Personal Statement For Transportation Engineering

I hold a bachelor of science in Civil Engineering, General Option, from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. As a Cal Poly Pomona graduate, I have experienced team work, hands on projects, and leadership. During my school experience I have gained a deep understanding and established a strong background of Civil and construction engineering.

I earned my undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at the Dharmsinh Desai University with the grade ‘First Class with Distinction’. I finished my Baccalaureate in May 2015 scoring among the top 12 students in my class and top 5 in Environmental Engineering, which I believe, betrays my love for the subject.

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Transport Planning and Engineering

If you had asked me a year ago what I was going to do with my life, I would have had no idea. This thought scared me because I was a junior in high school, and I did not know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. I had dreams of being an astronomer or an architect, but I could always find a reason against these careers. I remember thinking, ‘I just want to make an impact.’ I wanted to live a purposeful life, one filled with adventure and challenges. One where, there was always work to be done, and something to accomplish. Then though some divine intervention, I discovered Civil Engineering. Through personal experience and learning about the occupation, I have decided that as a Civil Engineer I can accomplish my own personal goals while also benefiting others.

Mechanical engineering is the catalyst of rapid innovation in the aerospace and defense, automotive, heavy equipment and industrial equipment manufacturing industries. The foundational elements of mechanical engineering are what make the pace of new product development possible (Bar-Cohen, 1995). By far the most significant accomplishment of humankind in the 21rst century is the landing of the rover on the surface of Mars (Thilmany, 2012). It is the epitome of accomplishment between mechanical engineering, which si the discipline used to create the device, and software, which is powering it. Management Information Systems concepts keep the Mars rover working every day, even though it is literally 200 million miles away. The core concepts of mechanical engineering all contributed to this remarkable accomplishment. When I see these accomplishments I want to continually set higher goals for my education in mechanical engineering.

Humans have a natural tendency to feel attraction towards mystery. When I was a kid, Machines were mysterious to me, to be completely forthright, it is as yet the same. Whenever I visited my grandfather’s machine shop then, those lifeless-creatures always enchanted me. In fact, my adolescence was surely brimming with doing all the fun things, at least to me. Splitting a toy, then dismantling its motors, later use them to make a water boat-electric fan was my regular activity. Since machines had lured me all my life, it was an obvious decision to choose mechanical engineering as my future endeavor. Now, after completing graduation from the Islamic University of Technology, a top-tier (OIC-Affiliate) and only international University of Bangladesh, I would like to pursue a career accomplishing a Ph.D. in the field of “Mechanical Engineering” as an ardent Mechanical Engineer. My personal interest, academic performance, brief exposure to research, professional experience and inquisitiveness led me to believe that it would not only allow me to expand my knowledge but also would give me the opportunity to obtain my eventual objective of taking up a research-oriented career in the field of mechanical engineering.

Frankly, my family always encouraged me to become a doctor at the hospital, so I grew up having the dream of joining the Medicine School to fulfill my family’s ambition which I thought it was mine too. In grade 10, I was studying at night and suddenly the electricity went off and that made me think what if I am a doctor doing a life-and-death surgery for a patient and the power goes out. I thought about energy recourses and other medical equipment the doctors use, who made them? I started thinking that I can provide more services than doctors do. I can design and produce items that all use and provide reliable and sustainable energy for us all. From that night, I decided to study an engineering-related discipline, and upon completing high school and after consulting a Mechanical Engineering graduate who explicitly explained to me what mechanical Engineering is all about, I found that Mechanical Engineering is the best choice among the engineering fields.

Engineering is the creative application of scientific principles to design/develop a product or a process. Thus the vast majority of products we commonly use in day to day living have been designed by an engineer, probably even the seat you are sat in right now. The field of engineering is near limitless and this is why I feel engineering is the subject for me, as there is always a tougher challenge.

Summer Internship at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala was the first industrial experience after the 4th semester of my under graduation. I got a chance to work for designing on rail coach. I designed axle for the coach capable of carrying 200 passengers and made a 3D model of the whole coach. This was the first time I applied my theoretical knowledge in actual designing.

I identify with Robert Heinlein when he states that “One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. ‘Supernatural’ is a null word”. I believe engineering is a way to solve many of the issues our world is facing right now. India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world and is in dire need of affordable & sustainable housing and infrastructure. This has led to various research and development works thus creating great opportunities for civil engineers. Inspired by my interest in curbing the aforesaid problem, I plan to take up Civil Engineering as my subject for Master Program at your university. Thus the knowledge I aspire to attain from MS program where I specialize in the areas of construction engineering and management will help me to lay foundation of my entrepreneurial venture that I wish to set up in my country. I envision myself leading my own consulting venture where I help cities build sustainable and environmental friendly, yet affordable infrastructure.

After four years of undergraduate study in Civil Engineering, I feel completely satisfied with my decision to choose engineering as my career option as it has revealed most pragmatic and down-to-earth approach to tackling human problems to me. My enthusiasm coupled with scope for innovations and opportunities available in the civil engineering has motivated me to opt for higher studies and contribute to the field through meaningful research. I sincerely believe that graduation at Chalmers University will be an ideal step in this direction.

Academic Background: I have completed my undergraduate studies in Mechanical engineering from “Acharya institute of Technology”, Bangalore, India in year 2016, scoring an average of 60.34%. I was an active somehow indulgent student among others during my undergraduate studies, very often involved in many curricular and co-curricular activities. In fact, I was up to the mark and honored in the top 20th of 120 students in my undergraduate class. If observed by the meritorious efforts I remain very competent and I have passed all entrance/Terminal tests conducted by the academic institution of my education with high achievements and secured overall good. I did my final year thesis project on “Multipurpose 3 in 1 mechanical machine drilling, shaping & hacksaw cutting” with the group of four members in which I was the Group Leader. The machine is designed for the purpose of multipurpose i.e. drilling, hacksaw cutting & shaping operation. In this project, I learned and researched that machine perform multipurpose operation at the same time with required speed and this machine is automatic which is controlled or operated by motor which runs with the help of current. The machine is based on the mechanism of whit worth’s return. While working on this project I found strong motivation in myself towards graduate study and research in the area of Machine operation. At present, I am working as a Service Engineer Zed Maruti, Shankar group, from last few months which is the leading

I had high academic profile in the course of my schooling. A year after opting Civil Engineering in M.J. College of Engineering and Technology, I realized the importance of two major aspects of study-practicality of knowledge and work skill. Since then, the former aspect was explored by reinforcing my theoretical knowledge with the help of frequent visits to construction sites in my country as well as in Middle East.

I completed my schooling creditably with an aggregate of 80% and my major subjects were Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science. Though I did my high school in rural area, I was an ardent and shrewd explorer of new technologies and mechanisms. This enthusiasm motivated me to go on special science exhibition camps to prudently utilize my skills in a wise manner. My project on “wind turbines”, earned me appreciations in the academic year in my high school tenure. This played a vital role in my academic career to choose Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Apollo Engineering College affiliated to Anna University, Chennai.

As quoted by Rodrigue, J-P (2013), “the most important transport problems are often related to urban areas and take place where transport systems fails to satisfy the various requirements of urban mobility because of several reasons. Productivity of any urban area is highly dependent on its transport system and also its efficiency to regulate goods, workers and consumers between multiple origins and destinations”.