Graduate / 'Hardware Design Engineer' - the Statement of Purpose for Grad Prog in ECE [3]

##As part of your application seeking admission to the graduate program, please submit a statement of purpose encapsulating your motivation for pursuing a Master's Degree. This statement shall be used to assess your expectations from the university and the specific program you intend to pursue##

I left my first job and founded a startup to create and train a problem-solving group which aimed to work on challenging problems in the field of electronics for I always believe that innovation comes from original thinking. My experiences as a mentor/member of this group and an intellectually rewarding 3+ years in the VLSI Design industry have motivated me to delve deeper into advanced studies. I envision my future as a researcher in the field of VLSI digital design.

My good academic record enabled me to join the ECE department of <>, one of the premier institutes in the country. During my undergraduate study there, I was particularly fascinated by the courses on VLSI Circuit Design, Digital System Design and Digital Computer Architecture. I volunteered as a teaching assistant where I taught 'Signals and Sytems' for the sophomore students at the lab. Entrusted with responsibility of grading them, I always tried to test their understanding by having them to think on their own. Consequently, each problem had a number of unique solutions and discussing them turned out to be a mutually enriching experience. I was selected for a VLSI design workshop in my junior year of engineering. Here, weeks of intense brainstorming and research under guidance of Dr. <>, resulted in a novel algorithm to reduce complexity of silicon implementation of a mathematical equation. I discovered my propensity for logic design while working on the full custom design of the chip using 350nm CMOS technology. The experience of publishing this work inspired me to think innovatively and played pivotal role in choosing VLSI as my career.

As a Hardware Design Engineer at <Semiconductor Major> (my first job), while working on ASIC design, I noticed colleagues poring over many sheets of schematics and netlists of the designs to find potential electrical errors. A discussion with my manager regarding this, led me to embark on the process of automating this activity. In quick time, a utility was scripted which automated the process. This was widely used and appreciated throughout the design centre as it saved considerable manual effort. This, I was able to achieve by the study of concepts from Physics, Mathematics, Signal Integrity, Noise analysis in electronic circuits and my ability to grasp them quickly. The confidence gained from this achievement drove me to confront bigger challenges.

I have always wanted to contribute towards the society and it was this concern that led me join a group of engineers to found a startup named 'Techsouls' in July 2007 ï an enterprise which aimed at betterment of practical technical education. Here, I started developing a microcontroller based prototyping platform. The experience was humbling as I had not worked much on PCB design and microcontrollers. Nevertheless, I delivered a stable design and got it certified by the Arduino group which is an active global community of embedded system enthusiasts. Using this, we successfully conducted embedded systems and robotics (my hobby) workshops throughout the state to encourage engineering students to design practical systems. Techsouls also provided electronic solutions to its customers. I spent long fruitful hours pondering for the most elegant and cost effective design. Time at Techsouls as an entrepreneur was an eye-opener. It did much to make me discover that I enjoyed researching on logic design the most before we closed the enterprise in July 2008, due to lack of encouragement.

Next, I moved to <Electronic company> technologies, India's leading IP Design Company and started working on a SoC for the Defense Research labs, finally realizing my long-standing desire to be part of chip development from scratch. Working on the RTL exposed me to aspects of VLSI design like <2-3 fields of prof to be mentioned> which overwhelmed me. My research into the area of FIFO management of one of the peripherals led to changes and major savings in the clock timings. This evoked excitement and interest and I was convinced that getting specialized knowledge will augment my natural inclination for VLSI design and help me achieve more.

Experience has given me the passion and a background for research at an advanced level.
I feel that getting back to the academia can help me acquire the necessary tools to make an original contribution to my field of interest. I notice that <univ> has specialized research labs working on <some more customization for each univ>. I am confident that a graduate program in VLSI with emphasis on <field1> and <field2> will enable me to achieve the goal and prepare me for a PhD program in the future. I would consider it an honor if I could study at <univ> and assure you that I will put in my best effort into this domain.