During application season, prospective graduate students often request for sample statement of purpose to get an idea about statement of purpose. Instead of sending them dummy statement of purpose, GradBunker is inviting international students from different universities across the globe to share their statement of purpose from various discipline. The idea of this effort is to create a public database of statement of purposes from international students who got funded admission in different universities across the globe. In this blog, we are sharing the statement of purpose from Sumit Chanda, who is currently a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department of University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP). He got full funding for his Masters program and currently working as a graduate research assistant in the aerospace research center of UTEP.

Sample Statement of Purpose:

In my teenage years, I used to wander while reading the biography of the scientists in the book – “The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in history” as it always placed me in deep thought about how those inventions changed the world. Apparently, still being my favorite, this book has led me to have the ultimate dream: being a researcher!

Being raised in a rural environment of a developing country, every single engineering application was a
great source of interest during my childhood. In my school, I attended a science project contest by making a self-powered automatic bus signal system where I became divisional level champion. Since local buses of rural areas didn’t have the signaling display, I considered it a problem and tried to figure out a solution for this at that early age which further diverted my mind to identify problems and brainstorm for solutions in the next years. My interest for various engineering applications prompted my mind to choose Mechanical Engineering as my major during my undergraduate study at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology. From my junior years, I attended numerous seminars and training sessions to learn about
different fields of Mechanical Engineering.

While learning AutoCAD and Solidworks, some modern features, especially the topology optimization
which portrays the generative design technology intrigued me at the level that I used that algorithm for
designing some structural parts of a modern coffee cart for reducing the deadweight keeping the structural integrity in an international CAD contest held at IIT Bombay in 2018. So, I devoted myself learning various functionalities of CAD programs. The winning titles in a good number of national and international design contests boosted my confidence in pursuing my research in the field of computer modeling and simulation.

While working for a global design contest by ASME, I was researching to develop an idea of sustainable
medical aid container design to be used for drone delivery and came up with an idea of utilizing the recently invented negative stiffness honeycomb (NSH) structure by D.M. Correa. My design placed in the top ten amongst 146 teams around the globe, but the prospect of NSH kept hitting my mind. In the following year, under the supervision of my professor Dr. Md Abdul Hasib, I conducted numerical analysis on the energy absorption characteristics of this structure with different materials used in additive manufacturing which concluded the applicability of the structure for different energy absorption requirements. Not to mention, the paper got the best paper award in the ICMIEE 2020. But I am really interested in discovering more novel energy absorbing structural designs which includes elastic buckling characteristics for the recovery of the shape. As the next generation will rigorously depend on more efficient structures or designs, I believe having advanced knowledge combination of design technology as well as mechanics of materials will strongly support me to discover the world of smart structural designs.

In my undergraduate thesis, I felt the severity of casualties incurred in bus accidents in Bangladesh and
investigated a common bus CAD structure in a frontal impact situation. Crumple zone combined with
modern energy absorption technology in the automobile field seemed plausible to me as a solution for the crisis and I tried to analyze the improvement after implementing an axial energy absorber structure in the frontal part of the CAD model. The result seemed prosperous. In the growing demand of passenger safety, planned structural integrity in automobile is getting popular for the one stop solution but distinctive researches on elastic energy absorber systems have been growing which in future I believe will replace the traditional damage boxes. I hope, a strong foundation on mechanics of materials will enable a person to develop more unique concepts for the crashworthiness improvement.

During the pandemic, I found NASA International Space Apps Challenge throwing a problem to design a
next-generation planetary geology tool for space exploration. So, last year, my team analyzed the tools used on Apollo missions and modified their design for further reduction of dead weight by splitting the common shaft head. We also introduced an extra handle for better maneuvering. That year we ended up being the honorable mention awardee at the final round but we continued our work and participated this year again for the same challenge. We figured out a serious problem of regolith handling reported by the Apollo astronauts. Inspired by the recently developed RASSOR robot, we designed ARSS-Advanced regolith Sampler System, a handy tool to be used by astronauts which will scoop regolith more efficiently by its battery-powered rotating RASSOR drum cutters and reduce the time of sampling than before. This time, NASA along with researchers and engineers from 10 space agencies analyzed our design and found it as the most plausible solution, so we were declared Global Winner amongst the submissions from 4500 teams of 162 countries. Both NASA and Bangladesh government have now shown interest to work on our design. Doing these projects gave me much confidence in my concept generation capability.

I also believe teaching and spreading information are also important aside from exploring them. I love to
teach what I know well. Besides taking classes in the co-curricular club organized training sessions on
CAD, PLC, Arduino, etc., last year after noticing the importance of a computer simulation workshop for
my juniors, I took a two-day-long basic ABAQUS course where I presented all the resources in an organized manner. Even being a technical workshop, around 100 participants joined and the presence was very notable.

“Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die
happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.”- my favorite
quote from Baden Powel which I try to follow since I joined scouting during my school days. Thus,
problem-solving gives me immeasurable pleasure for being able to improve something. I was redirected
towards the startup culture during my graduation days and founded Freelance CAD: a private R&D
company to serve the design-related needs of small companies as well as the researchers but eventually
ended up doing product development tasks by big organizations like UNICEF. Currently, my team is
developing the mechanical design of a low-cost touchless soap (both liquid and solid) dispenser for
educational institutes. Besides, we are near to completing a fabrication project of a coffee roasting machine for export purposes. All these projects always convinced me to go further to learn more about new technologies. I have taken courses and training programs on PLC, Arduino, Programming and Robotic systems for having a proper understanding of the whole project. I’m now looking forward for a deep dive into vanguard manufacturing technologies to excel for being a leader of a team that provides world-class technological solutions.

To fulfill my dream, I am looking for a stimulating research institute that has a world-class faculty list,
exceptional peers, and pre-eminent resources especially in the area of design and materials. To my
knowledge, Department of Mechanical Engineering at UTEP has the features where I believe I can grow
with full potential surrounded by some awe-inspiring mentors and classmates. Especially the opportunity
to engage in the Design & Manufacturing and Mechanics research labs has pulled my attention the very
most where I can learn about avant-garde technologies. Besides proving myself as an output-oriented
engineer in the next industry, I believe that I can enhance UTEP’s innovation list through my idea generation capability. Also, I can greatly feel the entrepreneurial possibility and the goodwill of the authority at El Paso. I am very much optimistic about the future of my startup after being there.
Having a long-term vision, my priority is to start for a MSc. possessing the plan to have a career in the
technological research industry, I assume UTEP’s warming environment will be beneficial for the smooth
propelling of my career. To date, all my experiences definitely speak about my passion for research and the indefatigable psyche for the graduate education. I know that time will require hard work, intense dedication and constant resilience, but I’m confident to be prepared for these.

Disclaimer: The original author shared his statement of purpose with GradBunker. The document is published in pristine format. No A.I. was used to generate any portion of this content.