SOP for MS in Electrical Engg(Signal processing/power systems)

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Every sequence of event is a part of a grand design, one which unravels itself with each bygone moment shedding more light on the reason of occurrence.

 

Back in my childhood whenever I saw the clouds bursting into a thunder I wondered what it was which created such a magnificent stroke of light almost like magic. Every time the whole house went dark and the reason attributed was a power failure, I used to wonder who/what is this Power, which lights up our entire house. Slowly the mystery unravelled itself in the form of an answer- Electricity. A few years hence, with the onset of a bit more developed times and on my part, a bit more developed mind, I was intrigued by computers, television, cellphones etc. I wondered how the sound, the light and the words flew over half way across the world and be there right in front of us at our disposal. Again as time went by I stumbled across the concepts of communication and signal processing. Perhaps these small things which challenged and mystified my innocent and awestruck mind as a child, started a Butterfly Effect which led to my applying for electrical as my branch subject as it never ceased to engage me in a quest for a greater understanding and knowledge. Finally this pursuit of knowledge has converged all my academic endeavours to pursue my masters in electrical and communications engineering at your university.

 

I have always thoroughly enjoyed science and mathematics in general since my childhood. Originally what started as a pursuance of the traditional focus of my family members on science and technology based careers, I personally felt attracted to the perspective of being able to explain the world around me with logic and reasoning. I wanted to able to build something on the basis of the knowledge that worked according to my understanding of the principles behind it. This naturally led to choose engineering as a career path. On qualifying the highly competitive Joint Entrance Exams for Engineering, XY state, I successfully applied for admission in one of the top engineering colleges of my state, XYZ institute of Technology, for pursuing my under graduation. With the fascination which I held from my childhood and my interest in the subject, I became one of the top performers in my class of the department of Electrical Engineering.

 

 

My first tryst with signal processing eventuated during my second year in college when I took course work on the subject. I was amazed and impressed to know its ubiquity in nearly every field of engineering and physical sciences, all for different reasons but connected by the same principles. Its applications include wireless communication and antenna and microwave technology. The course taught me the concepts of DFT, FFT etc. On the other hand, the laboratory experiments clarified and created a clearer understanding of the theoretical principles in my mind. While exploring potential application areas of my newly acquired knowledge I was enthralled seeing its implications in the field of power systems. The majority of power quality problems can be characterized through measurements of voltage and current. To distinguish the type of disturbances, monitoring systems require the processing of signals, which concern the extraction of features and information from measured digital signals. In fact, the use of signal processing techniques can influence the way that voltage and current signals are measured and analysed in the field of power systems. Gradually getting such insights on the connections of my subject matter learnt in class with real world and practical applications is what has convinced me to further get a stronger grounding in electrical engineering. It is the reason for my passion for delving deeper into the field and hence my decision to join graduate school even after spending time in a different but implicitly linked field while carrying out my job.

 

 

With an aspiration to get a deeper perspective in this field I took up an internship at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in the field of power systems starting May, 2011. Under the guidance of my mentor I worked on the load frequency control of an interconnected power system and the tuning of Proportional integral derivative(PID) controller using ITSE approach and genetic algorithm. I developed an elaborate load model on an interconnected power system that could explain the dynamic performance, the transient and steady-state variation of the different loads. The application of PID controller imparts it the ability of tuning itself automatically in an on-line process while the application . The output response of PID-tuning was compared with I, PI and conventional PID controller and found to be reasonably good over these conventional controllers. It involved a lot of computer coding thus challenging and improving my overall programming skills besides helping me correlate the theoretical and experimental aspects of such a topic. This experience made me explore the potential of using soft computing methodologies in controllers and their advantages over conventional methods. My experience here not only gave me an opportunity to get in-depth knowledge of certain aspects of power systems as a sub area but it also taught me how to work on an independent project. I learned the importance of persistence and patience besides analytical skills in carrying out a research project. It concretized my ideas on how to think and analyse various approaches to a given problem and then finally solve it with limited supervision.

 

 

In the final year of my undergraduate studies I decided to work on optimization of reactive power dispatch using Genetic algorithm, PSO and improved Differential evolution algorithm for my final project. Under the able guidance of my mentor I was successful in publishing a conference paper on developing a modified approach for my research objective at National Seminar on ‘’Modern Trends in Power System Operation and Management-2012’’(NSMTPSOM) 2012 .This project helped me improve my understanding of the optimization algorithms, which have enormous applications in a variety of fields, besides my computational skills. This experience not only enhanced my ability and maturity at handling day to day successes and failures while working on a relatively long term project but also helped me in getting a better idea of my field of study.

 

 

Towards the end of my four years of undergraduate education I got the opportunity to experience working with the largest power sector organization in India, NTPC Ltd. This allowed me to explore and analyse the various intricacies of thermal power plant operations. One particular aspect that I focused on and which I found interesting was how vibration monitoring could be done to identify abnormal conditions or faulty components in rotatory machinery. This technique of converting a broadband time trace to discrete frequencies, or frequency bands was achieved by the application of the Fourier transform. This application sparked my interest in signal processing. This motivated me to organize ‘VIDYUT’ during the annual Tech-Fest in my college, an exhibition and competition of innovative projects and models in electrical domain by students across the nation, with contributions from different Power sectors in the country. With the responsibility of organization of such an event I inculcated traits like leadership skills and managerial abilities which have helped me a lot since.

 

 

For the past 16 months I have been a part of ABC Consultancy as a software engineer. My experience here has made me versatile and flexible. I have learnt how to implement large software projects effectively with the available resources and within time limits. I have had first-hand experience with computer programming in a wide array of business applications .This has on the other hand led me to think about various ways that my experience could be used for scientific and engineering research. I have always enjoyed working on challenges which required logic and analysis. My ability of introspection and quick learning has been very valuable to me in rounding out my career goals. This actually gave me time to thoroughly think through my plans and to expose myself to a variety of work situations. My experience at ABC Consultancy has not only helped me in becoming proficient in advanced programming skills but also taught me how to work in a team environment while being relatively independent. I believe these are essential qualities that a student would need to succeed at graduate school.

 

I am confident that a Masters in power systems, signal processing or some closely related area as offered by XXX University would significantly impact my professional life. I believe my decision to pursue my graduate studies from USA would meet my long term career goals. I am confident that my skill sets, motivation for research and hard-working nature would add to the excellence of your program. I would, in return, get the ideal opportunity to pursue my dream of becoming a world-class engineer.