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Go for the Best

 

Ping!’ I dashed out from the start line of the 4*100 Mixed Relay Race—a feature game of the Tsinghua engineering departments in which one female and three males run in relay.  Soon I left everyone else way behind and began a race against myself.  Run, Run, all out...Watch out the successor, and catch up with him!  Baton handover success.  Perfect! Thanks to the seamless cooperation of four locomotives at top speeds, the relay team of my class of EE25 has never fallen to the second place in any departmental game.  While for other class teams the lady remains the bottleneck, I am proud that for us, the lady becomes the key to victory, because of me.

 

Go for the best!  That is my motto, in races not only on the track, but also in studies.  Achieving an overall GPA of 87.8/100 and major 88.7/100 that surpassed 87% of the fellow students, I chased much more than mere numbers on school records:

In the course ‘Principles of Microprocessors’, I took up the chief efficiency-optimization work in the Virtual MOSFET CPU design team and grabbed one of the three Best Optimized CPU Prizes against nearly 70 teams in competition.

In ‘Logical Design and Digital Systems’, my teamwork with three fellow students, of a dorm phone sharing solution on FPGA, won great appreciation from the professor.

In China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling 2003, I sponsored a team of three students at the beginning of their sophomore year to challenge analytical minds in colleges all around the country, and successfully took the Second Prize at National-Level.

Yes, Go for the Best!  In every team project, I bravely assume the most demanding part; for every piece of independent work, I strive to go deeper than required.  When working alone, the ‘Go for the Best!’ motto means more a chase with oneself: go for perfection, not only for perfection of the work, but also for perfection of understanding in mind.

Think, and a simplest thing would mean a great deal more than expected.

In an ordinary Numeric Analysis lab work whose requirement was just a verification of a set algorithm taught in class, I would capture any unexpected result observed, or deliberately change various factors or the order of computation to see effects on the result, and then use quantified theoretical analysis to explain the underlying causes.  In numerous independent lab projects on Physics, Data Structure and Algorithms, Numerical Analysis, Digital Signal Processing, Stochastic Processes, and RF Communication Circuits--whether on mathematical analysis, on software simulations or on hardware implementations, my careful design and in-depth investigation from unique perspectives never failed in getting the full mark.

 

 

Go for Real Experience

 

       In a habit of exploration and analysis, I extract more knowledge and experience than others do from course projects however simple they are.  In experiences of real projects however, I get the chance to apply my ability of learning and analyzing. When interning at the National Optical Lithography Research Center, on the National 863 Key Project developing a 100nm-based optical lithographer, I improved the fitting algorithm for the alignment system and its implementation on DSP to achieve higher precision and better real-time performance. I gave up the non-linear curvature fitting method but aptly made use of simple geometric property to locate the center of the wafer. No complex theory was involved, but the result turned out excellent. I also developed in collaboration with a student colleague an automated performance testing platform that successfully resolved the problems caused by mass data input and hardware/software interface changes in design, to facilitate repeated verification of the embedded implementation, beyond the requirement of a mere test.

 

 

Go for Extension

 

As Lao-tzu said, ‘he who knows all is not wise, while he who is wise does not know all.’ What he really wanted to express is that, extraction of wisdom from knowledge, rather than knowledge itself, is what matters.

As an undergraduate student of Electronic and Information Engineering, I look into miscellaneous fields of study, but keep footed in the ground of Electrical Engineering--in other engineering fields I seek the role of electrical engineering; in other sciences I look for principles that can possibly offer general guidance for problems in engineering, maybe philosophically, or maybe more practical.

Participation in the project of optical lithography where optical, mechanical and electrical engineers worked together was just one of my interdisciplinary approaches.  In the course of Automotive Electronics and Control currently in progress, I practice control system design, and try to understand a mechanic’s demand for an electronic brain and efficient resource allocation mechanism in the network of numerous sensors and actuators inside his car. In Economic Applications of Game Theory however, it occurred to me that the theory of asymmetric information games would be applicable to the resource competition and coordination in technical information networks.

       All these have endowed me with a broadened vision that deepens my understanding of Electrical Engineering, of Engineering, of the inter-related world of knowledge, and of life as well.

 

 

Set Out for a New Start

 

At the final stage of four years’ intensive while extensive preparation of knowledge and academic quality, it is time I sought a new start.

In the Physics course in English by Prof. Michael Bisset, a Berkeley doctorate, I experienced teaching that not only imparted the knowledge, but also led students through the exploration of knowledge: model abstraction, solution, result interpretation, and further refinement. Engagement in this process gave me the greatest pleasure when learning the course, and I continued this enjoyment in class projects as well as modeling contests.   

 ‘Transformation’ is another fascinating idea. It’s everywhere: Fourier transformation, conformal transformation, coordinate conversion, and so on.  How eager I am to transform the world with the elegant and smart idea of transformation!

Performing outstandingly in physics and mathematics courses such as calculus, linear algebra, complex analysis, physical-mathematical methods, numeric analysis and probability and statistics, good at modeling, and with an interdisciplinary view, I am ready for further pursuit in the engineering field. Gradually I recognized my interest in studies concerning electromagnetics and microwave engineering. Full marks in ‘Fundamentals of Microwave Engineering’, high score in ‘Electromagnetic field and Microwave Experiment’, enrollment in ‘Project of RF Communication System’ and ‘RF Communication Circuits’ this semester, after class reading on principles of antenna, all testify my efforts in preparation for the graduate studies in electromagnetic application in communication engineering. Signal processing issues in this field are also attractive to me. My mother is an engineer in avionic EMC, but I want to be a scientist that explores guidelines for engineers.

Go for the Best!  Passionate, in a down-to-earth manner inherited from my engineer parents and grandfathers, I earnestly apply for a position in UT Austin’s reputed ECE graduate program, a best place to develop and exploit my capacities.  Please let ECE UT Austin be my new start!

 

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