"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

"

-Mahatma Gandhi

Learning and exploring new things have always been driving forces in my life. My interest in the field of
Computer Science started growing during middle school when I first used an iPad that was provided by
the school for academic purposes itself to teach its productive use. I was fascinated by the technology
and efficiency it offered. My family background is in the construction and real-estate development
business, and though the fields are unrelated, I was curious about the Auto CAD drawings made by my
father and how they were made, which made me interested in learning new tools and technologies.
When I was introduced to the programming language (Java) in high school, app development—which I
had never heard of before—and how coding and pressing the right buttons could produce a variety of
responses and activities captivated me. This led me to pursue my bachelor's degree in computer science
at SRM University, where I studied various programming languages, algorithms, and other skills.

Like all other students, I was attracted by the fast-paced events that were happening in my first year of
college, along with the student-led organizations and seminars. My favorite core modules were those
that covered data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented design and programming. During the
crucial period of COVID, when there was a lockdown, everyone was scrambling to manage their time. I
discovered more about e-waste through one of my electives, "Waste to Wealth to Wheels," and at one
of the hackathons, I built a website with my friends that specialized in gathering e-waste from homes.
Discussing finance and stocks with my peers inspired me to learn more about the field and begin
investing myself; it was a great feeling when I made my first profit.

Moreover, having an interest in the field of finance led to the idea of making an app that would be a
crypto-simulating game, which led me to learn Flutter to make it accessible to the general public, which
is named "Cryptonite," but I was unable to finish it due to the lack of precise data and graphs. To gain
experience, I then worked on two other applications, "Red Whale" and "Walk Talk," both of which are
still under development. As a flutter intern, I completed two internships for a total duration of three
months: one at Stratzy, which is a fintech startup that already aligned with my interest in finance, and
learned a lot about how they operate and gained experience as a flutter intern. I took up another
internship at Two Loops, where we made an app from scratch. The bonding sessions, which were held
on weekends, were great for getting to know the people working there, the founders, and the other
interns. Furthermore, I did some virtual internships on forage where I explored the field of cyber
security and learned about hashing and password cracking through tasks from Goldman Sachs and Data
Analytics for Quantium.

Returning to the college once the pandemic subsided was a great feeling, and my interest in many of my
course modules flourished under the esteemed guidance of my favorite faculty member, Ms. M. Hema.
Under her guidance, I learned a lot about artificial intelligence, and her suggestion of uniting my
interests in investing and machine learning led me to do a project under her named "Stock Prediction
and Analysis." I followed her advice of adding natural language processing to the project, which led me
to do the same in the next semester. This fueled my interest in data science and encouraged me to write
a research paper titled "A Comparison of Deep Learning Models for P300-Based Brain-Computer
Interfaces," which is presently under review. I accomplished this under the excellent supervision of my
faculty member, Dr G. Usha. The project I'm working on is Waste Profiling and Analysis using Machine
Learning, which was inspired by one of my current electives, Municipal Solid Waste Management, with
the same faculty.

I was a part of the IoT alliance, where our college sophomore taught us a variety of IoT-related skills
over the first two weeks. These skills include understanding different IoT hardware, such as sensors and
boards, as well as how to connect these gadgets to online software and use them from mobile devices.
Following the training session, we worked on several projects, including a smart bus system and a smart
billboard. After that, I became a Tech Lead in a club known as the CTech Association, where we held a
seminar for teaching Flutter to juniors and peers. This enabled me to gain confidence and minimize my
stage fright. We educated them on the fundamentals of the software and walked them through the
entire installation process over two days. I also took part in CyberKshetra'21, held by Deloitte, where our
team placed in the top 18 teams across the universities. This competition included a variety of activities
like a treasure hunt, data sorting using Python, and finding security flaws in AWS.

Since my interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence has risen, I am eager to learn more about
these topics and broaden my skills in this field. My short-term objective is to pursue my master’s at a
prestigious institution, and after I graduate, I want to work for leading tech firms and startups to gain
knowledge about their work ethics and gain experience. I anticipate going back to India in the future and
establishing my organization there.
I am intrigued about pursuing my master’s as I have learned about many topics in computer science through
courses, workshops, and self-taught projects, and I am equipped with a CGPA of 9.2 up to the conclusion of my 3rd
year. It would be a tremendous opportunity for me to study at the University of Maryland in the program of
Computer Science with real-world experience professors, great programs offered by the university, outstanding
infrastructure, and excellent peers. My current interest in the field of data science and machine learning has
increased my desire to learn more about the field and work under the guidance of Prof. Ming Lin and Prof. Hanan
Samet
At the University of Maryland, I believe it will help me gain deeper understanding of the concepts where my
interest lies. And it will help me get one step closer to my goals.

Thanking you,

Ved Patel