STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

My interest in Mathematics goes back to the time I was at school. I

remember an incident when I was in fourth standard. In the beginning days
of my schools I was poor in Mathematics. My elder brother who was
studying in the same school and he was very brilliant in Mathematics. My
teacher used to punish and insult me because of my inability to do maths
homework by comparing me with my brother. I took it as a challenge and
worked hard by spending more time on Mathematics to overcome my
weakness. As a result, I stood top in Mathematics subject in the final exam.
This interest has only grown through my years in school and high school, as
I have learned more and more about the subject. My bent towards
Mathematics and analytic skills has impelled me to choose Mathematics,
physics and chemistry as my major at my 10+2. A rank in the top 5%
among the students who took CET(screening test for getting into
professional courses) helped me to get into the bachelor program in
"Computer Science" from the Sri Jayachamrajendra college of engineering
(one of the reputed college in our state).A well-structured and
comprehensive curriculum here, along with an experienced faculty, has
given me a broad prospective and better understanding to the
fundamentals of core Computer Science subjects viz., Computer
Organization, Operating Systems, Database Management Systems,
Computer Networks, Data Structures, Object Oriented Programming, Design
and analysis of Algorithms, Computer Graphics, Software Engineering etc.
My course projects have given me plenty of experience in programming
using various programming languages, software packages and operating
systems. My undergraduate final year project was on a pattern recognition
system that recognize a person based on a feature vector derived from a
specific physiological characteristic that the person possesses. Over the
course of my undergraduate program, I always enjoyed the practical
aspects of my studies, and that is one of the reasons why my marks in lab
exercises, practical examinations and projects averaged 85th percentile of
my school on the other hand received average marks in theory subjects.

I have participated in various extracurricular activities in and outside the

college. I was an active member of the "Linux Campus Club"(student club of
computer science Dept) played an active role in organizing programming
contests and seminars. Additionally, I was volunteer of an NGO called
"Divya Deepa Charitable Trust" established in Mysore, India which runs
schools for opportunity deprived children. My volunteer tasks involved fund
raising and taking informal teaching at the school.

During the final year of my undergraduate, I received an internship

opportunity at Symphony Teleca to work on their products. At the end of my
internship, I was offered to join the Symphony core R&D team. While
working at Symphony, I learned various aspects of building large and
scalable systems, protocols and algorithms for complex tasks and
managing heterogeneous infrastructure. My job duties were to develop new
features based on product needs and fix bugs in the product reported by
customer. Along with that my role involved mentoring new members which
I found to be very rewarding(something I would like to pursue further along
academic lines). During my stay at symphony I got the opportunity to work
with client in Belgium for one year. Working directly with clients helped to
enhance skills such as leadership qualities, taking more responsibility,
solving complex problems independently and cultural sensitivity.Although
my employment of five years with the Symphony Teleca has taught me
many valuable skills, I find the work to be non-challenging and devoid of
ideas. It pains me to leave the security of a good job and many close
friends to go back to school, but, I am very committed to my career goals.

I feel that graduate school is a chance for intellectual growth. I also believe
that it facilitates intellectual stimulation and cognitive development. Also
my passion to strive for excellence made me leaner and seeker of
knowledge. My willingness to place a value on acquiring knowledge made
me quit my job and pursue for masters. I feel that dedicated research is
the only way to gain in-depth knowledge of a subject. Graduate study
provides the perfect environment to pursue research and thus gain a better
perspective of the subject. Also it is an opportunity to associate myself with
knowledgeable people in the computer field learn exceedingly from them,
which will expand my horizon by connecting myself to as many groups as
possible.

My heartfelt desire is to become a computer scientist. Specifically, I am

interested in exploring how problems can be modeled and solved using
Intelligent Systems. I also want to learn about human cognition and
machine intelligence. I have been exploring many different areas within the
domain of artificial intelligence (such as neural networks, genetic
algorithms, and natural language processing). The bottom line is that I want
to be a part of this exciting field. To that end, I would like to come to the
University of Bonn to work towards an M.S. in computer science with an
emphasis in Intelligent Systems.

I believe that a symbiotic relationship between the student and his

department is of utmost importance for a successful graduate program.
Considering the theory and research based Graduate Program in Computer
Science which suits my needs perfectly,University of Bonn is an ideal choice
for an exciting research career.I believe that general coursework allows to
show independent research and do large amounts of work to contribute to
the course. Also, I have found the Computer Science Department faculty
and the research being carried out, especially in Algorithms and Intelligent
Systems, to be very impressive. I feel that to be associated with this group
would stand me in good stead for my research career. I have also been
impressed by the computing facilities available at the University of Bonn for
research and education. These are much superior to those available to a
graduate student in India. Taking all these factors into account, I feel that
University of Bonn is the perfect place for my graduate studies and I am
confident that I will make a positive contribution to the ongoing research
work at the University of Bonn.

I believe that I have the motivation, intellectual power and readiness to set
out on this exhilarating and strenuous path with absolute commitment and
preparedness for necessary personal sacrifice to your on-going research
work. With my decent academic background and strong industry work
experience, I assure you that I will live up to the high academic standards of
your university. I am sure that my aptitude and drive will see me through
the challenge. I hope to have a long and mutually profitable association
with the University of Bonn.