AI and robotics. Common App Transfer Essay- There isn't any research related to my areas of interest

Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source.

AI and robotics.

There was five seconds left on the clock and we were still behind, we needed to drop one more cube to win. Our operator was furiously mashing his controller to get those last few points and managed to score the last cube right as the buzzer went off and we all collapsed in relief as the referees swarmed onto the field to check the score. We waited with bated breath to see the score flash onto the screen and.... we lost. We lost finals at California state robotics championships by one point but the most frustrating part of it all was that we lost because our robot wasn't consistent during the autonomous period. This was an imperfection that my team and I just couldn't live with so we spent the next two weeks ensuring that this flaw would never show up again. Problems like this made me realize that there is still so much to learn and that everything can be improved upon. Constantly facing challenges like this cemented my love for artificial intelligence and robotics while also sparking an interest in research related to these fields. Research would let me take on even more challenging issues while also sating my desire for knowledge.

I was excited to attend Purdue University in the fall because it has one of the best CS programs in the world and their research addressed some of the most challenging problems facing the computer science industry. I was hoping to take advantage of these research opportunities to pursue my areas of interest. But, as I quickly found out, very little research related to artificial intelligence or robotics and there were very little resources dedicated to the development of these fields. More attention was given to cemented subfields that have a great impact on the industry such as compilers, programming languages, and software engineering. Because of this I fell into a dilemma of whether it would be better to shift my focus or to pursue my interests despite the difficulty. While I was in this dilemma I was working as a research assistant for one of my professors. Even though I found the research project interesting I couldn't take it as a passion, this project only reinforced my feeling that I should try and pursue my interest despite the difficulties. But at the end of the semester I realized I couldn't stop my passion for AI and robotics.

I am attempting a transfer because I want to go to a university that has a computer science program that has more opportunities and resources in my areas of interest, AI and robotics. I have started to take a deep interest in speech recognition but there aren't many explanations or tutorials on it, all the things I have found are highly theoretical papers. I want to further my knowledge in these fields and, hopefully, contribute to this field one day. Purdue has given me an extremely solid foundation to build on but I cannot pursue my interests here and, despite my efforts, I can't seem to let go of these interests. By transferring I am hoping to gain access to resources that stand at the cutting edge of my areas of interest thereby allowing me to grow and sate my desire for knowledge.

Any sort of feedback is appreciated thank you!

@Anon0
... and we were still behind, we needed to drop one ...

by one point,butand the most frustrating part

just couldn't live with, so we spent

so we spent the next two weeks ensuring that this flaw would never show up again --> how? Either elaborate on what improvements you made, or omit this part completely, because it sounds vague and spawns more questions than it answers.

I don't know much about transferring or CS, so grammar is all I can help with. Keep up the good work!

thanks for all the help!

Hareesh, you don't need to over complicate the essay by telling that anecdote at the start. Just get to the point because the reviewer doesn't have all the time to analyze what you have written. If it won't give him direct information, then don't present it. Try to create a balance in the essay regarding why you want to transfer and why you chose this particular university to transfer to. 80% of what you wrote it all about why you are disgruntled with your university, which is fine, but doesn't really tell the reviewer why you chose to transfer to his university. So, in an effort to present a balanced discussion, use only 50 of the essay to complain about your current university and the other 50%, for explaining why you believe that this change of university is logical and why you feel that you will have more success there. Be objective and talk about how you understand research works at the university and what your research objectives are which will help you become a better student there.