State your purpose

I desire to pursue a MS in Computer Science. My interests, aptitude, experience and education all sum up to provide sound grounds for this immediate career goal. I would like to gain profound knowledge in the field of Artificial Intelligence; other areas that interest me are Natural Language Processing and Analysis and Design of algorithms.

My reason for graduate studies in Computer Science is to prepare myself for my long-term goal of pursuing a career as a senior member of technical staff for AI based solutions. My predilection is towards developing software, coding and working large scale projects, but research attracts me a lot, programming and development using AI is the area I would like to work in. Working under the guidance of the distinguished researchers at Arizona State University gives me the confidence of making a novel contribution in the field 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. I would like to stress most is the fact that I have been consistent in all academic or co-curricular (and even Extracurricular) tasks that I have undertaken. Having secured 23rd place in Combined Entrance Text of Devi Ahilya University where more than twenty thousand aspirants compete for admissions, I got the course I had long desired. College days were pretty exciting for me. The unique five year “Master of Technology” program helped me gain profound understanding of fundamental concepts like Database Management Systems, Design and Analysis of Algorithms and also helped me hone my Software Engineering skills. With an overall score of 78.5% I completed my degree. I also attended various workshops on Ethical Hacking and Android App Development held at IIT-Bombay. At many occasions I delivered presentations and trainings (Web-Analytics and Python) during my college and work life respectively.

My home paper submitted under Dr. Manju Sachdeva was based on exploring the contemporary breaches and bugs in popular e-commerce websites in India. For instance, I was able to detect bugs in quantity drop down of Philips and HP’s official online stores, where a UI element could be manipulated to turn the price of an item in a negative number to decrease the total bill value. Currently I am working on a paper presenting impact and analysis of ad-blocking in correspondence with Dr. Vivek Shrivastava. Anomalous and incomplete data captured in analytics while working for Samsung inspired me to take a deep understanding of whole ad-blocking story.

My 30+ months experience began when I was recruited by a more than two decades old US based IT firm during my second last semester. Since joining, I have gone through a rigorous training program, which emphasizes practical application of concepts, followed by onsite experience of working with a global client like Samsung. Samsung would periodically launch its flagship phones; this attracted numerous consumers on our site, which gave me a chance to build my expertise in field of optimization and scaling. My enthusiasm for learning helped me in integrating and generating sales reports with web-analytics tools like Google analytics, developing home grown content management system and integrating various payment gateways. My job boosted my confidence to apply concepts that I had studied in college.

Apart from my academic and professional interests, I enjoy playing badminton; I was on the University Teaching Department sports team and won a bronze for the department. I also secured second position in a dance competition in my college. I have experienced various adventure sports like White Water Rafting, Zip-Lining and Para-gliding. All this because I believe that living a balanced life with equal dedication to recreation and work is very important for one to keep up the motivation to accept new challenges in life. Challenges like preparing for and getting the desired scores at once in my GRE and TOEFL tests, self-studying in a limited time of four months without degrading my dedication for the exacting project I work for.

I want to gain profound understanding of AI concepts with a utilitarian goal of developing skills for working on logic based programming software. I am determined to pursue research in logic based programming area. If I find myself capable of further research, I plan to pursue a Ph.D. setting aside my goals for working in the service industry because the satisfaction gained while working on something innovative exceeds the perks of a job in IT industry.

The MS program in Computer Science at the Arizona State University feels like a natural progression. It has a good blend of theoretical and practical knowledge that would ideally suit someone with my disposition towards learning. An exposure to cliques like Yochan Group & Software Research Lab and guidance of faculty like Dr. Kurt VanLehn and Dr. Subbarao Kambhampati would definitely help me advance my career towards my long term goal. Also, I relish the thought of taking in all this knowledge in a new country in the kind of vibrant atmosphere that United States offers.

I put forward my application to your university with the promise that I shall be a reliable student with a positive attitude and a willingness to work in the atmosphere ASU offers.