Undergraduate /
scientists and poets; knowledge; direction - my personal statement for Ph.D program [8]
Curiosity creates scientists and poets.
-Anatole FranceI was born in
athe remote town of Inner Mongolia of China,
the hometown of Genghis Khan, a famous politician and adventurer who led his people across Eurasia, from
the Far East to Rhine. Living in the prairie for many years,
I started to become curious about the outside world.
I still remember that one early morning, when I was seven, I ambitiously set off by myself to find out what exactly exists beyond the horizon of the vast prairie.
I wandered until sunset, but I was still just as far from the boundary of my world, and worse yet, I lost myself in the prairie. Fortunately, my father found me and took me home. The failure of my naive venturing out into the world didn't discourage me, but, contrarily, galvanized me to explore the unknown in a more intelligent manner.
As I grew up, I became more and more interested in science and technology.
I studied very hard and as a result ranked first in my high school. In the fall of 2004, I became one of 36 successful candidates in my province to receive admission to Xi'an Jiaotong University, an "Ivy League" university in China.
When I arrived at my university, 1126 kilometers away from my hometown, I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw thousands of excellent books on the selves of the library. In the sea of knowledge, I started my swimming happily.Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.
-Ivern BallDuring university, I was thirsty to try something new. I chose Mechanical Engineering as my major and worked very hard.
For my minor, I selected Economics in order to learn the philosophy and principles of the market, economy and society. I took Japanese and German language courses to expose myself to different cultures.
I involved myself in the Student Union, where I was a minister, and was the monitor in my class, which helped me to learn the art of leadership. I learned basketball, tennis and roller skating to better understand physical activities and sportsmanship; I even learned how to dance and play the harmonica, in an attempt to experience the realm of art. In retrospect, during my undergraduate period, I learned just like newborn baby does - I was free from a backwater???, curious about many things, and treasured every moment and every opportunity to gain new knowledge.The more one learns, the more he wants to learn. After four years study in the undergraduate program, I found that I was fascinated by robots, machine tools and control methods. Thus I applied for the master program at Xi'an Jiaotong University. Fortunately, in September 2008, I was admitted to the Information & Mechatronics program, and was exempted from the Graduate Student Examination because of my excellent academic performance, which was exactly in the top five percent.In graduate school, I stayed concentrated using my continuous curiosity and enthusiasm for fields of robot control, signal processing and machine diagnose. In September 2008, I participated a group aiming to design an electronic whiteboard based on infra radiation camera imagery. In 2009, I also researched parallel robots, during which I programmed part of the control algorithms. Since 2008 I have been working on the detection of wheel-rail faults based on noise, which requires a focus on signal processing, arithmetic improvement and embedded system designing. As a result of my research, I was able to write a paper on wavelet threshold denoising, which was accepted by (INSERTJOURNALNAMEHERE).The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. -Oliver Wendell HolmesAs an outstanding graduate student, I am standing at a crossroad of my career. I am faced with the decision to be an engineer with companies such as ABB and GE, or to become a researcher, leading an austere life but working in an interesting area. I steadfastly choose the later, although most of my classmates choose the prior; I want to be a professor in China to impart my knowledge to the young students and lead them to continue my exploring steps just as my respectable teachers do. I prefer to be a scientist that explores the charming unknown in robot research and help make robots act as flexibly as human beings, with intelligence and coordination. Hence I am applying for the PhD program about vision based control of robot manipulator in the Computer Vision and Active Perception Laboratory (CVAP) of KTH(EXPAND KTH ONCE AND THEN YOU MAY ABBREVIATE IT).KTH attracts me not only because of its great reputation, but also due to its diversity of culture. CVAP of KTH is the ideal place for my future study because of its cutting-edge research and wonderful contribution in its field. Prof. Patric Jensfelt's "A Realistic Benchmark For Visual Indoor Place Recognition" and Prof. Stefan Carlsson's "Projective Factorization of Planes and Cameras in Multiple Views" are very inspiring. I hope I could have the opportunity to work with them.
There is still a very long way for me to go. On the way to truth, I hope that I too can share the joy of exploration. I will always tightly hold my intensive curiosity and adventurous spirit as I continue my faith.It is more valuable to seek truth than to own it.
-Nicolaus Copernicus
Basically, I changed a LOT of stuff in the bold, please re-read it carefully and make sure that the way that I changed some of it is indeed the way you meant it. Also the stuff in all capital letters is stuff that you need to add.
Overall good essay, you seem very very determined, and I hope everything goes as you plan : ) 