Graduate / We successfully implemented the major project "Aid for blind people using image processing" [12]

Gutta Akhilesh
MS, Computer Engineering

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today".- Malcolm X

I want to pursue an MS degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering with a specialization in digital VLSI design as it will help me realize my goal of becoming a chip design engineer with the versatility to handle front-end and back-end VLSI designs in the near future. I am passionate about innovating high performance and low power VLSI systems and find the process involved in generating new digital logic techniques to be extremely challenging and fulfilling.

My under-graduate program in Electronics & Communication at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad covered various core topics namely VLSI Design, Electronic Devices & Circuits, Pulse & Digital Circuits, Microprocessors & Microcontrollers etc. This was in conjunction with the lab courses on Digital Signal Processing, Analog & Digital IC applications and Microprocessors & Microcontrollers. Furthermore, the work I did during the senior year in designing & simulating the analog and digital integrated circuits using Pspice and Xilinx ISE software provided me with a good overview of VLSI design, synthesis and implementation processes. The well thought-out course structure enabled the smooth transition between theoretical and practical courses and helped me score 72.54 % with distinction.

The skills that I have developed so far have motivated me to work on a project that underscored the importance of digital VLSI in the evolution of memory chips and microcontrollers. Our team successfully implemented the major project "Aid for blind people using image processing" which involved developing a navigating aid using functions of OpenCV library for real-time image processing. With the familiarity gained on microcontroller architecture and its interfacing with various modules such as keyboard, USART using assembly language and C programming in keil, we interfaced the 32-bit ARM9 with LCD display, Analog-to-Digital & Digital-to-Analog Converters, Universal Serial Bus, UART and RS232 serial port. As the project team-leader, my primary task was to design a 6 layer printed circuit board for 32-bit ARM9 microcontroller using Cadence. With my project advisor's assistance in layout & routing techniques for high-speed design, I succeeded in reducing the noise to some extent (< 20dB) and crosstalk by assigning separate ground planes under the analog & digital partitions and increasing the distance between parallel traces & decreasing the distance between trace and ground plane.

Apart from providing me with the teamwork skills and hands-on experience in physical design automation, the project work also exposed the gaps in my knowledge in the domain of advanced VLSI design concepts such as Design methodologies -programmable logic devices (PLDs) like FPGAs, Complex PLDs; standard cell, full-custom designs; CMOS/BiCMOS technologies-their layout techniques & their role in the development of high noise immune & low power VLSI circuits and Physical Design Automation. The VLSI Design, Design & Analysis of Digital Integrated Circuits, VLSI Architecture courses taught at the **** University cover many topics that help address the gaps in areas where I lack the necessary expertise.

The graduate studies would also give me more exposure and greater understanding of topics like Digital Application Specific Integrated Circuits Design, Reconfigurable computing involving Field Programmable Gate Arrays and System on Chip (SoC) design. A thorough knowledge of these specialized topics would help me pursue my immediate career goal of becoming a back-end design engineer working on physical VLSI design and digital timing & control logic designs.

I choose **** University as my desired destination for pursuing graduate studies because of its excellent in-depth course structure and alignment of my professional interests in areas of digital front-end and back-end designs of CMOS based high performance and low power VLSI with the work being carried on in the fields such as Digital CMOS design, Physical Design Automation, High Speed Digital Systems.

The research activity at **** Lab on Low-power and High-speed VLSI design and Physical CAD tools will help me study in-depth the design of Low power High performance VLSI systems and Physical Design Automation. The advanced skills I would pick up here would give me the expertise to fulfill my career aspirations.

I am positive that the firm grounding I have received so far in concepts of microcontroller architecture and VLSI design would help me be successful in master's program in Electrical & Computer Engineering at **** University.