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'Electrical & Computer Engineering - robot' - scholarship personal statement.


JeremyW 1 / 5  
May 25, 2012   #1
This is a revision from my last text, I have manged to cut it in half in regards to length. Thanks for reading.

My name is Jeremy Wildsmith, and I have been pursuing a career for past 6 years of my life. Little did I know when I started that this pursuit would lead me to BCIT's Electrical & Computer engineering program. My journey, the kick-start for my passion in computer engineering started very young, and perhaps it started more as a passion for computer programming. I started and spent most of my time in C++ and occasionally took a detour in to C.

When I started C++ I became very engaged in the experience. I was inspired, and brought back to it as I grew an interest for the low-level components of a computer system. My interests in this particular field grew and eventually, I attempted to write my own kernel. I used a series of tutorials from osdever.net to research in to this particular field and unintentionally staggered my way in to a very simple introduction of software engineering. I ended up writing a small kernel and boot loader that would simply initialize itself, installing a keyboard listener, Interrupt Service Routines and a simple memory paging system. Later that year, my family got an Xbox (not an Xbox 360). I'd sneak away every night and open it up; trying to understand what part was the desktop computers equivalence. While looking at an Integrated Circuit I'd seen mounted on the Xbox motherboard, what I didn't know then to be the ROM memory unit storing the Xbox's Basic Input\Output System, I came across another book called Hacking the Xbox by Andrew Huang. I learned the very basics of my motherboards design. I found the material both very difficult to comprehend as well as incredibly fascinating. It is here where I picked up my passion for computer & electrical engineering.

In my Grade 12 year I pushed myself to look in to different post-secondary schools. I was initially attracted to BCIT as an option because I'd remembered taking a small summer Java program for kids there. The program was held for younger students (I was about grade 6 or 7 at the time) and even though I was a little beyond the course material at the time, I remember thinking very highly of BCIT for inspiring kids to pursue their ambitions in the computer programming field.

There was one other factor that played when I decided to apply for BCIT. Namely, it was how BCIT was hosting the VEX robotics competitions in 2012. For many hours I volunteered for my High Schools VEX robotics. I took on the responsibility of programming our robot.

In our robot, I began implementing my own independent holonomic driving system in C. I used a polymorphic and modular code design in the process; this was my first time implementing polymorphic design concepts such as interfaces and abstract classes in a relatively serious C project.

Along with my volunteer experience at my school's robotics club, I have also been volunteering with a Guildford Community Volunteer Patrol program. There I do regular patrols around the Guilford area (specifically around the mall and recreational center). Regular duties include seeking stolen cars, well as keep a watchful eye on the community. As a volunteer of GCVP, I also attend large events and work with the RCMP to keep them safe and seek out lost children; such events include Vaisakhi and the Fusion Festival. I chose to volunteer at GCVP because I was very interested in a career relevant to policing - and hope that eventually my career path in computer\electrical engineering may cross paths with a civilian career in policing.

I am taking the Electrical & Computer Engineering program because I believe it will help me grasp the fascinating and vast area of computer engineering; a dream of mine ever since I was 13.
OP JeremyW 1 / 5  
May 26, 2012   #2
Latest revision:

My name is Jeremy Wildsmith, and I have been pursuing a career for past 6 years of my life. Little did I know when I started that this pursuit would lead me to BCIT's Electrical & Computer engineering program. My journey, the kick-start for my passion in computer engineering started very young, and perhaps it started more as a passion for computer programming. I started and spent most of my time in C++ and C# .Net and occasionally took a detour in to C and basic x86 assembly (for code analysis).

When I started C++ I became very engaged in the experience. I was inspired, and brought back to it as I grew an interest for the low-level components of a computer system. I read a book called Reverse Engineering by Eldad Eilam and Rootkits: Subverting the Windows Kernel by Greg Hoglund. My interests in this particular field grew and eventually, I attempted to write my own kernel. I used a series of tutorials from osdever.net to research in to this particular field and unintentionally staggered my way in to a very simple introduction of software engineering. I ended up writing a small kernel and boot loader that would simply initialize itself, installing a keyboard listener, Interrupt Service Routines and a simple memory paging system. Later that year, my family got an Xbox (not an Xbox 360). I'd sneak away every night and open it up; trying to understand what part was the desktop computers equivalence. While looking at an Integrated Circuit I'd seen mounted on the Xbox motherboard, what I didn't know then to be the ROM memory unit storing the Xbox's Basic Input\Output System, I came across another book called Hacking the Xbox by Andrew Huang. I learned the very basics of my motherboards design. I found the material both very difficult to comprehend as well as incredibly fascinating. It is here where I picked up my passion for computer & electrical engineering.

In my Grade 12 year I pushed myself to look in to different post-secondary schools. I was initially attracted to BCIT as an option because I'd remembered taking a small summer Java program for kids there. The program was held for younger students (I was about grade 6 or 7 at the time) and even though I was a little beyond the course material, I remember thinking very highly of BCIT for inspiring kids to pursue their ambitions in the computer programming field.

There was one other factor that played when I decided to apply for BCIT. Namely, it was how BCIT was hosting the VEX robotics competitions in 2012 - for which our team was the only to implement a holonomic drive train. For many hours I volunteered for my High Schools VEX robotics. I took on the responsibility of programming our robot.

As the robot's programmer I decided to challenge myself and began implementing my own independent holonomic driving system in C opposed to using the managed RobotC environment. The driving module was for an embedded ARM processor and utilized the EasyC API to interface with the VEX motors. This helped me grasp a stronger idea of embedded systems programming and provided me some idea of what it might be like to program embedded systems. I used a polymorphic and modular code design in the process; this was my first time implementing polymorphic design concepts such as interfaces and abstract classes in a relatively serious C project. Another valuable skill I gathered while programming our school's robot is the idea of working in a team and interfacing with other members who understood different subject areas.

Along with my volunteer experience at my school's robotics club, I have also been volunteering with a Guildford Community Volunteer Patrol program. There I do regular patrols around the Guilford area (specifically around the mall and recreational center). Regular duties include seeking stolen cars, as well as keep a watchful eye on the community. As a volunteer of GCVP, I also attend large events and work with the RCMP to keep them safe and seek out lost children; such events include Vaisakhi and the Fusion Festival. I chose to volunteer at GCVP because I was very interested in a career relevant to policing - and hope that eventually my career path in computer\electrical engineering may cross paths with a civilian career in policing.

I am taking the Electrical & Computer Engineering program because I believe it will help me grasp the fascinating and vast area of computer engineering; a dream of mine ever since I was 13. Once graduating the Electrical & Computer Engineering of Technology program, I plan to pursue bachelors in Electrical Engineering from BCIT and further my studies by taking a graduates program in quantum computing (another field I find very interesting.)
tfizzle 1 / 4  
May 26, 2012   #3
This is really good. I see what you mean when you say it should have a positive tone, but still showing your growth as a person

Well written, great job
tfizzle 1 / 4  
May 26, 2012   #4
the only thing you should fix is when you say, "In my Grade 12 year". the wording just sounds off.
OP JeremyW 1 / 5  
May 27, 2012   #5
Alright, thanks tfizzle I will definitely look in to it :)


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