SOP Letter for Graduate Students - SOP for California University

My undergraduate studies in the department of computer Science and Engg at **** have exposed me to a stimulating academic environment where learning and research go together. Through the many opportunities I have had here. I have grown to love research work and have found that I have a strong aptitude for the kind of work that it involves. I have therefore decided to pursue active research as a career. It is with this objective in mind that I wish to enroll for the doctoral program in your university.

I plan to study at the graduate level in the area of distributed computing, specifically the theory of asynchronous systems. I believe that theory and application in Computer Science go hand-in-hand. The study of theoretical aspects of distributed systems is essential for the successful development of applications for heterogeneous and fault-tolerant systems. The possibilities of research in this field fascinate me.

Recent research in the theory of asynchronous computation has yielded theorems describing the computability of tasks in asynchronous systems that can tolerate multiple failures. Attempts are also being made to completely characterize the power of various synchronization primitives in an asynchronous system. As part of my B.Tech project (senior thesis) under Dr. yyy I am currently working on extending these results to stronger synchronization primitives and exploring the possibility of utilizing some of these ideas to completely describe the power of concurrent objects. To further my understanding of these problems I have also enrolled myself for the graduate level course, { Foundations of Parallel Computation} under Dr. yyy.

I have excelled in academics at every step in my education. Throughout twelve years of schooling I have always been ranked among the top of my class. I was introduced to Computer Science in junior college. I was awarded the Merit Certificate for my performance in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination – 100% in Computer Science, 99% in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. I was also placed seventh in the state wide Physics Talent Test of the Physics Society, Madras. In the highly competitive entrance examination to the *** I was ranked 134th among over 100,000 students. The broad curriculum at **** provided me with a strong foundation in all branches of Computer Science. Of these I have pursued those, which have particularly appealed to me. During the summer of 1994, I worked on a `learning’ program for the gam {Othello} using Neural Nets that I had initially developed as part of my course work. For my seminar (junior thesis) I studied {smart recompilation and incremental parsing techniques} under Dr. yyy. Efficient implementation of these techniques can substantially reduce compilation time in large software systems.

I have also gained considerable teaching experience in ****. I have been a course assistant for the Institute level freshman course, Computer Programming and Utilization for two consecutive years. I have also delivered lectures and given demonstrations on UNIX at various workshops conducted by the Computer Science and Engg. Association. All of these have been well received and have made me confident of developing into a very good teacher. I have also taken the Test for Spoken English in November 1995 . I have worked for two months at ARCUS, Bangalore, and a company that develops VLSI tools and also for Rational, USA at their third party development centre in Bangalore.

My undergraduate program has given me sufficient exposure to various avenues for research and I have chosen Distributed Computing for which I have both an aptitude and a liking. A good graduate program is now essential for gaining a deeper insight and to make significant original contributions to this field. I am confident that I possess the motivation, intellectual ability and preparation to succeed in a demanding graduate program.

My interest in the theory of distributed computing makes UCLA a natural choice for graduate study. Professor yyy is one of the leading researchers in this field and I have studied his work as part of my ongoing thesis and he has encouraged me to apply to your program. Working under an expert whose work can serve as a model will set me on the path to contributing significantly to the ongoing research at UCLA. The research interests of the other faculty members cover a large number of topics in Computer Science and this will enable me to keep in touch with the latest developments in these fields. The excellent facilities offered by your department will provide an environment conducive to successful graduate work. The faculty at **** has also strongly recommended UCLA for pursuing graduate studies.

I look forward to joining UCLA as a graduate student at your esteemed department.