Project Ideas in SOP

[was1984]

I'm applying to a bunch of PhD programs in integrated circuit design, and while many of them have advisors where my project idea would be very appropriate, some of them have circuit design programs that are focused in different areas. I'd be excited and willing to work in either type of group, but my primary research focus thus far has been in one particular area, so that's naturally where my ideas for improvement are. Circuit design is an extremely well understood field, so new ideas are almost always very application focused.

My question is how to approach this in my statement of purpose. I understand that it's a very good idea to include a example of a project idea that I've had, and I've done that, but it would be a completely inappropriate project with some of the potential advisors I've selected.

[fuzzylogician]

Why did you select these advisors if your intended research is inappropriate for them? I'm sure you must have interests in common with them, or else you wouldn't want to work with them. For those people, could you suggest a different project that is likelier to be related to their area of specialty? It's better to gear each SOP towards the particular schools and particular potential advisors there than to have a general version that you don't tweak. Of course, past projects are what they are, but for future projects you can try to aim for a better "fit".

[was1984]

Why did you select these advisors if your intended research is inappropriate for them? I'm sure you must have interests in common with them, or else you wouldn't want to work with them. For those people, could you suggest a different project that is likelier to be related to their area of specialty? It's better to gear each SOP towards the particular schools and particular potential advisors there than to have a general version that you don't tweak. Of course, past projects are what they are, but for future projects you can try to aim for a better "fit".

I'll see if I can explain. Circuit design, as I said, is a field where much of general research is pretty well understood. Most analog design researchers find a niche area to focus on, like communications or biomedical circuits, where the circuits have specific requirements. In either case, you are doing much the same thing, but your applications are different. As someone who has focused on biomedical circuits, I don't actually know that much about communications circuits beyond what I've learned in coursework, so I don't really have any ideas to address current problems in that area. On the other hand, they are still doing basically the same thing that I'm doing, but with a different application. Does that make sense?

[fuzzylogician]

I'll see if I can explain. Circuit design, as I said, is a field where much of general research is pretty well understood. Most analog design researchers find a niche area to focus on, like communications or biomedical circuits, where the circuits have specific requirements. In either case, you are doing much the same thing, but your applications are different. As someone who has focused on biomedical circuits, I don't actually know that much about communications circuits beyond what I've learned in coursework, so I don't really have any ideas to address current problems in that area. On the other hand, they are still doing basically the same thing that I'm doing, but with a different application. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense. So that would mean that if you pitch a general project within your area of specialization, the professors from the other area would be able to understand it, right? If so, then I think that going with a detailed pitch within your area of specialization is the way to go. You'll then need to spend some space in your SOP explaining that you are interested in having your ideas implemented in different subareas of circuit design and that you're eager to learn about those new areas (I feel a bit ignorant here but I hope you understand the idea..). It makes sense that at this point in your career you only have experience in some subareas of your general research interests but not in others, you just need to make your experience appear relevant to what you are planning to do in the future--and that can be different from what you've previously done.

[was1984]

Thanks...this is kind of what I was thinking.