<p>Personal Statement
It is my dad who gave me some of my earliest and most important experiences with electrical engineering. He is a senior engineer at a microwave relay station. At the relay station, I had the opportunity to be introduced to all kinds of electronic equipments, although about most of which, I have absolutely no idea what the mechanism within or their function is. Yet my father still tried hard to foster my interest and curiosity. He used to teach me to assemble a simple antenna and solder PCB board and at an early age, I managed to learn those very quickly. Early exposure to Electrical Engineering, thanks to my dad, built up my curiosity and interest in science and engineering. And that kind of curiosity has stayed with me ever since. Thats the reason why I chose Electrical Engineering without hesitation when I entered Dalian University of Technology.</p>
<p>After getting into college, my interaction with Electrical Engineering turned from interests to solid study. XXXXis renowned in XXX for its rigorous training in engineering. And whats special about my program is that it offers five-year double-major courses including electrical engineering, intensive English and liberal arts, so that enables students in engineering, not confined to engineering, but can also work with foreign language and humanities and help them become more well-rounded people. All of the classes are taught by the best professors in the department and it is the one of most selective programs in the university. </p>
<p>In my sophomore year, I entered the multimedia group lead by Prof. XXXX and got my debut contact with scientific research on image retrieval. The project is a XXXX key project named Research on the Service-oriented Commerce Intelligence and Methods of Knowledge Management. It is aimed at finding a better way to search image with image, which is a very hot topic recently. After getting into the group, I began raiding the university library and tried to find every book that I could on this topic, from scholarly journals like IEEE Image Processing to Gonzalezs classic textbook and browsing all kinds of related materials on the Internet. Because of its inter-disciplinary nature, image retrieval is related to operating system, database and coding or statistics and analysis. Image retrieval is difficult for me. And I know that there is much that is still there for me to learn. But whenever I am confronted with a problem, I can always find the strength inside that drives me to find the solution to the problem. The experience with image retrieval is beneficial to me not only because it gives me some hands-on experiences with different subjects, but also it teaches me the method of doing scientific research, which I think is very important for my future graduate studies. </p>
<p>Getting into the multimedia group and hence beginning my scientific research experience is one of the best decisions Ive made in college. However, I have always been reminding myself of one of my basic understandings on scientific research of the undergraduate period: it is critical to lay a good foundation for the future. Dont just study for the temporary use. And that is one of the reasons why I put great emphasis on mathematics, which I think, is the cornerstone of scientific research of any subject. For instance, I fell in love with math modeling and got the Honorable Mention Award in Mathematical Contest in Modeling, which is one of the most influencing mathematical modeling contests in the world and participated by students from all countries. Because a lot of problems in image retrieval are optimization problems, I also got the opportunity to work with optimization. The idea All engineering problems are optimization problems always fascinated me just like what the the Grand Unified Field did to Albert Einstein. Moreover, I have also audited a lot of graduate-level math classes including Numerical Linear Algebra, Numerical Optimization, Financial Mathematics and Random Process. I think the solid math foundation I have established will be greatly beneficial to my future graduate studies. And I hope that I can get the opportunities to apply them in the engineering problems instead of just letting them stay there in applied mathematics.</p>
<p>In addition to the studying and scientific research, in college, I also enjoy meeting people from western countries and making friends with them. And I do consider socializing with them as a wonderful experience. I have made friends with my English teachers from US and kept in touch with them ever since. I believe that meeting people from different social, cultural and political backgrounds can give me, most of whose acquaintances are Chinese, a new perspective on the way I look at life, by digesting the nutrition from the western ideas and a better understanding on the western civilization, which has always been my curiosity and interests.</p>
<p>Five years in college is sure to be one of the most valuable experiences in my life. In retrospect, it has turned out to be very fruitful and productive. With only one year left, I can see that my college life is coming to and ending. But, I am also eagerly very looking forward to another beginning Undergraduate studies lay a good foundation for our knowledge structure and provide us with a direction. But the knowledge we have learnt is still far from intensive and practical. It would be a pity if one just leave the school and quit halfway. Through a graduate program, I could further explore the issues I confronted during my undergraduate years and get a truly systematic and detailed understanding on the major of electrical engineering. It is important to have opportunities to pursue possibilities and I think a graduate degree will open up positions that would not be available with just a Bachelors degree </p>
<p>Ever since my first day of college, I have set up my mind, in the later days, to pursue my graduate studies in a foreign country. Because I believe that, by studying abroad, the cultural, academic, and personal development one can experience will be tremendous. With the quality education system that is attracting tens of thousands of talented people from all over the world, I am also able to be more equipped for the future tasks that I will confront in my job. During the four years afterwards, I have always kept this goal in my mind and tried my best to achieve it.</p>
<p>And I believe that the XXX is such a nice university that can help me realize my dream. It is renowned in the world not only has the state-of-the-art facilities but also famous faculties that have influence in both the academic circle and industry. I have already contacted with Professor Larry Davis in the Department of Computer Science. He gave me warm encourage on the application and consented on my strong background. Hopefully I could get into his group. With the good teachers like Professor Larry Davis and the state-of-the-art facilities, I am sure I am going to do well in the University of Maryland and I am very looking forward to spending some of the best time of my life on the beautiful campus of XXXX.</p>