspect in my research was tracking surface area of cells, and I developed a program to calculate. Unfortunately, this critical algorithm was unbearably slow.

The problem seemed to be a case of optimizing the code to boost performance. In actuality, the algorithm itself was flawed, and algorithmic redesign was needed to fix the issue. I labored, reading scientific journals to find solutions and testing new algorithms, all to no avail. As the negative results piled up, my drive flagged, and I almost quit on my research. It took Legos and a kid's mindset to overcome the obstacle that nearly defeated me.

Once, I noticed my cousin trying to count his Legos, but instead accidentally counting the sides. Inspiration struck. Calculating the surface area of a cell like counting the sides of Legos would greatly speed up the algorithm. Coding confirmed the result, and finally, my surface area algorithm succeeded.

"Time to completion: 1.2 minutes". I reminisce about the problem that nearly derailed my project. Although it nearly downed me, the process developed my knowledge , and propelled me to further research. Research will continue to pose seemingly impossible problems, but I will struggle on. I will not cease, for I know that on the other side of the obstacle lies a goal worth laboring for.

Thanks!