Graduate / "Modern High Frequency communication standards" - my Statement of Objectives to MIT [7]

Please, settle my doubts about what was inappropriate in my Statement of Objectives. This is the exact essay I submitted and I have never written an essay in English before. I appreciate any help and critic from you.

Official establishment of MIT did not give any comments except "I am truly sorry to inform you that we are not offering you admission to..." and I don't really know what I did wrong.

I attempted to enter the Massachusetts institute of Technology (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, PhD program) in previous year.

Prompt:

Please explain why you are a good candidate for graduate school. You should describe why you wish to attend graduate school, what you would like to study, and any research experience you have. Describe one or more accomplishments you are particularly proud of that suggest that you will succeed in your chosen area of research.

My answer:

My metal detector I constructed during the summer between 10th and 11th grade to detect mines remained from World War II. Field test in a garden bed demonstrated that the equipment could detect tin can 2 inches in diameter at a depth of 6 inches. I had already been attending regional radio club activities for 3 years by that time.

I wish to attend graduate school because I want to develop my understanding of what is possible and impossible in microelectronics. Later on, I plan to develop DSP chips at American Electronics Company. I make no secret of my real ambition: to develop central concluding unit (CCU), that is integrated circuit for handheld advisers. These devices will derive logical consequences from set of beliefs as input. This will be an essential thinking aid for people who are born with a deficiency in brain power in the Knowledge Worker Age. The devices will assist in the use of thinking patterns in such manner as calculators assist in the use of rules of computation.

I would like to study microelectronic circuits of signal processors. I am interested
in both analog and digital or mixed-signal processing.

At the request of research manager I prepared a paper "Modern High Frequency communication standards and equipment" and had a presentation on 51-st Scientific Conference of Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. I read public released American federal and military standards, ITU recommendations and discovered that channel coding techniques (convolutional coding, interleaving, randomization and modulation) used in HF modems are typical for modern telecommunication standards. Then I prepared a listing of principal works and selected bibliographical sources for further study. When I choose an engineering book to read I always find a less difficult book on the subject and a more advanced one. Then, after reading a chapter on the subject in all the books I prepare a summary, usually, one-two pages of notes, as if I reinvent the material. That notes helped me a lot when I was assigned a task of training less experienced colleagues. I developed my own pedagogical approach: when I do paper-and-pencil design of a circuit, on another sheet of paper I write formulas with boundary conditions (typically same as previously taken notes). Then, drawing arrows from formula to formula, I show to my colleagues exactly how I came to the solution, demystifying development process.

Accomplishments abound. I studied electronics and practiced in local radio club as after school activity. I developed tuned radio receiver, soldering iron temperature regulator, visitor counting system and multi-tone transmitter for radio-controlled model aircraft. When I left the club, I organized my electronics laboratory in a corridor at the dacha and my father bought to me analog multimeter on my birthday. I read Amateur Radio Encyclopedia, took components from electronic junk and developed metal detector and logarithmic RF power detector. I even consulted school teacher of physics what flux, solder and soldering irons we needed to organize a radio hobby group in my secondary school. I graduated from the school with high grades, but didn't get into university at my first attempt. I was utterly depressed but I decided to pursue my goal, because It had been my dream to go to BMSTU. I solved more than 570 problems in all examination papers of last years that I could find. And when the time came, I passed the entrance exams with 9 from 10 and was enrolled in N.E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU). On my second year in university I was given out an assignment to develop an Internet site for my department needs. I trained myself in HTML in 3 months and made a good site on the theme of RISC and CISC computer architectures. At that time university's psychologist carried out 6 hours test on students in my group. She concluded that I will be the most productive in the field of engineering and symbolizing.

My father retired in 1999 and my parents divorced in 2000. I needed to start work as soon as possible in order to resolve my financial difficulties and bring home extra money. I took summer internship between the 3d and 4th academic years in the form of a full-time job. I started as Electronic Technician and grew up to Lead Circuit Engineer in Russian Electronics Company (REC).

As you may see from subjects taken, my grades got low in 2005. That time I was given my first task in REC to develop Control module of external attenuators and a Motherboard for GPS/GLONASS receiver (see curriculum vitae). I struggled to read through PICMG 2.0, IEEE 1101.1, IEEE 1386 standards, more then 180 pages overall, and I felt like I became a part of a team. Being a student, I tried to meet work deadline, this drained me to fatigue level and eroded my studies.

Present time I work in REC and develop mixed-signal circuits on basis of Xilinx programmable ASICs for modern Russian radars. Since I received an engineering degree, with a specialty in Computer Design and Technology, I can look at design process from system perspective. I anticipate the possibility of system changes in the future and develop circuits, where new capabilities in IC packages (e.g. unused op amp section or additional signal bank in more expensive FPGA) could be used by changing resistors and jumpering on the same board.