In this essay I outline my academic and extra-curricular accomplishments.

Also discussed are my career objectives and the motivation to pursue the program in at the of Massachusetts, Amherst. The under curriculum in Chemical at IIT, Kharagpur, introduced me to a wide g amut of subjects, both in and outside the field. Various courses like Mass Trans fer, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Transport Phenomena have provided me wit h a strong footing in the theoretical concepts of Chemical . It was the field of Technology which particularly captured my interest. The de sire to delve deeper into this subject persuaded me to take elective courses in Industrial (Air) Pollution Control, Non-conventional Energy and Earth Scienc es. While offering both depth and breadth across this field, these courses put i nto perspective the importance and relevance of Chemical and the application o f its fundamentals to environment related problems. I came to realize that altho ugh traditionally Studies has been under the domain of , the increasing com plexity and magnitude of problems have resulted in a growing need for the serv ices of disciplines other than . During the eight week Summer Training at the Development Consultants Ltd.,I was assigned to the Cement Cell, where I received a detailed of the cement manufac turing processes. As an Industrial Intern, I was assigned a project on Cement Pl ant Design (1800 TPD), which encompassed Raw-Mix Design and Capacity Calculation s for various equipment. Here, I got aquainted with the Pollution and Energy Con servation problems faced by the Cement Industry and devoted a significant portio n of my project to the pollution abatement methods. My final year dissertation was on the Manufacture of Phosphoric acid from rock p hosphate using Sulfuric acid (Design of 100 tpd Plant). This covered the design of Reactor, Extractor (for acid purification) and Evaporator (for acid concentra tion). As a natural outcome of my interest in Pollution control, adequate emphas is was provided to waste gases and waste water treatment which involved off-gas scrubbing (venturi design) and discharge method details, gypsum disposal methods , disposal of fluosilicic acid as waste material and the incorporation of all th ese in the Plant Layout/flow-sheet. At IIT, Kharagpur, I have received the best possible under education in Chemica l in India. Throughout, my scholastic records and achievements have been outst anding. I have consistently ranked in the top 2% of the students of my class, in school, and consider the high point of my achievements as being ranked in the t op 1% of more than one lakh students who wrote the Joint Entrance Examination fo r admission to one of the six Indian Institutes of Technology. Throughout my school and under education, I have been a keen participant in ext ra-curricular activities. Getting elected as the School Pupil Leader ( Head Girl ) helped me hone my organizational and interpersonal skills. At IIT, I have been involved in the Annual cultural Fest as Head of the Control Tent Team. I have a lso taken active part in dramatics and made my contribution to the Technology Dr amatics Society (English chapter) at IIT, as its member and later as the Governo r. I was also the member of the NSS at IIT where I had the opportunity to be inv olved in it's Literacy and Health & Nutrition Programs. I continue to be a membe r of the Helpage Society of India, which provides palliative care to the termina lly ill cancer patients. The years of under education have been an enriching experience - both academica lly and otherwise, and I am determined to maintain the high levels of excellenc e throughout my career. My immediate degree objective is an M.S in a rapidly evolving field with an immense potential for . I wish to follow it up with a Ph.D, to pursue a career

in and experience the excitement and satisfaction of being at the forefront of this vast expanding field. An extremely distinguished faculty, a milieu replete with academic activity, and a program which blends high quality course work and facilities at the cutti ng edge of every sub-field are the factors which have motivated me to choose the of Massachusetts, Amherst for studies. I believe the program offered will h elp me acquire the versatility needed to reach my full potential as an engineer. It would, therefore, be a privilege to be able to secure admission to pursue s tudies, with adequate financial assistance at the of Massachusetts, Amherst. I am confident that I will match the high standards set by your . The motivation and directions to pursue my studies in are influenced by the prevailing conditions of my country. A developing country like Bangladesh is facing enormous challenges to control pollution due to widespread arsenic c ontamination of ground water, untreated disposal of industrial effluent, crude o pen dumping of solid waste in low lying areas and lack of sewerage and sanitatio n system in different parts of the country. About 80% of diseases in Bangladesh are originated from the unclean and polluted water. The situation in the urban a reas is more alarming. In the capital city of Dhaka about 20000 m3 wastewater wi th high pollution load (including heavy metals) is discharged daily in the main river Buriganga from different leather tanning, textile, chemical and pharmace utical industries. About 3000 ton of solid waste is dumped in the poorly managed and designed landfills and about 2000 ton of solid waste is disposed daily in d rains and canals. Lack of proper and low-cost technologies as well as paucity of local experts in the field of have influenced me to pursue in similar fie lds so that I can contribute to improve such situations. This predilection was further reinforced during my under studies in Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET). I found the best place to strengthen my as BUET is deemed as the best academic institution in our country and only the best st udents are enrolled here after an extremely rigorous screening process. During m y studies I came across interesting courses on groundwater pollution, aquifer pr operties, ground water flow, water treatments, microbiology of sewerage and wast ewater, primary and secondary treatments of industrial effluents, sludge treatme nt and disposal techniques etc. Especially the courses CE 331 ( I), CE 333 ( II) and CE 332 ( Sessional I) taught me about different processes of envir onment and thus I was able to perceive the importance of well-managed environmen t. Therefore I was totally convinced to pursue my higher studies in . I have always maintained a balance between thorough study and in-depth understan ding of the course in hand. This approach has paid rich dividends in my academic career. Maintaining a CGPA of 3.77 I was able to secure the 9th position among 204 graduating students in my under studies. For such result the degree was awa rded with Honours. I got highest grade in Project and Thesis Work where I needed t o develop computer models using programming . The which was executed under th e guidance of my supervisor taught me the ability to take an idea and follow i t while at the same time maintaining a balancing act involved in allocating time , money and energy to a project. My supervisor influenced me with his tenacious approach to perform a task under limited resource and time. With such motivation and objective I started my career in teaching. My penchant for teaching and in was further fulfilled when I taught several courses on Pollution and its Control, Environment Development Projects, Design of Water Treatment Plant and Design of Sewerage System etc in the Department of and in The of Asia Pacific. My experience with my senior faculty members of the department has raised my confidence about the methods and techniques for pursui ng further in the field of . While taking course on Computer Application in and , I got opportunity to use and teach different software related to which I believe are required for computer aided projects. As I am working as

an associate designer of the ETP design of a textile mill it was possible for me to identify the limitations of treatment plants, disposal techniques and unavai lability of low-cost technologies. Through such and experience I selected few areas for my studies and I want to pursue my in any of these areas. I am interested in working in the field o f wastewater and drinking water treatment, fate of contaminants, source-zone rem ediation technologies, simulation and modeling techniques and solid waste manage ment. Biological wastewater treatment is more advantageous in comparison to phys ico-chemical treatment systems from the view point of cost effectiveness and als o less objectionable sludge production. I am interested in Biological Nitrogen a nd Enhanced Biological phosphorous removal, microbiological community analysis, treatment of landfill leachate, bioremediation process and hybrid system consist ing of biological and physicochemical treatment processes. As the conventional w ater treatment processes are not able to address adequately the removal of a wid e spectrum of toxic chemicals and pathogenic microorganisms in raw water, the application of membrane technology and advanced oxidation processes is important to ensure increasingly stringent regulations related to the drinking water qual ity. A membrane hybrid process combined with other physicochemical processes suc h as ozonation, activated carbon adsorption, coagulation etc. is also very attra ctive to me and may be very effective. Also the input, transport and fate of organic contaminants in groundwater system s are of particular importance to me. In order to remediate contaminated subsurf ace systems, it is imperative to first characterize the contaminant source zone. Under the direct supervision of teachers of such background in the Department o f of the of Waterloo, the goal of my program can be to develop practical and reliable methods of characterizing contaminant source zones, and determinin g the fate of these source zones, in subsurface systems. These data are fundamen tal prerequisites to the development of new and innovative remedial strategies, as well as the successful implementation of existing remedial strategies. Succes sful restoration of groundwater resources depends on our understanding of the fu ndamental processes governing the movement of water and chemicals in the soil. M odelling is an essential part of the risk assessment process and any remediation of the subsurface. Landfill has been the key disposal route for most of our waste including contami nated materials for many years as it was very cheap. Space for landfill is likel y to run out within few years. So approach of disposal of waste should be toward s waste reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery. The reliance on landfill must be reduced in future. I hope that I can contribute to sustainable waste manageme nt practices implemented through fundamental contribution to increased recycling and composting, and increasing the recovery of value from waste. The remediatio n of subsurface formations contaminated by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) is also a major impediment to the restoration of many hazardous waste sites. Identi fying the relationships between NAPL mass depletion, contaminant mass flux from the source zone, and dissolved plume properties through bench-scale experiments and numerical models can be also interesting fields of to me. I wish that my will combine both field work and controlled laboratory experime nts in the well-established infrastructure of the of Waterloo. I believe the f aculty members in the Department of of the have in-depth and experience in my intended fields of interests. The rich course contents and facilities in the field of Water Resources and encourage me to apply for my studies in the of Waterloo. Up to now, I have always enrolled in the best institutions of my country and I want to pursue my future studies in one of the best institutio ns of the world. My desire is to continue up to Ph.D. in my intended fields, if possible and I li ke to come back to Bangladesh and continue my job as a faculty member. As a facu

lty member my intention is to disseminate the of my degree to my students in B angladesh. I also want to invent new, effective and low-cost technologies of wat er and wastewater treatment or solid waste management in which area I will be ab le to complete my higher studies. I believe my will of value to the people of my country and I can originate and continue on fate of contaminants and modell ing techniques in Bangladesh. I am a M.Sc. student in discipline in the department of , Construction and at the North Carolina State (NCSU). The motivation and directions to purs ue my studies in are influenced by the prevailing conditions of my count ry. A developing country like Bangladesh is facing enormous challenges to contro l pollution due to widespread arsenic contamination of ground water, untreated disposal of industrial effluent, soil water intrusion in coastal areas, crude o pen dumping of solid waste in low lying areas and lack of sewerage and sanitatio n system in different parts of the country. About 80% of diseases in Bangladesh are originated from the unclean and polluted water. The situation in the urban a reas is more alarming. In the capital city of Dhaka about 20000 m3 wastewater wi th high pollution load (including heavy metals) is discharged daily in the main river Buriganga from different leather tanning, textile, chemical and pharmaceut ical industries. About 3000 ton of solid waste is dumped in the poorly managed a nd designed landfills and about 2000 ton of solid waste is disposed daily in dra ins and canals. According to a World Bank report about 15-thousand deaths could be avoided and about 800 million dollars could be saved a year if air pollution in four major cities was reduced to acceptable limits in Bangladesh. Lack of pro per and low-cost technologies as well as paucity of local experts in the field o f have influenced me to pursue in similar fields so that I can contribute to improve such situations in future. This predilection was further reinforced during my under studies in Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET). I found the best place to strengthen my as BUET is deemed as the best academic institution in our country and only the best st udents are enrolled here after an extremely rigorous screening process. During m y studies I came across interesting courses on groundwater pollution, aquifer pr operties, ground water flow, water treatments, microbiology of sewerage and wast ewater, primary and secondary treatments of industrial effluents, sludge treatme nt and disposal techniques etc. Especially the courses CE 331 ( I), CE 333 ( II) and CE 332 ( Sessional I) taught me about different processes of envir onment and thus I was able to perceive the importance of a well-managed environm ent. Therefore I was totally convinced to pursue my higher studies in . I have always maintained a balance between thorough study and in-depth understan ding of the course in hand. This approach has paid rich dividends in my academic career. Maintaining a CGPA of 3.77 I was able to secure the 9th position among 204 graduating students in my under studies. For such result the degree was awa rded with Honours. I got highest grade in Project and Thesis Work where I needed t o develop computer models using programming . The which was executed under th e guidance of my supervisor taught me the ability to take an idea and follow i t while at the same time maintaining a balancing act involved in allocating time , money and energy to a project. My supervisor influenced me with his tenacious approach to perform a task under limited resource and time. With such motivation and objective I started my career in teaching. My penchant for teaching and in was further fulfilled when I taught several courses on Pollution and its Control (Water and Air pollution), Environment Development Projects, Design of Water Treatment Plant and Design of Sewerage System etc in t he Department of in the of Asia Pacific. My experience with my senior fa culty members of the department has raised my confidence about the methods and t echniques for pursuing further in the field of . While teaching a course on Computer Application in , I got opportunity to use and teach different softw are related to which I believe are required for computer aided projects. B

efore coming in NCSU I was enrolled in Masters program in Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET) where I completed courses titled Theory of Water Treatment and Impact Assessment . With such and motivation I started my studies in NCSU in Fall 2005. Now I am doing my masters in solid waste investigating Potential of landfill bio-cover to oxidize methane in different laboratory conditions . Column experiments are bei ng conducted in three phases with aged green waste which is used as a daily cover in landfills. In each phase eight columns are being operated to test methane oxi dation for different experimental variables such as pressure gradient, methane f low regime and moisture infiltration. My work in developing this experimental sy stem has given me confidence about laboratory scale . I have learnt minute deta ils in experimental work are really important in obtaining good result which can validate the theory. I believe the process through which I went through to deve lop a plausible system to investigate the potential of landfill bio-cover is a r esourceful experience to apply to other fields. Erection of columns with proper details, compaction of compost inside the columns, controlling the gas and air f low to the columns, gas collection and analysis techniques have also taught me h ow a system has to be implemented from a preliminary design. The opportunity als o experienced me to work with sensitive laboratory equipment and taught me to ke ep a Check and Balance System to interpret the experimental result. My course work in this discipline also provided me wide-span of in different f ields of . It was helpful for me to decide which field I want to pursue for m y doctoral . I have taken the following courses: Chemical Principles of , Biolo gical Principles of , Ground Water Hydraulics , Physical Principles of , Princi ples of Solid Waste Management , Bioprocess Technology , Modeling and Analysis of Systems and Principles of Air Pollution Control . Three fundamental courses Chemic al, Biological and Physical Principles of together with other supporting cou rses and respective term papers have helped me a lot to understand the relations hip among soil, water and air. I will be also taking a course "Performance Monit oring at Bioreactor Landfills" and also auditing a course " Behavior of Organic Contaminants" in Spring 2007 which I believe will widen my in . Through such and experiences I selected few areas for my Ph.D. studies and I want to pursue my in any of these areas in of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I believe my background and motivation will support to work in the following ar eas. I am interested in working in the field of contaminant transport and fate o f contaminants in water and sediments, groundwater hydrology, source-zone remedi ation technologies, solid and hazardous waste management and remediation, and wa stewater and drinking water treatment. The input, transport and fate of organic and chemical contaminants in groundwate r, soils and sediments are of particular importance to me. In order to remediate contaminated subsurface systems, it is imperative to first characterize the con taminant source zone. Under the direct supervision of teachers of such backgroun d in the Department of and of of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the goal of my program can be to develop practical and reliable methods of characterizi ng contaminant source zones, and determining the fate of these source zones, in subsurface systems. These data are fundamental prerequisites to the development of new and innovative remedial strategies, as well as the successful implementat ion of existing remedial strategies. Successful restoration of groundwater resou rces depends on our understanding of the fundamental processes governing the mov ement of water and chemicals in the soil. Modeling is an essential part of the r isk assessment process and any remediation of the subsurface. I believe my mathe matical and programming will help me to work in subsequent simulation and mode ling if required. Landfill has been the key disposal route for most of our waste including contami nated materials for many years as it was very cheap. As the space for landfill i s running out a more holistic approach in which the landfill is operated as a bi ological system to enhance waste decomposition is now being adopted. The approac h referred to as a bioreactor landfill, involves controlling the distribution of

liquids and gases in the landfill to accelerate waste decomposition and stabili zation. My work can be to develop quantitative, field-validated, methods to improve the design and operation of solid waste and hazardous waste landfills. I t might also include sustainable waste management practices implemented through fundamental contribution to increased recycling and composting, and increasing t he recovery of value from waste. The remediation of subsurface formations contam inated by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) is also a major impediment to the re storation of many hazardous waste sites. Identifying the relationships between N APL mass depletion, contaminant mass flux from the source zone, and dissolved pl ume properties through bench-scale experiments and numerical models can be also interesting fields of to me. Biological wastewater treatment is more advantageous in comparison to physico-ch emical treatment systems from the view point of cost effectiveness and also less objectionable sludge production. I am interested in Biological Nitrogen and Enh anced Biological phosphorous removal, microbiological community analysis, treatm ent of landfill leachate, bioremediation process and hybrid system consisting of biological and physicochemical treatment processes. As the conventional water t reatment processes are not able to address adequately the removal of a wide spec trum of toxic chemicals and pathogenic microorganisms in raw water, the applicat ion of membrane technology and advanced oxidation processes is important to ensu re increasingly stringent regulations related to the drinking water quality. A m embrane hybrid process combined with other physicochemical processes such as ozo nation, reverse osmosis activated carbon adsorption, coagulation etc. is also ve ry attractive to me as a topic. I wish that my will combine both field work and controlled laboratory experime nts in the well-established infrastructure of of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I believe the faculty members in the Department of and of the have in-d epth and experience in my intended fields of interests. The rich course conten ts and facilities in the field of and encourage me to apply for my stu dies in of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Up to now, I have always enrolled in the best institutions of my country and I want to pursue my future studies in on e of the best institutions of the world. I think I would be able to render my services to the humankind most efficiently as a potential er and an innovative engineer. After completing Ph.D., I wish to work as a and teaching faculty in universities as my future profession either here in USA or in Bangladesh. As a faculty member my intention is to disseminat e the of my degree to my students to make this world a better place to live. I also want to invent new, effective and low-cost technologies with the in my area. I believe my will of value to the people of my country and to the peopl e of the world. I intend to pursue PhD program focusing Structural in Department of and at Michigan State (MSU). My primary inspiration to seek doctoral degree stemme d from my fascination to contribute to global pool of . My teaching experience of one and a half year validated my competence to contribute in academia. I find teaching as a very captivating profession and doctoral education will enhance m y skills and . So I would be able to impart advanced to the next generations more effectively. I understand that pursuit of doctoral degree requires tremendous hard work and t enacity along with intellectual excellence. It is also well-known that MSU sets high standards for its prospective students to match up with its chronicle of gr eat accomplishments. My academic achievements lend me the confidence to perform at this topmost tier. I d in with Honours from Bangladesh of and Techno logy (BUET) in October, 2009. My grades throughout my studies remained consisten t resulting CGPA 3.79 out of 4.00. My merit position was 8th among 185 graduatin g students. I selected Structural as specialization during under (UG) studies and secured highest grade in most of the structural and mechanics courses. I received Deans List awards and Merit Scholarships for my academic performance. As I always cherished life in academia, after graduation I have chosen teaching

as my career. Currently I am a lecturer at Islamic of Technology, Bangladesh w hich is renowned for its orientation towards and quality education. While I en joyed courses on structural and obtained good grades during my studentship, my interest on pursuing higher studies in structural peaked as a course teacher of UG structural courses. I believe ideas and creative thinking flourish when you try to transmit your to students and you feel you need to understand more about the topic to convey it properly. This urge of venturing beyond my present state of cognition helped me to choose Structural as my specialization for s tudies. To be more specific about my passion in structural , I should mention about my es on structural fire . For my UG thesis, I worked on response of concrete col umns with load eccentricity under standard fires. My thesis involved use of ABAQ US finite element analysis (FEA) package and Visual Basic programming language. I analyzed heat transfer by FEA and developed a computer program which can predi ct interaction diagrams for fire damaged columns with reasonable accuracy. I rec eived highest grade for my thesis and presented my findings in a local conferenc e. Now I am working to refine the technique and preparing a journal publication on these findings. During my independent after graduation, I developed a simpl e calculation approach for isotherm location within a concrete member. I intend to present it in 7th Structures in Fire conference in 2012. I also collaborated with Bangladesh Fire Service and Defense, and academics fr om other universities in es related to fire safety aspects in megacities where I provided technical information and guidelines. These es involved extensive su rvey and visual judgment of buildings vulnerability in case of a fire. I co-autho red a journal paper and few conference papers on these topics. I am also activel y involved in intradepartmental activity involving seismic vulnerability asses sment of buildings and bridges. My choice of MSU was established by its reputed Center for Structural Fire and Diagnostics with its well furnished lab facilities and esteemed Professor Venka tesh Kodur. Conducting doctoral under such supervision would enable me to appl y my abilities to their best use. At the same time, I am confident that I would be capable of making MSU proud with my efforts and my thirst to excel. My previo us experiences strengthen my confidence for conducting independent es as well as contributing to a team work. I believe I am capable to make my mark on the horizon by transfusing my skills, , and cognition through doctoral . After completing PhD, I intend to continue teaching and as my profession at le ading institutes in this field. I want to spread my acquired to the curious mi nds and seek beyond present concurrently. As I always believed in applicationbased , I hope to make significant contribution to safe design and construction practices through my findings. I find Department of and of MSU as the p erfect milieu for fulfilling my goals. I hope that MSU will provide its famed pl atform to launch myself to the endeavor of . I am very enthusiastic about conducting laboratory experiments and supporting th em by finite element analysis. My experience of teaching theory and laboratory c ourses on structural will definitely help me to understand and interpret resul ts. My UG project required use of ABAQUS and Visual Basic programming. I am acqu ainted to finite element modeling of cohesive layers, crack propagation and visc oelastic materials. I was in charge of Geotechnical and Lab of IUT. This opp ortunity provided me valuable insight into equipment installation and their oper ations which might be useful for my . intend to pursue PhD (SM-PhD) program in the field of geotechnical and geo a t Department of and of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). My pri mary inspiration to seek doctoral degree stemmed from my fascination towards con tributing to global pool of . My teaching experience of one and a half years va lidated my competence to contribute in academia. I find teaching as a very capti vating profession and this opportunity will enhance my skills and . So I would be able to impart advanced to the next generations effectively. I understand that pursuit of doctoral degree requires tremendous hard work and t enacity along with intellectual excellence. It is well-known that MIT sets high standards for its prospective students to match up with its chronicle of great a

ccomplishments. My academic achievements lend me the confidence to perform at th is topmost tier. I d with Honours in from Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET) in October, 2009. My grades throughout my studies remained consistent res ulting CGPA 3.79 out of 4.00. I have secured my place around top five percent of the graduating students. As I wanted to lead my life in academia, after graduat ion I have chosen teaching as obvious choice. Currently I am a lecturer at Islam ic of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh which is renowned for its orientation towar ds and quality education. I have taught theory and laboratory courses on geote chnical . I was also in charge of Geotechnical Lab. This opportunity provided me valuable insight into equipment installation and their operation. While I en joyed geotechnical courses and obtained good grades during my studentship, my interest on pursuing higher studies in geotechnical peaked as a course teacher of UG geotechnical courses. I believe ideas and creative thinking flourish when you try to transmit your to students and you feel you need to know more about the topic to convey it properly. Being a very young branch of , I find geote chnical most intriguing with its unsolved problems and huge potential for . A s a young er, I feel challenged by the unpredictability of soil and rock behavi or. I am actively involved in intradepartmental activities focusing fire and seism ic risk assessment. I authored two journal papers on these topics. My collaborat ion with academics in other universities also worked very well. I presented six papers in different conferences while three others are under review. I am very enthusiastic about conducting large scale experiments and supporting t hem by finite element simulation. I know that a lot of has already been done i n these fields but I believe that a far greater is yet to be explored. I find Department of CAEE of UT as the perfect milieu to fulfill my goals. U nderstandably, my choice of UT for doctoral studies has been firmly establishe d by its well furnished lab facilities and faculty members with tremendous exper tise in my field of interest. I am familiar with illustrious achievements of the department in the fields of structural fire safety. Conducting doctoral under the supervision of such esteemed faculty members would enable me to apply my ab ilities to their best use. At the same time, I am confident that I would be capa ble of making UT proud with my effort and my thirst to excel. I believe I am c apable of pushing the envelope by transfusing my skills, and cognition throu gh doctoral . My endeavor is to make a safer living for human. I think I can attain this goal through my with the support of renowned mentors at UT . After completing PhD, I intend to continue teaching and as my profession at leading institutes in t his field. I want to spread the I acquired to curious minds and seek beyond pr esent at the same time. I hope that Department of , Architecture and of of at will provide its famed platform to launch myself for fulfilling my go als. I intend to pursue a PhD (MS degree leading to PhD) degree in the Department of , Architectural and with an emphasis in . I wish to expand my career as a professional er and faculty member in this field. I feel that I need academic preparation beyond my under education in order to make meaningful technical co ntributions to society. My main motivation for applying to of at stems fro m the presence of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and most importantly, e minent and distinguished faculty members with interests aligned with that of m y own. I believe program of of at is the best place where my skills in formulating questions and in solving those questions will be enhanced. The initiation of my formal education occurred when I enrolled for under st udies at Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET), Dhaka. I found this the best p lace to strengthen, cultivate and evolve my as BUET is deemed as the best ac ademic institution for in Bangladesh and only the best students are enrolled h ere after an extremely rigorous screening process. Basic and advanced courses helped lay a solid foundation to my career. Furthermore, in my under studie s I learnt about the practical implementation of theories and the immense chal lenge involved in dealing with and providing solutions for real-life situations, which are very challenging and demanding in the growing economy of a developing

nation like Bangladesh. As part of my under thesis, under the guidance of my supervisor, I carried out some on the water supply system in rural areas of Bangladesh. In my thesis I n eeded to developed laboratory experimental set up, pragmatic decision making thr ough fieldwork and computer aided designs. The analytical attributes and persist ence required for such a make me confident that I have the aptitude necessary to cope with the rigors of . Throughout my under studies I remained steadfast in my resolve to attain excell ence in academics and . This resolve paid rich dividends and I d securing 3rd position among 192 students in my class with a CGPA of 3.84 out of 4.00. Immedia tely after graduation, I had the opportunity of joining Department of Presid ency as a Lecturer. I taught several laboratory and theory course on . Curr ently, I am working as a lecturer in the Department of and of Islamic of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh. I am teaching several courses such as structu ral mechanics and construction materials laboratory, Geology etc. in IUT. I am also acting as coordinator for the laboratory in IUT. I find distinct joy i n teaching as I see my students eagerly and proactively grasping on to various c oncepts. During the period of time as a lecturer I feel that my leadership quali ties are developing and I am being able to motivate my students towards and ex ploration. I believe my professional goals as an academic and er can be further realized upon attainment of post degrees. As faculty member of the Department of & , IUT, I have been actively involved in some activities in sustaina ble construction, landfill leachate treatment etc. I realize that publication of is paramount. I am trying to develop new publication ideas and proactively wo rking with my colleagues for publications. I have co-authored two journal and se veral conference proceeding which are under review process. I am interested in carrying out on Infrastructure management. The directions to pursue my studies in this area are influenced by the prevailing transport infrastructures conditions of my country. A developing country like Bangladesh i s facing enormous challenges to allocate the resources in various development se ctors due to limited resources. sector has the significant share of the annual development budget. But due to lack of proper management system, the allocated budgets have little impact on the development of transport infrastructures. Ther e is much scope for in this context. I would also like to concentrate my study on pavement analysis, design, performance and management. In addition to this I am also interested in pursuing my study on fracture and damage mechanics, nonde structive testing of pavement, recycled materials, pavement materials, advanced cementitious materials and chemically treated and stabilized soils also draw my study interest. Although Bangladesh is a densely populated country with limited resources, the country s economy is progressive. This progressive economy of the c ountry has its impact of the high demand for transport. For this reason Travel d emand modeling, planning and design of public transport systems and transport pl anning are of particular importance to me. I am decisively looking forward to continue teaching and as my profession, co mpletion of Ph.D. is mandatory to augment my opportunities in this profession. I hope to play my part in disseminating to my students and carrying out innovat ive and meaningful . I am confident that of at with her strength in w ill provide me the necessary platform to pursue my intellectual aspirations. I h ope that as a student at of at I can contribute towards strengthening an d fortifying her tradition of excellence. Impacting lives positively- is the best portion that drew me to . Now a senio r year student, I expect to in February 2013 from Bangladesh of & Technolo gy, nation s best school. I intend for MS in at of at in fall 2013, as p art of a long term goal elaborated later in the essay. During my junior year, I discovered my fascination for through its introductor y courses. Its interdisciplinary flavor and necessity in developing Bangladesh i nspired me further to take it as major. I feel drawn to pavement materials and p avement , planning, safety and public transport since I believe sustainable p avement materials and accurate planning together can build the firm basis for ne w-age scenario. I aim to to find ways for it and my intrinsic analytical per

ception is an impetus to it. In academic coursework, I achieved the top grade in Project Planning & Managemen t and Transport & Traffic Design courses and practical course on pavement materi als and traffic . I enjoyed studying Highway design & Railways course as well. I took this semester- Transport Projects & Operations course for my interest in planning. The practical course on traffic studies helped me realize the nuance s of planning concerns. Dr. Tanweer Hasan is my supervisor of the thesis on Bus S top Access Characteristics of Dhaka City Travelers . The abstract awaits acceptanc e of Transport Forum, USA. Through this experience, I learnt the skill of comm itment, tenacity and inquisitiveness required in , which ensures my maturity fo r independent in MS. Beyond academia, I worked as enumerator in two transport projects coordinated by Dr. Charisma F Choudhury, where I gained the hands-on ex perience on traffic data collection. I also volunteered at IABSE-JSCE Joint Conf erence, Advances in Bridge -II under supervision of Dr. AFM Saiful Amin, which has been a major exposure for me to professional societies. I am an active membe r of Students Association, BUET as well. I agree that my results fluctuated in first two years. The 4th semester was espe cially below ideal due to illness. Taking challenge, I raised my CGPA exponentia lly. With my respectable GRE score, my aptitude and preparedness for such major degree as MS is evident, which my CGPA obscures. I am fully aware that requi res self-motivation and I am prepared for that. s Cockrell School has the reputation of being the light-house for brilliant mind s. Among its ers, Dr. Amit Bhasin s on moisture damage of pavements, which is a major concern in our flood-prone country, completely fits my interest. My thesi s experience also inclines me to Dr. Chandra Bhat s on modeling and Greenhouse G as emission. Upon prior contact, Dr. Bhasin had interest to be my supervisor. My grades in pavement material related courses show my competence for his topic to o. With all its resources, Center of can nurture any endeavor. Thus, these facts has shaped my decision of applying to this school. As long term goal, I plan to be involved in a consultancy firm after MS. After few first-hand professional experience, I shall complete PhD and finally start m y academic career. A degree from of at is the first step towards the g olden door! Dhaka, the city I was grown up, where the curse of traffic congestions and the r esulting air pollution plague a population of 10.5 million, where the inefficien t mass transit system aggravates the distress of people, where the pedestrians a re highly vulnerable in terms of safety and thus suffering from the lacking of a n adequate system required for sustainable development - compels me to feel th at fostering a meaningful synthesis between planning and implementation is a req uisite. I remain optimistic, even in the emergence of such urban transport crisi s for my country, that technology will be able to solve many of today s immitigabl e problems. For a natural resource-deficient country faced by rapid growth of po pulation, extreme poverty and inequality of income, increasing urbanization and degradation I was faced with the dilemma of selecting a field of study that prop erly harmonizes the necessity and academic goals. I believe that and related technologies remain the most challenging field for our country. Analytic solutions of any problem have always attracted me and I have been inter ested in mathematics for a very long time. At I became fascinated by the magic of programming and started to solve the problems of ACM (Association for Comput ing Machinery). My passionate interest for programming gave me the 5th place win ner of the 26th ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, Asia Regional, BUET, Dhaka. At that contest I was one of those few contestants who were not fr om a field related to computer science. This success has greatly inspired me to explore beyond the horizon of technical . Now in my introductory lectures of co mputer programming lab course, I urge my students to be passionate to their inte rests no matter how difficult they seem to be. In my under studies, I have always strived to maintain an approach of expending independent effort in all my endeavors. This approach has paid rich dividends i

n my academic career as I achieved a CGPA of 3.91 in my under studies and ranke d first in my department among 199 students. My ensuing appointment as a Lecture r in the Department of , BUET fulfilled my intense inclination for a teaching profession. This excellent opportunity has opened for me the scope of both acqu iring and delivering . I try to maintain a continuous interaction with my stude nts not only in the academic area but also in other extracurricular activities. As the member secretary of the organizing committee I successfully organized the annual event of my departmentFestival 2006 . I always like to take the challenges of walking in the path less traveled by. My under work on manganese occurrence and its removal from ground water of Bang ladesh has given me such an opportunity to identify, establish and search the so lutions of a major water quality issue, not reported earlier, of our country. I tried to find the statistics of occurrence of manganese and its implications on safe water supply of a country which already has suffered greatly for high level s of arsenic contamination. My work has been accepted for presentation in the 32 nd WEDC International Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2006. Over the past few years, I have developed an interest in the areas of urban pl anning. Particularly the field of travel demand analysis, which attracts me to g reat extents, seems a promising as well as a challenging field in the context of a developing country. I was involved in a project of Strategic Transport Planni ng (STP) for Dhaka city where, as a part of a team, my role was to check the val idity of a model developed in EMME/2. The limitations and weaknesses of that mod el motivated me to develop a comprehensive and rational modeling framework as my thesis work. The abstract of a part of my thesis work, describing the develop ment of a trip generation model for Dhaka city, has been accepted in the 11th Wo rld Conference on Transport (WCTR), Berkeley, USA, 2007. To speak of my major interests, I intend to apply myself in any of the fields of urban planning, travel demand modeling, travel behavior analysis, land use and interaction, activity based modeling; while my parallel areas of interest are public system, non motorized transport, traffic simulation and application of intelligent system in developing country. I can work in the travel demand analysis field where I can learn and apply the state-of-the-art modeling concept s. In the traffic simulation field I can deal with design of intersection, with heterogeneous non-lane based traffic, appropriate for a developing country. I ca n also work with numerical simulations or mathematical or statistical models. Bu t whatever the theme may be, I am specifically looking for a work which requir es analytical efforts as well as addresses the implementation aspect. I have suf ficient programming skills using C++, EMME/2 and GIS which I want to put to go od use during my . I am eager to work with Professor Moshe E. Ben-Akiva, Profes sor Yossi Sheffi or Professor Patrick Jaillet because their fields closely res emble my interests. After graduation, I intend to move into a purely teaching and faculty. Wheneve r I surf through the scholarly journals in the library or internet, I truly want to be a part of the academic society disseminating scientific works worldwide . Despite many limitations, Bangladesh has already made noteworthy success in it s development efforts. But still the country lacks an efficient, safe and sustai nable system. I believe that my future works can significantly contribute to wards the development of such a system for my country. As a recipient of the Pri me Minister s Gold Medal, awarded for outstanding results in the under level of a ll the public universities of Bangladesh, I now feel a firm determination and he artfelt responsibility to be a part of the successful development story of a nat ion. It is not with my outstanding academic background that I want to attract your at tention but rather with my passionate endeavor towards further strengthening my technical and the earnest aspiration for . I hope to find me a deserving cand idate for the Ph.D. program of the well reputed department of your esteemed .

The relentless pursuit for post education is fully attributed to my ingrained desire to become an academic and scientific er. It is the gateway to and ori ginal contribution to the global pool of . I feel that I need academic preparat ion beyond my under education in order to make the meaningful technical contrib utions in the society. is the field that reflects my secondary and high school fascination for scienc e and mathematics. , to me was the form of applied science that would be suitab le in every respect in a developing country like Bangladesh. Being raised in the most densely populated city in the world, problems associated with traffic cong estion, poor drainage and sanitation system and major infrastructural tribulatio ns always inspired me to study . And the sheer diversity in the field of as it covers every aspect of life with its flourishing nature in developed count ries and necessity in developing countries like ours led me to choose as my under major. During my under study, I always tried to maintain good academic performance wit h a basic understanding in introductory subjects. I tried to comprehend the very rudiments of the discipline and to build a solid background in the fundam entals of subjects like geology, material science, structural mechanics, flu id mechanics, soil mechanics, control, systems, computer programming and a pplications and economics which have placed me in front of various theoretical c oncepts and methods widely used in this particular sector. The thesis work and d esign project undertaken in the final year to fulfill the requirements of under study were the first opportunities that I came across to apply the basics and f undamental understandings that I have learnt in the earlier years. The topic of my under was to evaluate the possibility of using bamboo twigs a s reinforcements in concrete beams. The purpose of the thesis was to find a solu tion for low cost housing for the rural people of Bangladesh. The objective of t he thesis was three fold: (1) to study the behavior of bamboo twigs under tensio n to determine the ultimate tensile strength, the stress-strain relationship and the modulus of elasticity (2) to understand the bond characteristics between ba mboo twig and concrete and (3) to determine the cracking and ultimate load capac ity of bamboo twig reinforced concrete beam. This thesis project helped me to un derstand the basic principles of materials, evaluation of various material prope rties and to innovatively applying it for the design purpose. My earlier experie nce in conducting at under level taught me that results are deliverable only through patience, persistence, and consistence rather than simply through brilli ance, curiosity, and creativity alone an immensely valuable lesson that I believ e will help me succeed in of at Arlington as well. After completing my bachelor degree, I joined BASF (The Chemical Company) as an Assistant Manager where I found the opportunity to gain about concrete technol ogy. While working there I attained training on concrete technology in Singapore which helped me to understand the design and application of high strength concr ete with chemical admixtures. My primary objective in the field of is the design and construction of sys tems to enhance the quality of like and to improve the environment in which we l ive. I have interests in the fields like Geotechnical and Geo systems. I found the ongoing projects under the supervision of Dr. Sahadat Hossain like Bioreactor L andfill Technology , Numerical Modeling in Geotechnics , Deep Foundations and Reliability base d Designs (LRFD) very intriguing. I have also similar interests for and I will feel hon ored if I get the opportunity to work as a assistant in his esteemed group. My immedia te degree objective is an MS in and I wish to follow it up with a PhD and ultim ately would like to work as a scientist for an academic institution in the area of and development.

of at Arlington is reputed to be one of the best schools in USA. The activities and facilities have made this a perfect milieu for me to fulfill my dreams. I want to utilize my cognition to explore the basic science behind an occurrence at an a rea where everything is in micro or nano scale, which is not yet known to people. Then usi ng the , I would like to design or develop something useful and efficient that will make a mark in future generation . I hold a strong belief that I would be able to fully utilize my ta lent if I get the opportunity to be a member of the wonderful academic and intellectual environmen t of this . It would, therefore, be a privilege to be able to secure admission to pursue s tudies at of at Arlington. I sincerely hope to have a mutually beneficial association with the to contribute my best towards making a successful endeavor. I believe that I possess the basic aptitude, discipline and perseverance to sustain the motivatio n and drive needed for a career. I feel that study at of Arlington will be an ideal fulfillment of my academic and ambitions and I am eager to become a part of this as a student. My motivation to pursue the MS degree in is deeply rooted in my commitment to excellence. It is the gateway to and original contribution to the global po ol of . The complex amalgamation of time, experience and adherence to the body of hig her level of makes it possible for an ordinary person to accomplish extraordinaril y. I believe that I am not ordinary, but it requires some technical support by some e xperienced people in a better place to study to shape my life inordinately in my field. My subjective experience always dictated me to the belief that all areas of educ ation are unique. To me, creates what is inexorable for a thriving ization. Beginning with ensuring efficient movement of people and goods, the engineers will design and build that warrants efficacy in allocation of resources and meet the needs of the people. Unfortunately, our country Bangladesh lacks the planners, engineers and other ex perienced professionals required for developing a competent strategy, to design and actual ly build the network with their minimal resources. These reflections have greatly influence d me and consequently enabled me to choose and prepare for a career in and pursue my in this field. I have selected few areas for my studies from interests such as Planning, Economics, Intelligent Systems, Advance Technologies in Traffic , Sustainable Strategies, Traffic demand modeling and simulation techniques, Traffic safety as well as i n developing countries. Purdue is reputed to be one of the best schools in USA. The activities and the facilities have made this a perfect milieu for me to fulfil l my dreams. I hold a strong belief that I would be able to fully utilize my talent if I get the opportunity to be a member of the wonderful academic and intellectual environment of this . As I ca

me to know that about the facilities, resourceful laboratories and a strong faculty doing panoptic es in different fields, I strongly desire to be a part of this so th at I can put my ability to its maximum use. I look forward to enroll in a program that has an immense potential for a dedica ted career in and that is why my immediate objective is to pursue a MS degree and I wish to follow it up with a PhD and ultimately would like to work as a scienti st for an academic institution in the area of and development. What lend me confidence t o succeed in this area is more reinforced by my academic accomplishments so far, t he I attended and my teaching experience at a reputed . While I am aware of the enor mous amount of self-motivation and continuous hard work required to pursue the MS, I have strong belief that I have adequate preparation and strong motivation toward this work . My motivation to pursue the Masters of Science in degree is deeply rooted in my commitment to excellence. It is the gateway to and original contribution to the global pool of . The complex amalgamation of time, experience and adherence to the bod y of higher level of makes it possible for an ordinary person to accomplish extraor dinarily. I believe that I am not ordinary, but it requires some technical support by some experienced people in a better place to study to shape my life inordinately in my field. It would be a blatant fabrication if I were to say that I wanted to be a engin eer from the very beginning of my life. After I had finished my college successfully, I was planni ng to enroll in career triggered by interest, curiosity and charm of its perplexing spectacl e. An admission in Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET), the leader in education in Bangladesh, was the most difficult and students had to excel in a rigorous entry exam to qualify for enrollment. In addition, the holds good rep utation throughout the world for advancing promising s who participated and successfully completed various significant and major projects. Admission into that marked something that will come into existence later in my life. Though I enjoyed some particular subjects, after I have enrolled in , I was n ot yet well focused in any major areas of . My earlier fondness of physics and mathematics helped me a great deal in understanding the elemental concepts and g rounds, on which the superstructure would eventually embark. It was not until later years w hen I got the opportunity to undertake various courses, to participate in project works and prepare presentations that are integral to course works, I started to realize the breadth and depth of this field, which immediately captured my substantial enthusiasm. I began to go to the library often to read various references and journals on my own for a better understanding of systems, planning, management and urban problems in developing

countries. These later experiences facilitated me to build up a compelling and p ersisting interest in this area and rationalize my goal. My subjective experience always dictated me to the belief that all areas of educ ation are unique; in their ability to create, to demonstrate the mystifying inherent beauty, to ap proach an idea or a problem and fashion out a solution with creativity and imagination - for the pur pose of contributing another step into the ladder of available and accomplishments of mankind. To me, creates what is important and inexorable for a thriving ization. Beginning with ensuring efficient movement of people and good s, the engineers will design and build that warrants efficacy in allocation of resour ces and meet the needs of the people. Why I have chosen to pursue my in , in particular, stems from both how I visualize and perceive the goals embodied in this field in relat ion to my country and how well equipped I am to contribute in this field. As I have perceived, systems are not merely aimed at efficient movement of goods and people, which ha ve, of course, throughout the history, played a crucial role in any country s economy and been cl osely tied with managing resources and wealth. This gigantic industry is also meant to increase the choices available to people, since it would determine how people would access to their n ecessary services and provisions, such as work place, educational facilities etc. For instance, in a developing country like Bangladesh, all useful, valuable and well-resourced establishments are concentrated at the city, and an absence of efficient system necessarily determines the fat e of people in significant ways. For example, sometimes, it alone will decide whether a patient from a remote area will have the chance to survive under emergency situations. It is li kely that, an inefficient and time consuming system will prevent his access to a hospital at city. I have chosen as my continuing field of as it directly deals with society, economy, environment, planning, and the overall development of the nation. I be lieve that will provide an excellent opportunity to study how science, techn ology, and social sciences interact. During my study period at Bangladesh of and Technology (BUET), I took all th e advanced courses in offered by the department. Though the courses were rig orous and covered a wide number of topics such as transport and traffic design, transport projects and operations, traffic planning and management, highway desi gn and railways, I preferred not to limit my to certain text books and selecte d articles. I began to explore papers. Many of the papers were fascinating and I was overwhelmed to see the authors unique way of approaching and handling prob lems. Exposure to these papers boosted my interest in . I want to gather mo re and learn the modern tools used in cutting-edge . This is precisely the re ason I wish to pursue a PhD in . My under work on evaluation of accessibility in planning and its relevance to Dhaka city gave me such an opportunity to analyze and identify the present le vel of accessibility of the existing road network. I tried to study the road net work of Dhaka city and the planning weaknesses of mapping the roads. These weakn esses cause chronic traffic congestion. To accomplish this task, I analyzed the travel-time data of all the motorized travel modes throughout Dhaka, consisting

of 90 administrative zones. I found out the accessibility and mobility indices f or these zones. The drastic index values indicate that traffic congestion is ver y common to the commuter because of the ill-planned and inefficient system. It also reveals that the system should be evaluated based on accessibility in ad dition to mobility to make an underserved zone more accessible. I successfully completed many projects with Dr. Charisma Choudhury (Assistant Pr ofessor, BUET; Postdoctoral Associate (Off-campus), MIT). I performed as an inde pendent er in a project to review the traffic prediction model for a proposed e levated expressway in Dhaka. BUET has been commissioned to review the traffic st udy to cross-validate the findings of the foreign consultant. I worked in anothe r project titled 'Willingness-to-Pay for Mass Rapid Transit in Dhaka' to find ou t people s responses about the inclusion of BRT and METRO along with other existin g modes. The project has been conducted for travel demand modeling. During my un der study, I also participated in a Bus Route Franchise study which has been impl emented for the first time in Dhaka city recently. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the benefit of merging different bus companies in a same route in co ntext of reducing travel time and traffic congestion. My role was to design and conduct questionnaire survey, compile SP data and assist in choice modeling in a ll these projects. From the that I gained through my academic and experience s, I have written three conference papers which have been submitted for Internat ional Conference-2011, SUST, Bangladesh, March 10-12, 2011. My earlier appointment as a assistant of IWFM, BUET for a four-month project h as made me confident to take this kind of responsibilities in future. My present appointment as a lecturer in the Department of , UITS ( of Information Tech nology and Sciences) fulfilled my intense inclination for a teaching profession. This excellent opportunity has opened the scope of both acquiring and deliverin g for me. I try to maintain a continuous interaction with my students not only in the academic area but also in other extracurricular activities. My interests include network modeling, operations , econometrics, and highw ay safety. In an overpopulated city like Dhaka, traffic congestion is a major pr oblem with negligible scope of expansion of roadways and other infrastructures w ithin the city. But I remain optimistic because efficient implementation of mode rn methods that comprise of comprehensive network modeling, planned roadwa y operations, cost effective arrangement can effectively ensure safe and effic ient movement of the people and goods here. I want to be a part of this innovati on. I am enthralled to see the diverse nature of the and scholarship of the expe rts associated with the and infrastructure systems group. It would be an excel lent opportunity for me to learn from and interact with such outstanding scholar s. Other motivations behind my application to the PhD program of and infrastru cture systems of the Purdue are its leadership role in NEXTRANS and close asso ciation with the Joint Program (JTRP), Center for Road Safety (CRS), Indiana Department of (INDOT). After graduation, I intend to move to a purely teaching and faculty. I want to play a leading role among the academics of systems in Bangladesh. Though Bang ladesh has already made some noteworthy successes in its development efforts, it still lacks an efficient, safe, and sustainable system. I believe that my fut ure works can significantly contribute towards the development of such a syste m for my country. Summing up all, the unique and comprehensive package of facilities, extremely reputable faculty members with extensive experiences have highly motivated me to be a part of the PhD program of and infrastructure systems of the Purdue and to build my career as a potential er in . I would like to introduce myself as M.S.PRAMOD. I have completed my bachelor of in Electronics & Communication from SIR M.VISVESVARAYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY an esteemed institution under BANGALORE .I always had the ambition of pursuing the MS program right from my childhood days. I firmly believe that inquisitive and explorative attitude leads to constant lea

rning process. As an Electronics Engineer, I look for study to refine my and skills in my areas of interest. I believe it will also serve to give direction to my goal of a career as oriented organization. During my under study subjects like Communication systems, Signal proce ssing, VLSI, Control systems, Microprocessors have been my favorite subjects. In particular I like Signal processing & VLSI, and would like to specialize in tha t. The electronic chip has always fascinated me. As years roll by the size of th e chip is decreasing and the cost is decreasing effectively. Though the size is decreasing, the sophistication of the function performed by the chip is increasi ng all the time. This advancement in the technology of the chip industry has ins pired me to work in that industry, but as for my MS degree, I would remain open to other topics as well. My project work during my final year of under course was on Flash Micro controllers (ATMEL AT89C55).The title of the project was SERIAL COMMUNICATION BET WEEN CONTROL CARDS IN (10+1) MUX .10 is the number of Voice/data channels.1 is ord er wire which is not included in the voice/data channels and must be written sep arately. This may appear a deviation from the area in which I wish to specialize , I am aware of the role that Microcontroller plays in field of Electronics. Hen ce, with an aspiration to specialize in area of VLSI or Signal processing, I pre sent my application in front of you hoping for positive consideration. I am aware universities in USA offer great scope and encouragement for I ntellectual & academic development. The process of technical advancement is very fast in USA. Hence, USA has emerged as world leader in Science & Technology. In order to keep myself updated with latest technical advances I am keen to obtain MS degree in USA. After consulting my Professors, Friends, seniors studying in USA your has been recommended very highly for its excellent faculty & learning experience . I always believe that essence of education lies in synergetic relationship b etween student and his department. I feel that study at your will be the mos t logical extensions of my objectives. I am confident that wholesome education t hat I receive at your will stand me in good stead through out my career. I sincerely request you to consider my application for admission into yo ur reputed . I would be grateful to you if I am accorded the opportunity to pur sue my higher studies and given the opportunity, I am sure that I will be able t o able to achieve my goals keeping in touch with the expectations of the . Looking forward to be a part of your program.There is a very famous adage, If you think education is expensive, then try ignorance . I could not agree more. I b elieve is necessary to acquire data and formulate theories, but it is just as important to know how to apply those theories and use that data in the real worl d. To be competent and competitive I will require a master s degree. A master s degr ee will give me the up-to-date tools and that are the need of the hour. While in my third year of under study, I learnt the concepts of signal processi ng and microprocessors. These topics have fascinated me ever since. When I studi ed the fundamentals of analog and digital signals, I almost decided that Digital Signal Processing was the career for me. What got me more enthused in this area was when I learnt about microprocessors. I had the opportunity to study some of the processors during my third and fourth (final) year. That s when I realized ho w the two fields could be merged together by having dedicated processors. I am c ertain that my interest in this will increase by taking Digital Signal Processin g and Microcomputer System Design as electives in my final semester of under st udy.

In DSP we shall learn in depth about FIR, IIR and Quantization errors. Here we s hall also cover Z-transform analysis, filter design (IIR filter design and FIR f ilter design), DTF, FFT and its applications. As an introduction we shall learn Instruments and Analog Devices special DSP Processors. In Microcomputer System Design, the Pentium Processor and PCI bus will be covered. Conceptual view of M icrosoft Windows NT, Windows NT models- client server is also a part of the curr iculum. Digital signal processing is one of the brightest spots in the semiconductor bus iness today, and one of the few deserving the title breakthrough . Like earlier adv ances in microprocessors and computer memories, digital signal processing is a f oundation technology with the power to transform broad areas of the electronics industry. Its impact is being felt in applications as diverse as stereo systems, cars, personal computers and cellular phones. In the next few years, digital si gnal processing should give rise to hundreds of new products and change what peo ple expect from technology. The fact that the world market in programmable Digital Signal Processor chips hi t more than $3 million in 1997, having tripled in just three years shows that Di gital Signal Processor have come a long way and are here to stay. It is projecte d to increase to around $14 million by the end of 2002. The future in this field is ever increasing and provides opportunity for the to-be engineers in this fie ld. Also being a member of the internationally acclaimed Institute Of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE - currently Communication Society, next year I will be enrolled for Signal Processing Society) has given me the opportunity to keep abreast with the latest in today s advancing technology. This has also increased m y interest in the field of Communication. Hardly surprising, much of the growth of DSP is being driven by communication. Thus this gives DSPs a wide area to exp loit.

In my final year, I joined hands with three other students to undertake a projec t. Our project consisted of designing an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). The hea rt of our system consisted of the 8086 microprocessor. We shall use assembly lan guage for programming the microprocessor. This is one of the most interesting la rge projects that I had a chance to be a part of. It is an extremely practical e xperience, which I really enjoy. During my under course in the Department of Electronics I have consistently sco red above 65 %, which is a matter of great pride for me, as very few student hav e achieved this feat. This makes me several cuts above the commonplace. Our cour ses were purely theoretical in nature. I would like to change that. As I have me ntioned below, I am a practical person and like to see things work. I enjoy teaching and although I have no formal experience, my naturally strong c ommunication skills will help me considerably. I envisage myself as a teacher an d er either in industry or in the . I definitely see myself in the role of a t eacher to under s. In fact, that s something I would enjoy immensely. I am a very practical person and my understanding is prodded by actually seeing things work. I am a quick thinker and learner. Your could be the nucleus to ac complish my goals, as ample opportunities exist for students like me to initiate independent study and to become involved in active programs, both experimenta l and theoretical. I would be more than happy to be given the opportunity to pur sue my study in your . I am confident that in return for this I can make a pe rennial contribution to your institution.Time and effort if put together, defini tely leads to success. I still remember, that Friday night, I was debugging a ho

spital management project. I didn t realize how the night drifted off so quickly, but finally I arrived at the solution. These comprehensive efforts were aptly r ewarded when my project was implemented for a cardiac clinic. This experience in developing a client server based system infused into my mind the love for compu ters over electronics, and aspired me to dwelve into the field of software . 81.57% in my secondary school admitted me into Electronics & Telecommunication at one of the ranked colleges in Mumbai, Vivekanand Education Society Polytechn ic (VESP). Here I realised the importance of Microprocessors, Satellite Networks , Mobile Communication etc. in today s environment. The final year project Cordless FM transmitter and Receiver was concentrated on wireless communication. Knowing the importance of computers in today s world, I enrolled into NIIT, a pion eer in providing software education in India. Here I learned operating systems l ike UNIX, Win NT, Linux, Programming languages like c, c++, Java, developer tool s like Visual Basic, Microsoft Foundation Classes, DBMS like SQL server, Sybase and 32 bit windows architecture. The final semester project was to develop & to simulate day to day operations in a hospital. This project took me to the top of the class where the project was much appreciated by the centre head and the dea n himself, because it facilitates all the functionalities that can be found in a medium sized hospital. My teachers encouraged me to present this project to the hospital manager of Varun Cardiac Clinic (VCC). Finally after 2 months of inter action with doctors and managers of the hospital, I developped a real life time system by employing 3 assistant programmers. I got plenty of experience not only in dealing with clients, but also in work management and time management, as I was simultaneously studying in the diploma college too. The natural progression after diploma was pursuing a Bachelors of degree in El ectronics at Shah & Anchor Kutchi College. Electrical Networks, Electronics, I nstrumentation and Control Systems, Robotics, Data and Digital Communications al l gave me a sound idea of the technological advances in the modern world. My fin al year project Inventory and Stores Control , developed in a GUI environment focus sed on the inventory system. My joy knew no bounds when I heard that the project was successfully tested by experts and is replacing the older version in the c ollege. I believe that experience plays a key role in one s career. I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Anand Sarvaiya, a Senior ERP consultant at Oracle Apps, Ja pan, over Internet who gave me an I, Ashwin Shrinivas, am applying to the of W isconsin, Madison for admission to the Ph.D. program in Computer Science. My goal is to pursue a career in , either in industry or in academia. Ten years from now, I envisage myself as a full-fledged professional in an organization, or a faculty member at one of the leading universities. A Ph.D. is an important first step in achieving this objective.opportunity to work on a live project for DSP Meryll Lynch Global Integrated Solutions Ltd as an offshore development from Feb 99 to Jul 99. Here I learned, how the sub division system software of a huge company is integrated under a common head, so that the system works smoothly and leads to an efficien t outcome. Working with international members of the team was simply fantastic. Although I programmed on a small part of a huge system, I played an important pa rt as a team member who was always ready for more work. This has always been my motto "Work is Worship". This experience had tuned me to the workings of a large corporate and have also polished my computer know-how. I am extremely proud to state that I am the only one from the entire college who has worked on an intern ational level. Master s from your will not only impart a sound education in latest technologies , but will also push me ahead in the computing world. My intentions, my dreams, my goals are clear, I look forward to become an ERP Consultant with software gia

nts like Arthur & Anderson Consulting, Oracle Apps. etc. and I am sure a good ed ucation, infrastructure and opportunities that come my way, will help me in achi eving my goals. I have always tried my best to achieve optimised and unconventio nal solutions in order to build a rising success. Though I was exposed to some a spects of Computer Science in my last two years of school, a comprehensive foundation in all the fields of Computer Science began after I entered IIT Bombay. The Computer Science department at IIT Bombay is indisputably among the best in the country. Its excellent courses, faculty and learning environment have given me a firm grounding in all the fields of Computer Science. My academic and co-curricular record has been consistently good. Throughout school as well as now, I have been at or near the top of my class. My class at IIT Bombay consists of 36 students, chosen from an All India exam involving 100,000 students. I myself was $9^{th}$ in that exam. I have listed some of my achievements on the attached resum\'{e}. I am of the opinion that requires a firm grounding in theory backed up by an in-depth of systems and implementation. The important courses of {\em Discrete Structures}, {\em Data Structures \& Algorithms}, and {\em Theory of Computation} have given me a good of theory. In addition, I am doing the course {\em Design \& Analysis of Algorithms} this semester and {\em Parallel Algorithms} next semester, in order to further firm up my foundations. My performance in lab courses attests to my of systems and programming. My strengths are my consistency, capacity for hard work, and my ability to work in a team. I have been involved in many course projects which involved a group of students, and I have been the team leader in quite a few of these. I believe that involves new ideas, as well as consistent effort to back them up, both of which I am capable of. \ \\ {\Large {\bf My primary interests}}\\ I prefer problems to be an ideal mix of theory and practice. The field of {\bf Databases} interests me because of the scope for breaking new ground, as well as the vast applications possible. I believe that {\bf Distributed Databases}, in particular, is an area with a lot of potential. My grounding in this field is solid, which is reflected in my obtaining the best possible grade in both the courses involving Databases, namely, {\em Business Information Systems} and {\em Database Management Systems}, and in their respective labs too. Currently, I am working on my Senior Thesis under Dr. S. Seshadri, in which we are looking at the problem of {\em Garbage Collection in Persistent Object Stores}. We plan to submit it for publication after running some performance tests, which we are designing.Since all fields in Compu ter Science are highly interlinked, I want to pursue studies at a that is strong in all fields of Computer Science. I am aware that the department of Computer Science at the of Wisconsin, Madison is one of the best in the world, being particularly strong in Databases (my primary interest). Dr. Seshadri, an alumnus of the , also recommends it highly. These facts have led me to apply to the of Wisconsin, Madison. There is one more ({\em and the most compelling}) reason. My Senior Thesis draws heavily upon related work by Dr. J. Naughton. We are currently implementing our algorithm on the EXODUS Storage Manager, which itself was developed at the of Wisconsin, Madison. I corresponded with Dr. Naughton, and his encouraging reply and

description of the work at the department reinforced my decision to apply. \ \\ {\Large {\bf Financial Aid}}\\ I would be fully dependent on aid to finance my studies. If I am granted an assistantship, then given my long term goals, a assistantship would be an ideal experience for me. I have already mentioned my interest in . I also have some experience in teaching. I have been a lecturer \& demonstrator in student workshops held in various colleges in the region. I was also involved in a nationwide program which involved teaching school children. The good response to my efforts, coupled with my prowess in dramatics, elocution \& debating gives me the confidence to handle any teaching assignment. \ \\ {\Large {\bf My plans if admitted}}\\ I plan to carry on advanced study of Databases, as well as related fields (e.g. Algorithms), not only through coursework but also by {\em participating in one of the several ongoing projects}. This will also give me the opportunity to contribute my bit to the understanding of the fields which interest me so much. I am aware that the of Wisconsin, Madison expects very high standards from its students. My track record gives me the confidence that I will be able to meet those expectations. I believe that my association with the Computer Science department will be a mutually profitable one. I, Anjan Vishakantaiah Mahesh, am applying to of Saskatchewa n for the admission to Master s Program in Electrical with specialization in the field of Communications. Here is my brief statement of purpose. Why Higher Education? Right from my High school days I had a strong inclination to be a n Electronics & Communication Engineer . My Interest in the subject has grown wi th each passing year and it has reached where even Ph.D. will not quench my thir st for .I have come to terms with the fact that there is an enormous proportio n of subject to be assimilated, therefore I want to take up a oriented course for my career. These coupled with a background of my educated father-an Superint endent , mother a lecturer and my brother, an Electronics & Communication Enginee r has made my choice of higher studies all the more obvious. Academic Background I got admitted to Sir.M.Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, on e of the reputed institutions in the state through an entrance exam & by merit. I took Electronics & Communication engg as my major for it offered me innumerabl e choices of specialization. During these 4 years I learnt Subjects like-Electro nics Devices & Circuits,Pulse & Digital Circuits,Programming in C, Digital Integ rated Circuits,Digital Communication Theory,VLSI Design,Computer Communication Networks and Digital Signal Processing.These subjects aroused my instincts w hen I realized I am really excited about the prospects of me being a part of su ch es. Background I always had a liking for the books from a very young age, perhaps this made me inquisitive about everything I came across yearning to know it s intricacies. This later helped me immensely when I started representing my school team regularly at inter-school science festivals. My first brush with serious was in final year of my under course when I succe ssfully completed a project titled Design and implementation of ARQ Protocols in Data Communication at Communication division,Electronics & Radar Development Esta

blishment (L.R.D.E),Defence & Development Organisation,Government of India-Min istry of Defence,Bangalore as part of a 4 member team. The project implements AR Q Protocols in data Communication networks using the widely popular 80c31 microc ontroller.The 80c31 systems used for Transmission and reception have been design ed and implemented.We did parallel along with our guide providing valuable inp uts apart from helping him with calculations. Goals In a decade from now I envisage myself as a Scientist in premier Laboratory or as a Professor in a top . I understand that M.Sc culminating in a Ph.D. is v ery essential, henceforth my short-term goal is to do M.Sc in a good . Why of Saskatchewan? A education that would enable me to pursue advanced degree is what I h ave aspired for .I also believe that good program is an essential step for rea lizing my long-term goals. I hope to fulfill my ambition at of Saskatchewan, wh ich I consider one of the best to pursue studies .I have gone through the broc hure and website very carefully and I have concluded that with excellent facil ities and highly able faculty, of Saskatchewan will provide a perfect environm ent to focus all my resources towards . I am confident that I II be able to meet the standards of the . I am eagerly wai ting for an opportunity to make significant contribution in and Development pr ograms of the . Conclusion I fully understand the kind of dedication, perseverance and resolve a program calls for; I believe that I have the ability and determination to tread on this exciting path. In conclusion, I do hope that I II be given a fair chance to realize my objectives by being granted an admission. I look forward for a long and mutually beneficia l relationship with the .