Computer Science / Engineering Statement of Purpose (details changed)

After graduating cum laude from the ABC University with bachelor’s degrees in both electrical

engineering and computer engineering, I now hope to pursue a PhD in computer science at

Target University. Based on my academic performance, research experience, and specific areas

of academic and professional interest, I am confident that I am an ideal candidate for post-

graduate academia and that I will make valuable contributions to the Target University

community and beyond.

A PhD in this field will open up opportunities for me to research within both academia

and the professional industries that I am passionate about. I am particularly interested in digging

Foundations of Computation to be fascinating; it was the first course I took that covered concepts

such as first-order logic, the creation of rigorous proofs, and computability. Introduction to the

Theory of Computation, which used a book of the same name by Professor K, was a natural

extension of the most interesting parts of this class, the bulk of which was proof writing.

Introduction to Algorithms was particularly compelling as well because I found the algorithms

we studied interesting and because I loved doing the correctness proofs.

In addition to my coursework, I also had the opportunity to participate in research at the

ABC University with Professor James Francis and his reconfigurable computing group. Our

project was funded by NBXD Computing, a local company that makes computer boards, which

are frequently used in cryptographic applications. The focus of the research was creating a

combination of software and firmware to accelerate an existing algorithm, which is the crux of a

common approach to gene sequencing. A solution to this problem would enable biologists to

employ the computer boards boards manufactured by NBXD to reduce gene sequencing

operations that normally take a week down to a single day—a problem that we successfully

solved. My contributions included conducting an initial survey and studying the source code of

some existing open source solutions (mostly of BFAST). I also studied the statistical properties

of various hash functions that would be used to implement an important data structure and

program, a hardware accelerated program (such as the gene sequencing solution we had

developed previously), or even a distributed system. On this project, I had the opportunity to

implement an interpreted programming language from scratch, which was an amazing

intellectual growth opportunity and an area of interest for further research.

My professional experiences also inform my desire and preparedness to study computer

engineering at Target University. Before graduating, I had the opportunity to take some years off

and work as an engineer at the startup of a professor from the ABC University , Richard Xu. The

company, Hong Kong Technologies, funded partially from private sources and partially from

DARPA, focused at the time on accelerating the process of hardware circuit verification for

analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs. Aside from working on the user interface—a Java

program using Swing—I found that this work was also a huge opportunity to grow and learn how

to maintain Linux systems, networks, and services on the network, as well as secure remote

services and enable remote productivity for the employees there. I also found working with

Professor Xu to be highly inspiring; he is an incredibly dynamic individual who is genuinely

passionate about transforming the industry. It was enlightening to accompanying him at industry

conferences, in meetings with DARPA, and on phone calls with major customers, as well as see

him make the case for his product’s relevance while also translating their needs into technical

of helping to showcase the platform’s capabilities and helping to drive the development of it. We

were eventually acquired by Amazon, where my role has shifted to infrastructure and porting our

organization’s main product to web and mobile, which has been a great opportunity to learn new

technologies and technology ecosystems.

Overall, the curiosity, drive, and dynamism I have exhibited academically and

professionally are reflective of my ability to rise to the challenges of a PhD candidate in

computer science at Target University. I believe Target University is the ideal educational

environment for me for various reasons. One reason is its impressive history of pioneering

artificial intelligence research by figures such as Professor X and Professor Y, the latter being the

author of the seminal essay “The Rise of Worse is Better,” a piece that contrasts the so-called

“University ABC” design with a “New Jersey” design and a piece I often reference in my own

research. Moreover, Professor N, a giant in the field and a personal mentor, is a Target

University alumnus, which solidifies for me that I would be part of an amazing and forward-

thinking community.

Quite simply, Target University is a school with an amazing reputation that I would feel

honored to be associated with. My coursework, research, and professional innovations

underscore my intention to use mathematics and computer engineering to develop programs that