Chaos brings uneasiness, but it allows the opportunity for creativity and growth.

I believe one of
my favorite things in the world, music, is the result of a certain kind of ordered chaos. The
melodies we hear and perhaps even learn to play just makes sense. From the speaker to my
ears, somewhere along the way the music turns from notes on a key to a complex signal. I
didn’t understand that complexity until I learned of analog and digital signals during my
undergraduate studies. When I went back to play piano after learning about those signals, my
love for computer science deepened. Understanding that there was a link between how those
signals worked and how music made sense to the brain fascinated me even more. Making
sense of this ordered chaos is my best skill, and realizing this is what made me decide to
pursue a master’s degree in computer science, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence
and machine learning.

I am a junior with an exceptional CGPA of 9.12, which I believe speaks to my hard work and
interest in the field. The undergraduate curriculum inspired me to augment my practical
knowledge through projects, seminars, research, and assignments. I especially enjoyed
studying artificial intelligence and machine learning. Tackling complex problems with a profound
understanding of the subject and simple execution was something I found very rewarding.

With the knowledge I gained from these subjects, I built several projects during my undergrad
which includes a portfolio assessment model for the stock market, a scheduling application
called foodSanta, and a supermarket management system. I remember having a conversation
with my uncle at a ceremony about the huge amounts of food being wasted at several events
daily. We thought of doing something about it, and after a little contemplation, distributing it to
the needy seemed appropriate. Even though we had the means to collect and distribute food,
knowing about special events and figuring out logistics was difficult, which is where foodSanta
came in. I built an application where the organizers of an event can schedule a time when a
person comes and collects the extra food for distribution. Even though the application was
simple to build, the impact it had was extremely fulfilling for me. The foodSanta application is
something I pride myself in because I saw a problem and played my part in solving it.

In 2020, I was in my sophomore year and unfortunately was at home during all of it due to
COVID. However, I had a lot of free time to explore new interests. The stock market was of
particular fascination to me, and I spent considerable time understanding the basics of it. I took
courses related to machine learning and data science on Udemy as well, which I am glad I did
because it would help me greatly with my internship. I was very excited about my internship with
Volksoft because I would be working on a stock market application. I helped with the
development of a real-time rate broadcasting component of the application, and I learned a lot
about evaluation techniques from other parts of the project. I was given a full-time job offer after
having my project receive positive reception, but I took a leap of faith and decided to go back to
school for my master's degree because I felt I needed to learn and comprehend more
complicated subjects.

During my time studying the subject of stock markets, I found that the naivety of a regular
investor constantly irked me, so I wanted to build something that makes investing easier. So,
during my junior year, I built a model that addressed this concern. The model uses semantic
segmentation for evaluating the risk appetite of a customer and suggests a portfolio that is
tailored to their profile. I particularly felt challenged when I had to calculate the risk factor and
reliability of a stock for generating a distributed portfolio. First I used a CNN model to calculate
the evaluation, and then LSTM to see which one generated better results. I was not satisfied
with either, and was quite flummoxed. After some research and taxing study, I finally came up
with a combination of CNN and LSTM for the evaluation. This method helped improve the
accuracy of the model significantly. The experience I gained from my internship was very helpful
in overcoming this hurdle.

I've always aspired to be an all-rounder. As established, I love music, and I even play the piano.
I find it to be incredibly calming, and it keeps me focused. Another thing that keeps me diligent
is tennis. It was not something I was very good at, but becoming good at it as I played through
my undergraduate life inspired a lot of confidence in me, and I believe it has taught me
invaluable lessons in determination and aplomb. I was even able to use those lessons in my
pursuit of intellectual and technical proficiency, as I participated in various clubs as a technical
core member, coordinated a plethora of developer meet-ups and hackathons, built open-source
applications, and collaborated with numerous teams. These clubs also helped me develop my
leadership and teamwork abilities.

Having said all this, I believe graduate school is the right step for me to take now, because I
want the answer to a burning question that I have: can machines learn music? Can they
understand it like I do? I have not been satisfied with the answers I have found so far, and I
hope to get closer to understanding it during my graduate studies. I would like to apply the
knowledge I have gained, however complete it can be, for bettering the world, and achieving my
goal of creating impactful and genuinely useful contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. I
want to become someone who approaches this field with a fresh set of eyes, and I can only do
that if I first complete my knowledge of the subject as deeply as possible.

Unquestionably, North Carolina State University is renowned for its creative answers to
persistent challenges each year. A brief look at the course offerings at North Carolina State
University reveals a diverse range of topics. I was thrilled to see NC State’s Strategic Research
Areas be almost indistinguishable with my personal interests. Having specialized in Big Data
Analytics, the data experience lab is something that excited me beyond repression.The
personnel and faculty at your university are well-known for being among the best in academia
and have a wealth of expertise. All of this, along with the significant number of international
students on campus, creates the ideal environment for a highly competitive learning
environment. I am aware that North Carolina State University has very high standards for its
students, and I am confident that I will be able to live up to and beyond those standards owing
to my knowledge of the field and my academic and professional success.
.