Undergraduate / I spent most of my adolescence reviewing literature about flight principles [3]

Admission essay for MSc in Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft

Hello everybody! I have spent the last month working on my admission essay for my application for the MSc in Aerospace Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Below is the almost-definitive version of the document. I would be grateful if you could give me your impressions, suggestions, things you would change, etc. Any comment will be welcome!

These are the guidelines given by the university:

A clear and relevant essay in English (1,000 - 1,500 words) addressing the following:

-Your motivation for taking the MSc programme of your choice.
-Why you are interested in TU Delft and what you expect to find here
-If there are optional specialisations in the MSc programme of your choice: which specialisation(s) interest you most, and why?
-Describe your hypothetical thesis project; what kind of a project would you prefer if you were free to make a choice? Also briefly explain what you would want to explore in your thesis project. Provide a maximum of three hypothetical thesis topics and elaborate on your particular interests in them.

-A brief summary (maximum 250 words) of the thesis work or the final assignment (to be) done for your Bachelor's programme, including information on the credits earned, grade, and full workload.

--------------------------- Find below the essay ---------------------------

My passion for aeronautics arose during my secondary education, when I was reading a book about the flight of birds. I was not only impressed by the complexity of their capabilities to glide, take-off, land and hover, but especially by the smart strategies used by the long-distance migrating birds to orientate, navigate and optimize the flight performance of a whole group. I was fascinated about how nature had wisely made profit of physics for the sake of biological systems and wondered how humans had been capable of imitating such a behaviour on their own profit.

Prompted by this fascination and my innate curiosity, I spent most of my adolescence reviewing literature about flight principles. At the end of my pre-university studies I designed and built a flying model of a light aircraft as my final project, which was awarded with honours. Four years later I find myself in the fourth and last year of my Bachelor's Degree in Aeronautical Engineering, maintaining a distinction average and seeking to set new goals to face further personal and academic challenges. At this point I strongly believe that I have the skills as well as the enthusiasm to pursue a Master's degree at your university.

When studying my BSc in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) I majored in Air Navigation Systems. During my studies I had the chance to develop strong analytical capabilities and strengthen my ambitious personality and eagerness to learn. I strived to fully exploit my potential and learnt to place high value on teamwork and cooperation. I have been awarded with honours in eleven occasions, in courses such as Control and Guidance, Avionics, Mechanics, Aircraft Operations or Aerospace Technology.

During my third year of BSc I have been given the opportunity to put my engineering skills to work through an internship at Boeing Research \& Technology Europe (BR\&TE), Boeing's European research centre. Not only this internship did give me the opportunity to demonstrate independent judgement and analytical skills to assess technical issues, but it also increased my interest in research and my eagerness to learn more about research methodologies. BR\&TE renewed my contract for one more year. During this year I assisted several international congresses where I witnessed seminars about state-of-the-art technologies for Air Traffic Management (ATM). At this point I was absolutely determined to focus my future studies on research and innovation.

After one year, I am still working as an intern for this company, with which I am carrying out my BSc's research thesis on aircraft trajectories and performance. My work during this first year consisted in contributing to a research project focused on aircraft trajectories modelling and simulation. I worked on the modification of a trajectory computation software to integrate operational constraints derived from airspace structure and standard procedures. This allows to generate realistic aircraft trajectories fulfilling a set of airspace and operational restrictions, which are translated to aircraft guidance constraints.

As a natural follow-up of this work my BSc thesis focuses on employing this tool to study operational scenarios, which consist of a set of standard procedures and airspace constraints. These studies will allow to assess the performance of current airspace structure and procedures. In addition, hypothetical scenarios will be evaluated in order to give a justified analysis on the feasibility, benefits and impacts of implementing new procedures and re-structuring the airspace in terms of noise, emissions or fuel consumption. As one of the final goals of the thesis it will be considered to produce a research paper, seeking a scientific publication. Being directly related, the internship and the BSc thesis make a total of 36 credits ECTS. I have been working since April 2014, and I am currently devoting five hours a day to the thesis. I expect to be working on it until September 2015. Afterwards, I aim to specialise in aircraft control and guidance studying a Master's Degree abroad.

I have studied abroad in other occasions and feel comfortable in international environments. I have followed two English courses in the United Kingdom and have undertaken an ERASMUS exchange program at \'Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC) at Toulouse, France, where I carried out a studies project with Airbus Transport International within an international team. It was during my studies at ENAC when Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) attracted my attention for the first time.

During a laboratory session on flight management and guidance systems (FMGS) at ENAC I was learning the principles used by on-board systems to guide the aircraft along its intended path. Prompted by my eagerness to learn more about the topic, I arranged a meeting with the lecturer who directed the laboratory session. I wanted to know the best option for me to specialise in aircraft guidance systems. With no hesitation, he strongly recommended me to consider the track in Control and Operations of the Master's Degree in Aerospace Engineering you offer at TU Delft.

At ENAC I had the pleasure to work side by side with some students from TU Delft. They gave me a very positive reference for your university, especially for your laboratories, your research facilities and your focus on practical work. I am enthusiastic about pursuing my MSc surrounded by the Delft's academically and culturally rich environment, in a strong research institution with talented faculty and state-of-the-art facilities. I am particularly attracted to your analytical approach to engineering issues and your focus on research, which perfectly fits my academic profile and expectations.

As your activity focuses on research and the infrastructures available in your university complement my research requirements and interests, I am convinced that enrolling this MSc would not only empower my academic development, but would also give me the framework to use my full potentials and grow as a researcher. Driven by a sense of ambition and aiming to achieve and set my sights high, I have set the goal to enrol your Honours Programme Master in order to develop my initiative and invest extra time in my field of study.

After witnessing the presentation of the Control and Operations track given at TU Delft, I find that the Control and Simulation profile perfectly fits my expectations. I believe that my academic and practical background makes me a particularly suitable candidate to enrol this program and feel that I can substantially contribute to your research in this line, as well as carry out a research Master's Degree thesis on this topic.

I can present some suggestions about possible topics to be developed in my MSc final thesis, some of them related to the new ATM concepts proposed in the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project. Aircraft systems need to be adapted to the new European ATM scenario and I strongly believe that there is a lot of research to be done in this topic. Being aware of the relevance of this program I am motivated to work on a Master's thesis focused on the research about adaptation of current FMGS to forthcoming ATM concepts in Europe.

Guidance of aircraft along a flight plan will be dramatically influenced by the change of paradigm from current clearance-based to trajectory-based operations, the so-called 4D concept. It introduces time as a constraint for aircraft guidance. A first topic for my final thesis could consist in researching about the adaptation of current on-board FMGS to provide integral flight control and guidance along an optimized trajectory with time constraints.

A second suggestion for a thesis could be related to the implementation of Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) procedures. The vertical path of an aircraft depends on a number of factors which cannot be accurately estimated during flight planning, and therefore the best way to guide the aircraft along an optimal path is to compute and optimize it in real time. This research proposal would consist in developing a real-time CDA path calculation and optimization system which provides an input for guidance loops to trace an optimal continuous descent.

I am always willing to research new innovative technologies. Therefore, I have also a strong interest in undertaking a Master's thesis focusing on the research in new concepts for aircraft control, such as adaptive and intelligent control systems. I have a personal interest in fuzzy control and intelligent systems based on neural networks.

In the long run, I envisage myself as a faculty member at a leading university or as a fully developed research professional in a company. For all the reasons hereby exposed, I have no hesitation that I have the academic skills and aptitudes as well as the enthusiasm and motivation to successfully pursue your MSc in Aerospace Engineering, majoring in Control and Operations. Not only does your program fit my expectations, but also I fulfil the requirements to both success in my studies and substantially contribute to your research activities. Doubtlessly, embarking upon a new stage of my life at your university would provide me with a framework to put to work my full potentials, allowing me to become a noteworthy professional and assisting in accomplishing my goals.

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Thank you very much for your comments! :)