ASSIGNMENT
Rewrite/edit the below provided application essay.
Application essay: I always saw my father doing various odd jobs himself without seeking any help – be it fixing the water pumping machine or painting the windows in the house – he loved doing everything at home that usually required skilled labour. He was not even an engineer but a weather scientist. Guess that is what sparked my interest in me to try to troubleshoot everything at home – big or small and my father was always there to encourage me and make sure I was safe. While growing up I was drawn to physics and mathematics. After I finished school the best-known field where I could pursue my love for applied sciences that I knew of was engineering. Also, I was eager to get into a professional course. Thus I prepared for entrance exams and landed at the National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur. I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering but my rank in the entrance exam landed me with Production Engg. and Management which was my second choice. But life had other plans. When I graduated in 2006 Information Technology in India was a booming market and thus I landed a job from campus placements in a multinational information technology services and consulting company. It is not that the software industry and computers were completely alien to me or for that matter anyone from our generation. We practically saw computers take over every field and the birth of the cell phone. Also while pursuing my undergraduate degree I realised that computer science is everywhere. A CNC machine has more programming logic than many websites. Thus there was a natural inclination towards computer science.
I joined my current employer right after I finished college. My work has given me immense learning opportunities. Life is all about experiences. Thanks to my profession I got the opportunity to gain technical knowledge as well as it took me to places across continents to experience varied cultures. As I have already mentioned my undergraduate specialization was not in Computer Science thus much of my learning in the field of my work happened on the job. But my biggest motivation to study computer science was when I observed my spouse studying MS Computer science at UT Arlington while I was on deputation in Texas, USA. At that point, I was working on a project where we were dealing with large volumes of client data. The challenge was to handle the huge volume of data with a limited number of resources since the data was confidential and sensitive. We worked very closely with the BI team in our project for handling large volumes of data. During that time I saw my spouse working on a similar project for her database management course which was using Map Reduce to handle data for counting words. This was a new and interesting concept for me. I started reading up on my own and implemented the project by myself using the code base given by the university. I could finally implement the project using Apache Hadoop. Thus I started coding on my own with the aim to pursue a degree in computer science when I would get a chance to do so.
What intrigues me about computer science is that it deals with real-life problems and the ultimate goal is to resolve issues which would otherwise become a predicament. As computers have become adequately small to fit into the palms of our hands the problems it needs to solve have increased enormously. My research interests particularly lie in the field of human-computer interaction. While researching the University of Toronto I came across the DGP Lab and some of the research work of the professors involved with it.Though I am passionate to learn new things and pursue my interest in research, especially in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. I still am exploring the various research works of the professors. My long-term goal is to establish a successful career in research and I believe if I get an opportunity to pursue my Master’s degree at the University of Toronto it will be a step in the right direction.
