Applying for a Master's degree in computer science; MOTIVATIONAL LETTER

LETTER OF MOTIVATION

Dear Admission Committee,

My name is Bao - Huy Nguyen, and I am a research engineer at a startup company - Graphicsminer, working mainly on 3D Computer Vision and Computer Graphics. I am writing to express my intention to apply to the M.Sc. Informatics program at Technical University of Munich (TUM).

My long-term objective is to apply computer vision research to meaningful real-life applications for millions of users. Because of that, I opted for a professional career instead of a research position in my school after I graduated. At Graphicsminer, I had great opportunities to embrace practical and interesting problems. Our goal is to create an Augmented Reality (AR) platform on mobile devices where our physical products - cardboard toy kits and children's existing plastic toys can interact with virtual characters. This approach led me to 3D computer vision projects: 3D Reconstruction and 3D Tracking. Our solution was to let children scan their plastic toys with smartphones and track them in the AR environment. At the end of these projects, I had a chance to present the demonstration at top-tier conferences in AR: ACM SIGGRAPH and IEEE ISMAR. Thanks to these conferences, I received positive feedback on the projects, comments about potential AR and autonomous applications like robotics using this work, and valuable ideas for further improvements. These incentivize me to pursue post-graduate programs to gain more knowledge of computer vision, connect and collaborate with like-minded people and further contribute my youth and ability to 3D Computer Vision.

After doing some research about programs of schools as well as research groups, I choose the Informatics master's program at TUM because of two reasons. First, the program contains necessary 3D Computer Vision courses such as multiple-view geometry and variational methods, which, I believe, will build a solid knowledge foundation for anyone who wants to do research in this field. The reason for that belief is that online video lectures of these courses taught by Prof. Daniel Cremers helped me a lot in terms of filling the knowledge gap when I was working on the 3D vision projects. I am also attracted by the teaching style of Prof. Daniel Cremers which makes every lesson very clear and understandable. Although these online courses are helpful, the knowledge from them can not alone cover the field. There are many other great offline courses at TUM such as Probabilistic Graphical Models in Computer Vision and Machine Learning for 3D Geometry that I want to enroll in. Moreover, in my opinion, formal learning is more effective because of the well-structured curriculum and seminars about new research topics in 3D Vision.

Second, TUM has many leading professors in 3D Vision and Robotics, such as Prof. Daniel Cremers and Prof. Matthias Nie\ss ner. I have read many publications by Prof. Daniel Cremers about 3D reconstruction from cameras and Visual SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) since he was a postdoctoral researcher. I am impressed by his mathematical approaches, which are very clear and easily interpretable. My research has been influenced and inspired by his works. In addition, I am fond of the research topics about the 3D modeling of Prof. Mattias Nie\ss er and the dynamic SLAM of Prof. Stefan Leutenegger. Thus, besides the purpose of expanding my knowledge in the field, my motivation when applying to TUM is to have an opportunity to do research with these professors and further pursue the Ph.D. program at the university.

Regarding my preparation for the post-graduate programs, my past and current jobs helped me a lot. I learned skills and abilities about critical thinking and analysis, working independently, and conducting research experiments when I was working as an undergraduate research assistant under the supervision of Dr. Rang Nguyen and Dr. Binh-Son Hua. At Graphicsminer, thanks to weekly seminars, my presentation skills, reading, and writing abilities have also been improving thanks to my current supervisors. I believe these abilities and skills are a strong foundation to pursue the master's program and further the Ph.D. program at TUM.

Please consider my application for the M.Sc. program to begin in the Winter of 2023. I look forward to your decision and remain at your disposal for any additional information you may request, as well as an interview if you deem it helpful.

Yours faithfully,

Bao - Huy Nguyen

Try to include references for publications of the professors to any actual work applications you may have had.That way a realistic portrayal of how these articles could have motivated you can be added to your candidate consideration. Do not mention the same professor in 2 different instances. Use a different reference to widen your net of familiarity with the teaching staff and their accomplishments in relation to AR advancement.

The last paragraph does not increase the impact of the essay. It sounds too much like a template closing statement. Using the previous paragraph to close the essay is more orginal and leaves room for the screener to further consider you as a candidate. I would rather close the essay at that point and with that paragraph.

Hello,
I would suggest editing the first sentence of your first paragraph. Instead of saying "My name is Bao - Huy Nguyen, and I am a research engineer at a..." You could instead phrase it as, "My name is Bao - Huy Nguyen, a research engineer at a..."

Other than that, I believe this is a good motivation letter.

Hi, this is a well-structured letter already. Maybe you can add the challenges that may occur during your time studying abroad and how to overcome it. Good luck!