Graduate / SOP - MS in Software Engineering - Spring 2015 [3]

This is the first draft of my SOP. Please read through and leave a comment. Thank you!

It was during the 7th STD summer vacation, dad brought home the first personal computer in my life. As he explained to me how to browse through the folders and use internet, I became curious to know how these applications worked. In 10th STD my computer Science teacher introduced me to the C programming language and said that it could be used for developing dos applications. That was the tool I was looking for then. I deepened my knowledge in C and C++ in the following years. I challenged myself with several complex algorithmic problems put up on websites of various research organizations like IARCS. My hard work paid off when the Typing tutorial project I developed in C++ won first prize in a high school project competition held in Qatar. I realized I should build a career in computer science when Dr. Charles E Thorpe handed over the prize for achieving third prize in High School Coding Competition '07 held in Carnegie Mellon University Qatar Campus.

On securing 266th rank in Amrita Entrance Examination, I was assured of admission to the highly sought after computer science program in Amrita Vishwa Vidhyapeetham. During my undergraduate study, I was concentrating on areas such as programming languages, compiler design, security and project management. Subjects such as Computer Programming, OOP, Design and Analysis of Algorithm, Computer Language Engineering, Cryptography, Software Engineering and Software Project Management fascinated me. I also found the right environment in the labs to nurture my programming skills. I scored an A- in Computer Programming, Data Structures and Database Systems labs. I dwelled in joy when students who were academically brighter than me approached me to help them debug their code during the lab sessions.

I worked on several projects that helped me in utilizing my problem solving skills and to work with like-minded people during my undergraduate study. Our team won appreciation from professors for creating a high functionality Student Database Management System in ASP(dot)NET. I and two others were actively involved in designing, documentation and development of the application. I dedicated time to learn ASP(dot)NET on my own and developed several ASP pages in various modules of the application. I also developed C# codes for database querying on the server side and was also involved in modelling the database. I was also a part of the team that developed the website for the Amrita Technical Fest, Anokha 2011. I wrote PHP pages for student registration, event registration and also their respective PHP Data Object classes on the server side for database access.

I made use of the college vacations by stepping into the industry by applying for various internship opportunities. I got hands-on experience in designing network topologies and configuring Cisco devices during my internship with Mannai Trading Corporation, Doha-Qatar. These practical experiences helped me understand some of the network layer concepts such as routing protocols which was difficult for me to grab theoretically. The internship I did with Hamad Medical Corporation gave me a formal introduction to initial stages of application development cycle, such as requirements gathering, developing scope document and application designing. These internships helped me in deciding the type of career I wanted to build in the computer science field.

Apart from the academics I have been actively involved in extracurricular activities like organizing events such as Anokha 2011, Amrita Tech Fest; Nritya 2009 - 11, Amrita Dance Fest; and Raaga 2009 - 11, Amrita Music Fest during my undergraduate study. The dance which I choreographed in 2010 won first prize in an inter college dance competition held in Bangalore. These activities taught me how to play an active role as a team member as well as a team leader.

During my 7th semester in Amrita I received offer letters from two of the top IT companies in India, Infosys and Wipro. After doing a study on both companies, I decided to choose Infosys due to the intensive training it offered. During the Infosys training cum internship, I learned about J2EE and J2ME technologies. I enhanced my understanding of web services using Java and my skills in frameworks like JPA, JSP, Spring, Struts etc through various comprehensive and practical lab sessions we had during the training period. I scored a 4.9 CGPA on 5 in the Infosys training program.

I spearheaded the group of four which was responsible for developing Mobile PPT Viewer as a part of the internship programme in Infosys. The application was developed to assist the Infosys trainees in preparing for their comprehensive tests. Trainees could view the PowerPoint Presentations through their Java enabled mobile phones connected to internet through GPRS or WIFI. I worked with three others to gather requirements, model and develop the application. I developed the Servlets to handle requests from mobile phones and JSP pages to upload the presentation. The uploaded presentations were split into images and texts, encrypted using a Bouncy Castle algorithm and saved in the server. I also wrote code for optimizing certain features in MIDlet for viewing the presentation. I was also constantly interacting with the project mentor and the college project guide to execute the internship process smoothly. After the internship, I was absorbed by the company where I worked for over a year.

I was involved in several crucial projects, such as 'Concierge Mobile Admin', 'Business Event Monitoring Tool', 'Business Integration Software', and 'Intranet Development' during my three year tenure in the software industry. My duties as Software Engineer include, but are not limited to development, implementation and testing of software systems, consulting with clients about technical issues and requirements of the software, modifying existing software to debug, upgrade interfaces, and improve performance. Currently I am working as Junior Research Fellow in Amrita Multi-dimensional Data Analytics Lab. I am developing a system for localization of objects labelled with RFID tags. The system is based on the localization algorithm we developed in our lab. I was able to appreciate various cycles of software development, research

At this juncture I believe I need a graduate degree to climb higher on the career ladder. Upon self assessment of my strengths and weaknesses in the field of Software Engineering, I have come up with a list of certain areas which I would like to have a deeper insight into and certain areas which I would like to improve myself in. Subjects such as Programming Languages, Compiler design and Database Management are of my research interests. I would like to improve my theoretical background in software design and project management. Distributed Computing, Cloud computing and Information Security are some of the areas that I would like to explore more. After careful reviewing of the courses offered for Master of Science in Computer Science - Software Engineering program at your university, I find them to be perfectly fitting my academic interests. It would be a great pleasure to utilize all the opportunities at your university to achieve my goal of becoming a successful software engineer. I aim to become a part of Software Development Team of Google Inc. I believe I have developed a strong will and determination to achieve my goals and undergo a rigorous and rewarding educational experience at the University of XXXX.