Statement of Purpose

I wish to build up my career as a renowned researcher and participate in the cutting-edge research in
the field of networking systems and security. I also dream to have hundreds of publications in
conferences and Journals with high impact factor. I believe that pursuing higher studies will be the
best way for me to start the journey towards my goal. Moreover, the Ph.D. degree would not only
extend my understanding of what I have learned until now but also help me to develop my career as
an academician in future. A doctoral degree could help me to train up myself in finding; evaluating
and documenting a research problem in a methodical way that I need most to become an organized
and meticulous researcher in future. In every society, doctorates are widely recognized as exceptional
talents and intellectual elites since they can have a significant contribution to the world through their
research on analyzing the existing problems and finding feasible solutions. Having obtained a Ph.D.
would also provide me the access to such worldwide research opportunities where I can explore new
and exciting areas of systems and networking field.

I graduated from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) with a bachelor degree in
Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). I secured the third position in my class and I always tried
to maintain the performance consistently with my hard work and perseverance, especially in the last
80 credit hours, my CGPA was 3.89. During my undergraduate years, I developed several academic
group projects using C, PHP and Java where I always led a team of 2/3 members. For example, I
developed Diagnostic Center Management, User Management System, Replica of Scientific
Calculator, Paint tool, and C compiler as the lab-work of several courses. In my sixth semester, I took
the course titled Data Communication which bolstered my motivation to do research in the
communication field. In the Data Communication Lab, I simulated different mechanisms of digital
transmission, error detection and correction using Java which was my first hands-on experience in
simulation and modeling. I also developed an instant messaging tool using Java as a part of the lab
work of the course Computer Networking. To build a stronger foundation in networking, I attended
one-year hands-on training on CCNA certification at SUST. I completed all the four parts with the
letters of merits in part 1, 2 and 4. I was also involved with some co-curricular activities. I was an
active member of the student organization “SUST Science Arena” and used to play volleyball and
tennis during the semester breaks and solving sudoku was my favorite free time activities.

I have completed the Master of Science in CSE at Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET) - the highest ranked university in Bangladesh, where I had the privilege to
explore the areas of systems and networking. I had the opportunity to perform an in-depth study on
the mobility pattern of a user - the movement of mobile users and how their location, velocity and
acceleration change over time and wrote a research report titled “Mobility models in wireless ad hoc
network” as the part of the coursework of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks. In Wireless and Mobile
Communication Networks course, I studied several research papers on mobility management
protocols and which helped me to prepare a comparative study titled as “Overview of IPv6 Mobility
Management Protocols and their Handover performances”. I with my other team members analyzed
and compared each IPv6 mobility management protocol’s characteristics and performance by
examining handover latency, handover blocking probability and packet loss. Through the course
Network Security, my interest on networks and cyber security arose. In this course, I studied several
conference papers and articles on different Electroencephalogram-based biometric authentication
systems and individually wrote a comparative study report as a part of research work of this course.

During the postgraduate thesis work, I had the opportunity to research on the fault-tolerant
broadcasting protocols in wireless ad-hoc networks under the supervision of Professor Dr. AKM
Ashikur Rahman. I developed three novel efficient fault-tolerant broadcasting protocols for real
environment where a network may become un-trusted any time. All these algorithms not only utilize
neighborhood information more efficiently to reduce redundant transmissions but also significantly
improve the reachability of nodes in an unreliable ad-hoc wireless network. This work titled as “Fault
Tolerant Optimized Broadcast for Wireless Ad-hoc Networks” was published in proceedings of 2016
International Conference on Networking Systems and Security (NSysS 2016), IEEE, Dhaka,
Bangladesh.

At present, I have been teaching at Ranada Prasad Shaha University, Bangladesh as an adjunct
Lecturer since Fall, 2015. I am teaching many courses there including “Structured Programming
Language”, “Object-Oriented Programming Language” and “Database Management Systems”,
“Software Engineering and Information System Design”. After my Ph.D. I wish to join there as a
full-time faculty and develop my own research laboratory to carry on the research activities with the
other faculties and also to provide my students an environment to better understand the operations,
performances, and limitations of the current technologies of communication networks. To see my
future plans succeeded, I need to achieve the necessary expertise, experience, and exposure to an
esteemed research environment in my Ph.D. Therefore I decided to get admitted to a university that
has leading research facilities and top class faculty.

I wish to pursue my Ph.D. degree at the “University of North Carolina at Charlotte” as it would not
only provide me the opportunity to work under the supervision of renowned professors but also give
me the opportunity to work at the world-class laboratories. It would be a great opportunity for me if I
could get admitted to the Ph.D. program at this prestigious institute. I visited the web page of the
department of Software and Information Systems and was amazed at the research activities of the
Cyber Defense and Network Assurability (CyberDNA) Center. I have studied some of the research
publications of Professor Ehab Al-Shaer. One of his research works on Active Cyber Defense
strategies on software defined networks seemed very much intriguing to me. Furthermore, the
research publications of Dr. Mohamed Shehab on mobile and social network security have also
caught my eyes. I am confident that I have the necessary motivation and dedication to prove myself
as one of the best researchers at this university and my research findings could have a significant
contribution in the area of networks and cyber security in both Bangladesh and the USA.

Therefore, I am looking forward to getting admitted in your esteemed Ph.D. program and also, I
strongly believe that any financial assistantship from your university will help me to excel in my
graduate study.

Mamtaj Akter