Hamed727
Dec 1, 2014
Graduate / HOW TO STRESS MY JOB AS A RESEARCHER MORE EFFECTIVELY? sop-civil Eng. [9]
Well, I was working on my SOP, and I have improved it. Again, I highly appreciate your specific comments:
"Stay hungry, stay foolish" Jobs said addressing Stanford graduates in 2005. Affected by his speech, ever since then this statement has become my life motto, reminding me to always aim high and seek challenges. Having this attitude, I have decided to pursue an academic career considering and motivated by the continued challenge and never-ending road to excellence that it offers. My great perseverance along with my talents has assisted me to successfully move toward this objective thus far, and in order to continue in this direction I am enthusiastically applying to Civil Engineering PhD program at EPFL.
My research interests are centered around numerical modeling of real world problems. Developing numerical methods to solve geomechanical problems involving fully or partially saturated soils, computational fracture and damage mechanics are areas that are in line with my interests and expertise; I found research projects of LMS and LSMS laboratories very fascinating. Moreover, as a structural engineer I have always been interested in advanced construction materials, developing constitutive models for them and implementation of these models in numerical tools for computer simulation. EPFL, with plenty of relevant ongoing researches, is perfect place that matches my interests and abilities. Reading research topics of the faculty and laboratories, I have become very keen to join, learn from and collaborate with its great scholars. Below, I'm going to briefly describe my educational background, achievements and objectives.
Firstly, I received prestigious silver medal of the National Mathematics Olympiad. This accomplishment not only equipped me with strong mathematical background, but also provided me with a great sense of confidence. Afterwards, considering my skills in math I choose engineering as my major field of study and began my academic life at the Civil Eng. Dept. of University of ... . I transferred to ... after two semesters. I participated in another national Olympiad while studying at ,,,, : Civil Eng. Olympiad for university students. In this contest I was ranked ... and awarded admission at ... for MSc program waiving the university entrance exam (MSc Konkur); however, in order to evaluate myself with the other students in the country, I took the MSc entrance exam achieving the ... rank among more than .... civil engineers. I completed my undergraduate studies in ... after 9 semesters of study with total GPA of .... (the average of the department was ...) and I was ranked ... among the graduate students of 2012.
During BSc, my most important research project was with two graduate students. The title was ".... " and the results were accepted in 2nd National Conference on ... .
I chose Structural Eng. as my major in .. with the intention of studying under supervision of ... ; his research areas were perfect match as I was interested in programming and Finite Element Modeling. My first influential experience in ... was participating in the .... seismic workshop in fall 2012 where I met prominent scientists such as,.... and found the opportunity to speak with them. Being introduced to ... and having conversation with him greatly encouraged me to do my best in my studies. Since then, he became my role model; a person who has started from the same university as I was studying and became one of the most internationally revered figures in his field. I decided to achieve excellence in my academic career that one day I could encourage young scholars through my seminars as well. My MSc record is proof of this, where I managed to get "A" mark in all of my major courses and be among the top three students in most of them.
Finite Elements II, taught by ... was the most demanding course among all I had during MSc which required heavy MATLAB programming for assignments. It covered wide variety of topics in nonlinear finite elements including large deformation analysis in Total and Updated Lagrangian formulation, Elasto-Plastic behavior of materials in both small and large deformation, dynamic and quasi-static contact problems using Penalty, Lagrange multipliers and Augmented Lagrange methods. My final score in this course was ... , second score in the class.
I started my thesis on numerical simulation of composite materials and have been implementing my ideas by developing my own code from the scratch. This code has the capability to model crack intersection or termination at material interfaces in composite materials and simulation of LEFM-based crack propagation path in layered media. I have prepared my first paper on the former subject, investigating stress singularities arising at multimaterial corners and crack tips and proposing new method of modeling these singularities in the framework of XFEM. It is now under review by my supervisor to be submitted soon. Also, I am expecting to prepare another paper on the latter subject in the following months. I have enjoyed every minute of working on my thesis especially our regular weekly group meetings, where everyone is supposed to present a report of their progress; apart from participating in group discussions, which helped me to widen my knowledge in other fields and improved my teamwork, it significantly strengthened my communication skills. Now I can deliver my thoughts and ideas well organized and more clearly in a presentation than before, and through these presentations I have become a more confident speaker.
Since the beginning of my MSc education, fortunately I have had the opportunity to work as a part-time researcher in a high-profile research organization, .... . I have started my work under direction of ... and I have worked on two projects so far (refer to my resume). This experience and doing research outside my main discipline not only diversified my skills, but also enhanced my time management as I learned how to balance between my studies and work. Moreover, it made me even more determined towards higher education. It enabled me to compare pursuing a career in the industry or one in academia. I find the academic environment more appealing because of the high level of intellectual challenge and creativity associated with it.
I feel a deep need of belonging in a society of colleagues, researchers and people with the same enthusiasm and interests as I do. I believe that the intellectual atmosphere in EPFL is the place which would help me to flourish in my field and to successfully attain my goal of becoming an experienced scientist, researcher and a faculty member of a top university. I am confident that my great diligence, talent and passion alongside your renowned faculty and program will enable me to have a successful experience at EPFL.
Sincerely,
Thank youuu
Well, I was working on my SOP, and I have improved it. Again, I highly appreciate your specific comments:
"Stay hungry, stay foolish" Jobs said addressing Stanford graduates in 2005. Affected by his speech, ever since then this statement has become my life motto, reminding me to always aim high and seek challenges. Having this attitude, I have decided to pursue an academic career considering and motivated by the continued challenge and never-ending road to excellence that it offers. My great perseverance along with my talents has assisted me to successfully move toward this objective thus far, and in order to continue in this direction I am enthusiastically applying to Civil Engineering PhD program at EPFL.
My research interests are centered around numerical modeling of real world problems. Developing numerical methods to solve geomechanical problems involving fully or partially saturated soils, computational fracture and damage mechanics are areas that are in line with my interests and expertise; I found research projects of LMS and LSMS laboratories very fascinating. Moreover, as a structural engineer I have always been interested in advanced construction materials, developing constitutive models for them and implementation of these models in numerical tools for computer simulation. EPFL, with plenty of relevant ongoing researches, is perfect place that matches my interests and abilities. Reading research topics of the faculty and laboratories, I have become very keen to join, learn from and collaborate with its great scholars. Below, I'm going to briefly describe my educational background, achievements and objectives.
Firstly, I received prestigious silver medal of the National Mathematics Olympiad. This accomplishment not only equipped me with strong mathematical background, but also provided me with a great sense of confidence. Afterwards, considering my skills in math I choose engineering as my major field of study and began my academic life at the Civil Eng. Dept. of University of ... . I transferred to ... after two semesters. I participated in another national Olympiad while studying at ,,,, : Civil Eng. Olympiad for university students. In this contest I was ranked ... and awarded admission at ... for MSc program waiving the university entrance exam (MSc Konkur); however, in order to evaluate myself with the other students in the country, I took the MSc entrance exam achieving the ... rank among more than .... civil engineers. I completed my undergraduate studies in ... after 9 semesters of study with total GPA of .... (the average of the department was ...) and I was ranked ... among the graduate students of 2012.
During BSc, my most important research project was with two graduate students. The title was ".... " and the results were accepted in 2nd National Conference on ... .
I chose Structural Eng. as my major in .. with the intention of studying under supervision of ... ; his research areas were perfect match as I was interested in programming and Finite Element Modeling. My first influential experience in ... was participating in the .... seismic workshop in fall 2012 where I met prominent scientists such as,.... and found the opportunity to speak with them. Being introduced to ... and having conversation with him greatly encouraged me to do my best in my studies. Since then, he became my role model; a person who has started from the same university as I was studying and became one of the most internationally revered figures in his field. I decided to achieve excellence in my academic career that one day I could encourage young scholars through my seminars as well. My MSc record is proof of this, where I managed to get "A" mark in all of my major courses and be among the top three students in most of them.
Finite Elements II, taught by ... was the most demanding course among all I had during MSc which required heavy MATLAB programming for assignments. It covered wide variety of topics in nonlinear finite elements including large deformation analysis in Total and Updated Lagrangian formulation, Elasto-Plastic behavior of materials in both small and large deformation, dynamic and quasi-static contact problems using Penalty, Lagrange multipliers and Augmented Lagrange methods. My final score in this course was ... , second score in the class.
I started my thesis on numerical simulation of composite materials and have been implementing my ideas by developing my own code from the scratch. This code has the capability to model crack intersection or termination at material interfaces in composite materials and simulation of LEFM-based crack propagation path in layered media. I have prepared my first paper on the former subject, investigating stress singularities arising at multimaterial corners and crack tips and proposing new method of modeling these singularities in the framework of XFEM. It is now under review by my supervisor to be submitted soon. Also, I am expecting to prepare another paper on the latter subject in the following months. I have enjoyed every minute of working on my thesis especially our regular weekly group meetings, where everyone is supposed to present a report of their progress; apart from participating in group discussions, which helped me to widen my knowledge in other fields and improved my teamwork, it significantly strengthened my communication skills. Now I can deliver my thoughts and ideas well organized and more clearly in a presentation than before, and through these presentations I have become a more confident speaker.
Since the beginning of my MSc education, fortunately I have had the opportunity to work as a part-time researcher in a high-profile research organization, .... . I have started my work under direction of ... and I have worked on two projects so far (refer to my resume). This experience and doing research outside my main discipline not only diversified my skills, but also enhanced my time management as I learned how to balance between my studies and work. Moreover, it made me even more determined towards higher education. It enabled me to compare pursuing a career in the industry or one in academia. I find the academic environment more appealing because of the high level of intellectual challenge and creativity associated with it.
I feel a deep need of belonging in a society of colleagues, researchers and people with the same enthusiasm and interests as I do. I believe that the intellectual atmosphere in EPFL is the place which would help me to flourish in my field and to successfully attain my goal of becoming an experienced scientist, researcher and a faculty member of a top university. I am confident that my great diligence, talent and passion alongside your renowned faculty and program will enable me to have a successful experience at EPFL.
Sincerely,
Thank youuu