LunaLovegood
Nov 9, 2018
Graduate / SOP - a summary of your academic and professional goals and a description of the research work [2]
Prompt : Your Statement of Purpose should be a summary of your academic and professional goals, as well as a description of the research work you have done in your past, and what research work you plan to do as a graduate student at UT.
I, xyz, am applying to the University of Texas at Austin for admission to MS thesis program in Electrical and Computer Engineering for the track : Architecture, Computer Systems, and Embedded Systems . I believe the program will enhance my knowledge base in depth as well as breadth and serve as a gateway to my career at a research-oriented organisation. I aim to gain in-depth exposure so that I can contribute to innovative projects and research in an industry or academic setting.
I have excelled in academics at every stage of my education. I have attended multiple schools in different places throughout my 15 years of schooling and have always been ranked top of my class. Even in the competitive environment at IIT Bombay, I have always maintained a high CPA (9.5+ in 4/6 semesters) in every semester.
The excellent undergraduate program at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay not only provided me with a strong foundation of ECE fundamentals, but also exposed me to its diverse fields. Since computer science and ECE has many overlapping areas, my minor in the computer science department has helped me attain a holistic education in ECE. My interest in computer architecture and digital design began with a course on microprocessors. My enthusiasm and effort in the microprocessors course led to an AP( awarded to top 2 out of 140 students) grade. I substantiated my knowledge in this area by choosing graduate level courses in Processor Design and Advanced Computer Architecture. Advanced computer architecture is especially a unique course because it consisted of weekly in-depth discussions on the latest research done in multiple domains including GPUs, reliable design, security, power vs performance tradeoff, in/near memory processing, domain specific accelerators etc. I have also been an active participant in the paper discussions by CADSL (Computer Architecture and Dependable Systems Lab) aimed at identifying current challenges in this field.
Computer architecture is at an exciting time right now and presents unique challenges.In the words of David Patterson himself, the pioneer of RISC architecture, "This is a golden age for computer architecture." As part of my B.Tech project(senior thesis), I am currently working on hardware security challenges and building secure microarchitecure. Specifically, we did a comprehensive literature review and looked into side channel attacks on cache and branch predictor. We have identified potential new ways of exploiting the prefetcher table and branch predictor and are currently in the process of implementing them.
Apart from architecture, I am also interested in all areas related to computer systems and digital design including VLSI and hardware verification. My exposure and inclination stemmed from theory and lab courses on digital and VLSI design.
My foray into industry work and RTL design & signal processing in particular came with my summer internship with Texas Instruments, Bangalore, India. I was involved with the design of a digital beamformer to be used in a base station for better directivity and noise reduction. I characterised the effect of quantisation noise on the antenna array performance and implemented it on RTL subject to timing and area constraints. This experience, while rewarding, further motivated me to pursue graduate studies as I realised that to work on cutting edge projects in the industry or elsewhere, a more elaborate and thorough grasp of concepts is required for which the rigorous coursework of an MS program is ideal.
Thus, while my education at IIT Bombay has given me a firm foundation, I believe a graduate program is necessary to develop a strong skill set for further understanding and practical implementation. Hence, combined with a thorough coursework and an opportunity to contribute to cutting edge research, the MS thesis program is the natural step after my undergraduate to be able to carve out a successful career in industry research. I am fully aware of the hardwork and diligence to excel in a program like this and I am committed to meeting these challenges.
The graduate program at UT Austin is, thus, fully suited to meet my goals. I have found the work done in The Laboratory for Computer Architecture(LCA) and SPARK research lab especially exciting in the areas of big data architecture, memory systems for multicore, workload characterisation and building secure systems. The research interest of other faculty members and the diverse course structure covering a large number of topics will help me keep abreast of the latest development in these fields. The state-of-art facilities will provide a conducive environment to pursue graduate studies.
I look forward to joining UT Austin as a graduate student at your esteemed department.
MS program in Electrical and Computer Engineering SOP
Prompt : Your Statement of Purpose should be a summary of your academic and professional goals, as well as a description of the research work you have done in your past, and what research work you plan to do as a graduate student at UT.
I, xyz, am applying to the University of Texas at Austin for admission to MS thesis program in Electrical and Computer Engineering for the track : Architecture, Computer Systems, and Embedded Systems . I believe the program will enhance my knowledge base in depth as well as breadth and serve as a gateway to my career at a research-oriented organisation. I aim to gain in-depth exposure so that I can contribute to innovative projects and research in an industry or academic setting.
I have excelled in academics at every stage of my education. I have attended multiple schools in different places throughout my 15 years of schooling and have always been ranked top of my class. Even in the competitive environment at IIT Bombay, I have always maintained a high CPA (9.5+ in 4/6 semesters) in every semester.
The excellent undergraduate program at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay not only provided me with a strong foundation of ECE fundamentals, but also exposed me to its diverse fields. Since computer science and ECE has many overlapping areas, my minor in the computer science department has helped me attain a holistic education in ECE. My interest in computer architecture and digital design began with a course on microprocessors. My enthusiasm and effort in the microprocessors course led to an AP( awarded to top 2 out of 140 students) grade. I substantiated my knowledge in this area by choosing graduate level courses in Processor Design and Advanced Computer Architecture. Advanced computer architecture is especially a unique course because it consisted of weekly in-depth discussions on the latest research done in multiple domains including GPUs, reliable design, security, power vs performance tradeoff, in/near memory processing, domain specific accelerators etc. I have also been an active participant in the paper discussions by CADSL (Computer Architecture and Dependable Systems Lab) aimed at identifying current challenges in this field.
Computer architecture is at an exciting time right now and presents unique challenges.In the words of David Patterson himself, the pioneer of RISC architecture, "This is a golden age for computer architecture." As part of my B.Tech project(senior thesis), I am currently working on hardware security challenges and building secure microarchitecure. Specifically, we did a comprehensive literature review and looked into side channel attacks on cache and branch predictor. We have identified potential new ways of exploiting the prefetcher table and branch predictor and are currently in the process of implementing them.
Apart from architecture, I am also interested in all areas related to computer systems and digital design including VLSI and hardware verification. My exposure and inclination stemmed from theory and lab courses on digital and VLSI design.
My foray into industry work and RTL design & signal processing in particular came with my summer internship with Texas Instruments, Bangalore, India. I was involved with the design of a digital beamformer to be used in a base station for better directivity and noise reduction. I characterised the effect of quantisation noise on the antenna array performance and implemented it on RTL subject to timing and area constraints. This experience, while rewarding, further motivated me to pursue graduate studies as I realised that to work on cutting edge projects in the industry or elsewhere, a more elaborate and thorough grasp of concepts is required for which the rigorous coursework of an MS program is ideal.
Thus, while my education at IIT Bombay has given me a firm foundation, I believe a graduate program is necessary to develop a strong skill set for further understanding and practical implementation. Hence, combined with a thorough coursework and an opportunity to contribute to cutting edge research, the MS thesis program is the natural step after my undergraduate to be able to carve out a successful career in industry research. I am fully aware of the hardwork and diligence to excel in a program like this and I am committed to meeting these challenges.
The graduate program at UT Austin is, thus, fully suited to meet my goals. I have found the work done in The Laboratory for Computer Architecture(LCA) and SPARK research lab especially exciting in the areas of big data architecture, memory systems for multicore, workload characterisation and building secure systems. The research interest of other faculty members and the diverse course structure covering a large number of topics will help me keep abreast of the latest development in these fields. The state-of-art facilities will provide a conducive environment to pursue graduate studies.
I look forward to joining UT Austin as a graduate student at your esteemed department.
