Statement of Purpose

My undergraduate major is Electrical Engineering and Automation, a direction of forever interest

to me. I used to have a Fancy Notebook, jotted with ideas of all bizarre, such as Goggles with
direction instruction emerged in front and alarms at crossings, Doorbells sensing the keys being
left and sending reminders before departure, etc. The goggles were realized by Google, and the
doorbell by me after professional study at university, with a patent certificate to be issued soon.
To some extent, electrical knowledge offers me smart choices in solving problems and also
enlightens modern society to move forward. It is the best major.
The curriculum of my university is designed to train students on both strong and weak electricity,
complemented with fundamental classes. From the principles behind various modern inventions,
basic languages such as C++, various arithmetic methods of calculus, computer assembly language,
PLC language application, matlab application in data processing, to circuit analysis,
electromagnetic rules and laws and formulas, strong power transmission, I have had an overall
solid foundation in professional areas. What’s more, due to personal interest and talent in EE, I
have earned a GPA of top 10% ranking, winning scholarship every year.
EE Project experience consisted an important part of my academic life, threading up textbook
knowledge and strengthened my practical skills so much that will be elaborated below. The first
project was done during learning the course of Digital Logic, where all solutions of one question
were highly valued rather than one only solution being the Correct One. After a thorough
understanding of how traffic lights were connected by careful logic, I was inspired to see through
the messy electrical lines to the clever design. Meanwhile, I noticed Grandma forgot to take the
keys often and decided to use my knowledge to her service. I designed a sensor to be put right by
the doorstop, which will sense the walking out of a person and call out if the door key was still on
the sensor. Circuits connecting and sensor design were two obstacles for I was quite a novice then.
I turned to loads of references for support and drew down all the ideas in mind. Rounds of
experiments witnessed my design growing from simple to advanced, until the final project came
out splendidly. My project has helped to make Grandma’s life easier, and as mentioned above will
be awarded with a patent soon. I would be delighted to see it benefit more people in the future.
The second was on Electrical Engineering Practicum course, where five projects in all were well-
designed and achieved and one to be highlighted: Robotic arm sorting device sequence control
system. Our team of ten designed the devices as strong and smart, like the arm in a doll-clipping
machine, capable of picking up iron balls from a basket, and dropping down in assigned basin: big
ball in big basin, small in small. The claw at the end of arm was a magnet with sensor installed,
which will touch and sense the ball size. In the primitive case, the robotic arm and magnet claw
are not charged. When Button SF1 is pressed, the magnet is charged and drags the arm down.
When the sensor touches the ball and hits Button BG2, the magnet will be ready to pick the ball.
If the sensor senses a big ball, Button BG0 (the sensor in charge of sensing the ball size) will be
“on” (small ball “off”), following the claw grasping the ball and rising until it touches BG1, heads
right and drops the ball into BG4 (big ball BG5). The difficult part lies in design and logic. I had
no clue at first, especially lost on how to “teach” the magnet to tell the big balls from the small
ones and then drop into assigned basin correctly. However, after I drew down the flow chart, I
realized that since the balls were of just two sizes, the design could be achievable. I could define
 Statement of Purpose

the Big ball picking-and-dropping track as Logic1 and Small ball Non-Logic1, then design
separately the robot arm movement program of each branch, so that the robot arm moves different
balls to their assigned positions respectively. Once the logic was got through, everything was
solved. Though it was my first try on PLC, the previous on-course accumulation was in good use.
Joined with diligence and indulgence in testing ladder diagrams, I quickly get the hang of ladder
diagrams. Now after I endured another year of tough work, this project seems to be far less
challenging than it was. But it is during the conduction of this project, I had tasted the sweetness
of exploring the uncharted territory step by step until having a way out. That sweetness of trying
warmed me profoundly.
Starting last fall, I came to University of Idaho for senior study and have done well in both melting
in the environment and achieving academic progress, which is embodied in an A score during my
senior design “Solar Backup Power Generation”. The university operates multiple wells to support
the domestic water needs of campus and backup power generation is needed for emergency. Diesel
generators are the traditional solution but we try to seek a solar PV alternative that can be tied into
the campus microgrid. We have three candidate areas to choose from, PV array to design, and
project budget to calculate. It was truly a team work from on-spot investigation, brainstorming,
negotiating with the Microgrid team of university and later steam team (for cooperation in power
generating in winter), conducting the program step by step. My involvement in every step proved
helpful with an exclusive duty of designing website introduction, where detailed information is
available on http://mindworks.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Solar_Backup_Power_Generation. The whole
project is expected to finish by the end of this semester.
Academic success in EE overall and the progress made during studying in the US have cultivated
in me an aspiration to pursue a master’s degree in a top university in the US, and to continue my
study in-depth with more project participation. Circuits design, digital logic and automation has
been my chosen field where I have a rich accumulation of professional knowledge and a strong
interest. I wish to be more proficient in assembly language and design things of real use to daily
life, aiming at making life easier and smarter. A graduate study experience at a top-ranked
university is what I’m currently after and WUSTL EE program, Devices & Circuits subfield, suits
my needs perfectly. WUSTL boasts a long glorious history of EE research and education, starting
as early as in 1891 and leading the industry since then. The subfield highlights IC design, EE’s
application in real scenarios, supporting cutting-edge researches in top labs which I am so eager
to be involved. WUSTL also offers flexible research focus selection, with a broad survey of focus
areas within ESE available; Preston M. Green Hall and other seven research halls are home to EE
scholars and researchers, witnessing the brilliance of WUSTL. Moreover, WUSTL’s well-
connection with professional organizations such as InCEES, keeps bringing positive influence on
and potential chances to students’ academic lives. The fact that my idol researcher Prof. Lan
Yang’s working at WUSTL also tint a special color to WUSTL’s halo. As an international student,
I am ready to call WUSTL my home and confident to make another solid progress at WUSTL.