Graduate / "to explore my inner conscience" - Statement of Purpose- Mechanical Engineering [3]

New ideas and non conventional paradigms have always been the traits of my inquisitive mind. Since inception, my train of thought has often leaned towards the observation, comprehension, analysis, and primarily questioning, in every approach of life. I believe Engineering is perfectly suited my train of thought.

When presented with the choice of studying my specialization, it was necessary for me to explore my inner conscience to understand my real liking. Mechanical Engineering seemed an obvious choice. I took up the course at Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, as it is considered as one of the best in Technical education in the state. Here I was enabled to nurture my basic sciences with the advanced topics of engineering, also keeping abreast with the latest advancements in science and technology.

I feel putting classroom education into action with co circular activities is important to learn the practical implications of engineering. The first step in this direction was participation in robotics events at inter-collegiate level during my sophomore stage. I was keen in keeping myself aware of all the latest technical advancements through scientific journals. And SAE primarily influenced me to have a technical platform in the college to share and enhance my technical skills. I along with some of the like minded people in my college have started a student club, SAE-SNIST STUDENT CLUB. I served as the Treasurer to the club and also taking an active part in its technical events. In the pre-final year of engineering, the passion and penchant for experiencing the real side of engineering connected me to the tune of SAE BAJA. It is an Asia level competition in which each team's goal is to design and fabricate a prototype of an all terrain vehicle which is expected to be safe, easily maintained and be able negotiate rough terrains in all types of weather without damage. I primarily took up the responsibility of chassis design in the team as I have keen interest engineering design.

As a part of my final year project, under the guidance of our head of the institution, Dr V Vasudeva Rao I worked on a project titled "Thermal performance characteristics of carbon nano tube impregnated polymer electrolyte membrane in fuel cells" in collaboration with Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa. The primary intention of the project was study the thermal characteristics of carbon nano tube impregnated polymer in fuel cells which are to be used for electric vehicles. This project gave me opportunity to work with people across organizations on the latest advancements in engineering. It was great sense of satisfaction when the results of our experiments were included in the International Journal Nanotechnology with the title "Thermal conductivity and stability of nano size carbon black filled PDMS: Fuel cell perspective".

For a little more than a year, I have been working for Intergraph Corporation, India on SmartPlant 3D, a plant design software to help customers engineer and design their projects. Envisioning customer's requirements and ensuring that the software would meet their requirements are the key responsibility of my job position as I work for Quality assurance team of Product development division. This experience has given me a valuable insight into the field of computer aided engineering.

The well-structured undergraduate curriculum exposed me to a gamut of courses ranging from humanities to professional engineering courses. My interest lies in Engineering Design and Engineering Mechanics especially I want to focus on Fracture mechanics and Machine design. Along with the academic courses and laboratory work during under grad, one of my projects i.e. SAE BAJA have ingrained the concepts, made me confident that I have the strong fundamentals in the field and provided a platform for further study. Also, during my stay at Intergraph Corporation I had the opportunity to see how the industry operates and what the industry requires. Also, at Intergraph working with the clients and users of SmartPlant 3D and understanding them has given me an in-depth view of the way in which design principles and procedures employed in the industry. The undergrad education and my work experience, not only provided me strong fundamentals, but also have encouraged me to learn more and goaded me to continue research related activities. My immediate career objective is a master's degree in Engineering and pursue research oriented career in industry or academia.

An extremely distinguished faculty, a milieu replete with academic activity and excellent facilities are the most important factors, which made me choose Purdue University for my graduate study. Given an opportunity, I will work with perseverance and diligence and offer my best efforts to contribute in a constructive manner. An assistantship besides admission would go a long way in motivating me further and augmenting my determination to pursue graduate studies at your University.

Thanks,
Varun