I can still recollect the joy on the faces of my friends when they played the Bluetooth-based mobile

game BINGO I had created while in college. Though it took me a year to build it, due to a lack of
adequate knowledge in computing and programming, I am proud to have created something that
made my classmates and college take notice of me.

The success of the game got me interested in developing more products. I developed a timetable
scheduler, which could be used to send schedules directly to a user's J2ME phones. I also developed
a bus application in which the user could enter a bus number, and the app showed the exact route of
the bus. However, there were some problems in this app that I could not fix, and I knew that I had to
advance my knowledge as a mobile developer and learn how to develop robust apps. I thus focused
on improving my portfolio to increase my chances of getting a job in a product development start-
up.

Joining United Mobile Apps Private Limited was a great start for me. There, I got to work on a
sync application that synced contacts, files and music files across various devices using SyncML
protocol. I worked there for 1.5 years and learned a lot about frameworks, design patterns, code
reviews, Git, teamwork and more. After this job, I went on to work for the HCL Singapore Mobility
Lab (Need to add what I learned here). After working for 1.5 years, I returned to India and started
working for Almond Wellness Tech Private Limited on backend technologies, because I wanted to
learn databases, algorithms, deployment, designing, agile development and the various stages of
development. Here I got to work on getfitgo, a fitness gamification project, whose primary focus
was to make people healthy by motivating them to walk by putting them into challenges with
others. (Things I learned here)

Currently, I work as a Module Lead at Idexcel Technologies Private Limited, where I handle the
factoring module of the Cync web application, a commercial banking lending product. This has
been an eye-opening experience since it has enabled me to refine my skills in product development,
database systems, architecture, and algorithms. I currently lead a team of 6 developers, along with a
group of testers. (mention something technologically innovative that you have done or learned here)

I have also worked as a freelancer for a food delivery app development company. Simultaneously,
I have developed an app called Idlecampus, which is a chat application and timetable viewer
targeted towards students. I created it for both iOS and Android. Although I built a robust app, I
could not make it engaging enough. I realized that to get students to use my app; I would need to
give personalized content to students. To incorporate these features into the app, I studied
Recommender Systems, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, etc. from Coursera and
Edx, and I am currently working towards improving the app.

All of these experiences taught me the various areas of product development. They helped to
improve my ability to make decisions, and have also improved my persistence. I have interacted
with clients and helped them refine their apps, but not having a formal college education in high-
end computing technologies at times creates a void in my tech skills. I feel if I had greater
knowledge of core Computer Science, like Graph Algorithms, Parallel Computing, Machine
Learning, Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing, Database Design, this would help me in
making my products run faster and cheaper and would create value for the users and the
organizations I work for. This has motivated me to pursue my graduate studies in Computer
Science.

Today people are surrounded by Smartphones, Wearable bands, Smartwatches, etc. This is an age of
personalized content where the content to be displayed on the web, or the smartphone has to be
curated as per the user. Recommendation engines are the norms today.
I completed my undergrad with a major in Electronics, and despite the fact that my grades in
college were not amongst the best in class, this never restricted me from acquiring computing
knowledge. I attended several workshops, training programs, and internships. Individual projects,
such as developing a game like BINGO, Sudoku Solver, Minesweeper, Idlecampus have sharpened
my programming skills in various languages, which include Java, Python, and C++. With all the
knowledge and the full enlightenment, I have acquired while working for the past six years; I am
confident that this has made up for any lack in my academic grades.

The Computer Science program is of particular interest to me because it covers a broad range of
courses, especially in areas like Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks
and Algorithms. I would love to study and get guidance from Professor Barbara Di Eugenio under
the Natural Language Processing Laboratory where I would have I like to work on NLP for
Educational Technology, and Summarization for recommender systems and health applications. I
also would want to study from Professor Brian Ziebart for his strong research on Algorithms and
Machine Learning.

I am sure that the high-quality education and the opportunity to learn from the experienced faculty
in your program, along with the advice that I would receive from them, would encourage me to
continue learning all my life. This would open the way for constant growth as a person and a
professional.