George
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Posts posted by George
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I'm glad a few people came out and shared some things.
My interests are in robotics. I specifically dream of having humanoid robots that are as agile and swift as we are, and maybe fight the way the robots did in the movie I, Robot. =) I often walk down a street and start thinking about what it is that makes me step here and there and not there and here. This gets especially tricky when you're walking on an icy road and do nothing with your sight but look for favorable places to step. I find that fascinating! It's completely absurd that just through blobs of color and a bit of depth perception (not very much really) we are able to discern the slope of the surfaces we step on.
While this is a fascination and interest of mine, it's not what I want to do. Vision is something I'm completely unfamiliar with. What I want to do is design the locomotion system that will take into account the vast quantities of information that we as humans perceive while walking, not to mention running. I think we are very aware of texture and of friction coefficients of the surface we walk on - maybe not in accurate numbers but in more relativistic terms: "this surface is safer than that one" sort of thing. We are also very aware of accelerations that occur in the body through various little perceptions, the major one being the inner year, and others are possibly restricted to cognition. What I mean by cognition is that when someone pushes you, your inner year will report that to you, but if you also see the person pushing you, you can very accurately estimate how much force was applied to you. I think everyone can find it believable that we use vast quantities of information in order to make decisions about how best to move. This doesn't even go into energy efficiency which is something that current researchers are banging their heads against.
Getting all this information is a real challenge, but even if we could get it, we still have no way of using it. Designing systems of control that can take advantage of all of this will take a lot of work. The mechanics (dynamics, physics) of the robot as a physical system are modeled by highly non-linear differential equations. Even though they are complicated, you still know how changing one variable will affect another. The problem is that you want certain variables to behave in a certain way because you know the movement they describe will keep you balanced. Three of the variables can be accelerations in X, Y, and Z coordinates centered at your torso. These might be important if you want to walk with books over your head and you want all these accelerations to be as close to 0 as possible. Of course, you don't have control over these variables. You have control over your muscles. This is what control theory is all about. You have variables that you want to control but can't and you have some that you can control but they're pretty rudimentary. You need to find the bridge between these two worlds.
That's what gets me excited in a nutshell! =)
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Thank you all for your replies! I ended up submitting the application last night with plenty of time before midnight. I didn't want to take the risk. I had worked on it enough already... just not as much as I would have liked to.
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I saw another topic here in which the person says their school specifically says BEFORE Jan 1, but mine doesn't.
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I have been operating under the impression that the app has to be complete before the date, but it seems I can't make it. Is it allowed to submit ON the day of the deadline?
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I have thought this through and decided this is not a good idea. melusine is right. This forum is not the place to discuss this topic.
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um...
i'm kind of on the fence with this one. i mean, i love to talk about my topic but in these times of applications/submissions, my paranoia has hit an all-time peak.
it's not that i'm scared anyone will bother to "steal" my topic- it's nothing that original anyhow.. but a professor-friend of mine told me her colleagues in Harvard won't even share their current projects outside the privacy of their respective offices. i think i've already posted enough for people who really want to know to figure my specific interests out, but i'm not sure if i have the guts to put it all out in the open in a single post on a public forum. maybe later, but not today.
Hmm. I see where you're coming from. I guess I didn't really expect future plans for research to come into play. I wanted to share something that I have already done and is a closed chapter in my life. It might be that in Humanities your whole research revolves around one interesting idea, which you don't want to share because then others will start working on it. In my situation, if I told you that my idea was to build a robot that could take over the world, that wouldn't at all hurt my chances of achieving it first. =) The idea is not even half the battle.
I'm still curious to hear a few other responses. I apologize if I inadvertently asked too much of you.
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I had a very similar experience. I came back home from work one day to find a very thin envelope from UIllinois-Urbana. It had been 2-3 weeks since the deadline and I thought that surely they couldn't have rejected me this quickly. All it said was that my application is complete. A year of my life expectancy shriveled away... I feel your pain!
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I really don't know if this will be greeted with praise or criticism, but I decided to give it a shot. I'm really interested to hear what other people's interests are, whatever they may be. Even though my background is in mathematics/computer science/robotics, I would love to hear about the persecution of the Alevis in Turkey, the lyrical devices invented by James Joyce, sexism in ex-communist satellites: anything and everything! My fear is that it looks like I'm asking you to write me a SoP or to paste your own. I don't want that. I want us to just let loose and share our excitement, our pride and joy, with the words we want to use, not the ones we think will be deemed correct by a third party. There is no need for 'fit' either which will eliminate a lot of the stress. I know for a fact that every one of you can share something interesting if someone is willing to lend you their ears. Well, I'm lending mine to begin with.
I want share my own story, but I don't want to appear conceited as if it's any more important than anyone else's. I would like to know if others are interested in sharing their stories, and then I will more than gladly share mine.
What do you, fellow comrades in arms, think? Feel free to write as much as you like, though, personally, I would love to read even pages' worth from each person. I know it takes room to explain things.
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I'm hoping to get a PhD in mathematics. If I had the chance I would go back and do a math/physics double major rather than the math/comp sci major I got. I can't stand computer science and really couldn't by the end of my sophomore year, but I was already mostly done with it, so I decided to get it anyway.
I love physics and dream of being able to grasp string theory and general relativity. I've been told that as a mathematician, I should be able to do it, but I have to invest time in it.
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Hi all,
I am wondering if I could get into Applied Math programs. Also, would I be able to get any funding? Does anyone know programs that might waive tuition? My stats are:
Major in Econ-Math (joint major), GPA: 3.7 (but major GPA only 3.5!) @ a grade-inflated Ivy
Coursework in Calc, Linear Algebra, ODE, Complex Analysis, Logic, Proof-based Stats, Probability, & Game Theory
No coursework in Modern Algebra or Real Analysis
GRE: 800Q/800V
I belong to an underrepresented minority group, don't know if that would help with funding or not.
Do I need to take the GRE Math?
Thanks in advance!
I'm not sure I have the authority to give you advice, but seeing as how no one has responded to you yet, I think it would be useful.
First off, the easy part - GRE math. Since you want to apply to applied math specifically, most of the places I have looked at specify the subject test as optional for the applied math track in particular. It is required in pure mathematics. This is all for PhD. I imagine the same goes for MS.
I am rather impressed at your GRE. I thought scoring 800 on verbal is a feat few mortals can achieve and most of them are not mathematicians. Having said that, I am pretty sure schools toss that out after a cursory glance, making sure it's not under 400 which would signal a troll. It's the quantitative that will count for you. The GPA sounds fine to me, but it's also very comparable to my own, so I can neither praise it nor criticize it without feeling vain. =)
Now for the part that I find painful to tell you: not having taken real analysis or algebra is a real miss, even for applied math. You should address that in your SoP. Maybe vow that you will spend the time between now and Fall 2010 studying those at least a little? What I know, again please don't ever quote me on this, is that, yes, grad school will prepare you in these, and the courses in algebra and analysis will start from the basics. However, they will move really quickly because they will assume you are familiar and comfortable with the scenery. They will want to get the undergrad parts out of the way in the first 3 weeks. So that's one semester's worth of undergrad in 3 weeks of grad school. On another note, some places allow you to take an undergrad course or two so you can catch up to where you should be.
Can't say I know much about MS funding, except that I've heard it's happened for some. Sorry. =/
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I think you just brightened my day, in a way.
I have thankfully not had nightmares yet, but let's wait until mid-January when my last application is due. -
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz
Gene Kranz was part of the ground team that troubleshooted and guided astronauts during the moon landing push. He is not a scientist himself. He is a disciplined ex-military man who drew up a lot of the procedures that were put into place for the successful operations at NASA. While I was hoping the book would be a little more technical, such as giving an example of an engineering problem the team had to solve, it is still really engaging. Kranz tells an exciting story. It's especially cool to hear what NASA felt when the USSR beat them to several of the first space records.
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It's so awful. I have submitted 3/4 of my apps. My deadlines were spread out over a 6 week period, so I have been biding my time. So now I'm waiting to hear back for some, but I'm still not done and I just want it to end!
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AVATAR - for escaping the grim reality of application waiting:). Gorgeous, gorgeous flick
Inglorious Basterds - Tarantino. Enough said
Julie & Julia - a very cute (girls only!) flick that might actually inspire you to cook or bake something
From TV Shows:
THE WIRE - you will forget all about the grad school as you get immersed into the storyline.
The Big Bang Theory - for all of us hopeless nerds:)
I second The Big Bang Theory. There is an episode in about an hour and thirty minutes.
Also, District 9 is really really good. It's not at all a means of escaping reality, but very thought provoking, I thought.
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Your first paragraph seems too abrupt, like the reader interrupted in the middle of some conversation.
Start with a focused statement of your interests in general, and maybe then start talking about how they evolved. The admissions folks will read the statements so quickly initially that you want to have your main area right in that first paragraph (as awkward as that makes the rest of the essay!)
That first paragraph is really the weakest, so try to make it more precise instead of immediately launching into a history. I'm totally from a different sort of field than you, but maybe start with an interesting sentence or question but not a GIMICKY sentence or question. Something like, "When my robot was able to compete against those of the top universities in the world, and I had been responsible for the programming, I knew for sure that I belonged in robotics. I would like to study the ways in which ------ is applicable to -------- and how the mathematical framework of ------- influences the ------- of robotics." Since I am utterly ignorant of any math and science stuff, I imagine I have given you pretty silly sentences, but you get the idea. Just start with a short, focused paragraph explaining your interests in a few sentences, then go into your academic development.
I took your advice to heart and wrote a new opening paragraph that goes something like this:
Six humanoid robots are playing a game of soccer. Most spectators expect the game itself to provide amusement – they focus on the whole rather than the pieces which comprise it. In contrast, I derive joy from the arrangement of the pieces. I cannot help but think what a robot perceives. Walking seems simple to people – we each know how to place one foot in front of the other. The robot, however, only knows how to set the positions of its joints at desired angles. A substantial number of layers fill this awareness gap, each giving the robot additional skill and understanding, so that it can accomplish the simple task of walking. Each layer is built on the foundation of lower layers using mathematics as the adhesive, but at the very bottom, there are simply addition, multiplication and division. The power of mathematics to encode meaning is a continuing source of inspiration to me.
I like it much better than the old thing. Thanks!
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Won't anyone else give me some criticism? I'd be very grateful!
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You're right. I removed them all. Thanks!
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I sincerely apologize for the missing spaces. I don't know why that happened.
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Hello fellow grad applicants,
I'll be frank with all of you: I'm quite terrible at getting my point across, so I hope to show this text to as many people as I can. What I want to convey with my SOP is that my passion for math was acquired over the course of my undergrad studies, that I am serious about my work and that I am capable of graduate level work, having done a bit of it already. I will also eventually include a paragraph or two that will be school-specific but this draft doesn't have that yet.
Please, have no mercy! I am sure I need to do a lot before this draft becomes final. Thank you for taking the time to read my SOP!
Without further ado:
When I enrolled at undergrad College I had intended to study computer science. The computer science department participated in the RoboCup competition which fosters research in artificial intelligence, automation and control. The competition consists of a set of standard problems which universities are meant to solve. undergrad participated in the Standard Platform League which is a soccer tournament between teams of three to five autonomous robots. Each team uses the same robot, manufactured by a third party, in order to promote research in algorithms rather than engineering. Since I joined the team in my second semester, I saw a gradual shift in my interests as I witnessed the kinds of mathematical problems which arise in robotics. My first steps as a member of the team were mostly restricted to programming, but as I broadened my understanding of robotics, I inevitably became a mathematician.
I joined undergrad’s team when it was taking its first steps.As a result, I have studied or developed nearly all aspects of the software system. As I expanded my knowledge of the field, I witnessed the central role which mathematics plays in robotics. Self-localization relied heavily on probabilistic modeling and filtering. Locomotion required the use of dynamical systems, optimization and control theory in order to maintain balance. Even the simplest tasks a robot needed to perform required the use of linear algebra in order to transform data from one space to another. My goal to improve our team’s performance taught me the usefulness of mathematics; my witnessing the robots play soccer as though they had a mind of their own exposed me to the beauty of research.
RoboCup was a driving force during my time at undergrad and shaped my academic goals. I opted to enroll in a number of independent studies in order to continue learning from the experiences. Even during the semesters when I chose not to do an independent study, I devoted at least as much work to the project as for an extra class. My adviser encouraged me to explore the field on my own and provided me with supervision only when I specifically requested it. As a result, I have learned to be independent and to shape my own curriculum.
RoboCup has exposed me to graduate level work. One of the tenets of RoboCup is to promote education and research among students. Faculty play a secondary role in a team’s development. Most of the work is done by graduate or postdoctoral students who are mentored by a small collection of faculty from each institution. undergrad College was among a minority of entirely undergraduate institutions. Regardless of that fact, we were able to compete with the largest and most prestigious universities from around the world. We placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the years 2007,2008 and 2009 respectively.
My aim is to specialize in the field of dynamical systems and mathematical physics. I developed my interest in my senior year. In the summer of 2008, the Standard Platform League radically changed the robot platform by transitioning from a four-legged robot to a humanoid biped. Our team had to design a new locomotion system from scratch in order to cope with the added complexity of maintaining balance while walking. A fellow student and I explored the current research into the efficient generation of dynamically balanced walking patterns. We successfully implemented software, which allowed a programmer to issue high-level motion commands (e.g. “walk forward at six centimeters per second while turning 20 degrees per second”), bypassing the need for detailed instructions. The walk engine computed the movements for all 22 joints of the robot in order to perform the command. The need for the robot to remain balanced when completing these movements presented an additional constraint. Thus, the engine takes into account the dynamics of the robot to ensure that it remains balanced at all times. Finally, the engine had to respond to unplanned external disturbances like rough terrain or bumping into obstacles. We published our research and results in the RoboCup symposium.
(here I'll talk about my reasons to apply to this school in particular)
I hope to make a career in academia with the help of a PhD.I have made this choice because of the prospect of staying on the forefront of mathematics coupled with the continued interaction with brilliant young minds developing their own new ideas. I want to make my own discoveries and be present when others make their own.
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What do you mean by that? Is my situation so hopeless?
Привет
Мисля, че значи "С такива данни можеш да влезеш където си поискаш" и съм съгласен. =) Аз също кандидатствам за PhD math в Щатите и моите данни са доста по-слаби. 3.7 GPA от Bowdoin College, 610 verbal, 800 quantitative, 730 subject test и нямам research experience. Надявам се да вляза в някое училище между 10то и 30то място в класациите. Подавам документи на 13 програми.
Успех! Сигурен съм, че ще влезеш където си поискаш.
We just set a new record
in Waiting it Out
Posted
In Piano Man Billy Joel sang "Yes, they're sharing a drink they call 'loniliness,' but it's better than drinking alone."