STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

My interest in Mathematics and Statistics could be traced back to when I was about 15 years
old. My mother’s business was at the brink of collapse. A cousin, Ibrahim, who was about
the same age as me had the solutions. He advised that a full inventory be taken and all sales
be recorded. The issue was discovered to be higher petty expenses than the profit. I was
impressed and astonished. I enquired from Ibrahim how he found this out. His answer
changed my reasoning, and in extension, my life. He said everything could be traced back to
numbers, and that is mathematics in its simplest form; addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division. I guess he removed the abstraction which was how I saw mathematics up until
then. He made me realized that the little mathematics, the x+y actually could be used to
solve real life issues, to save businesses and lives. I have since then been interested in the
applications of figures and mathematics.

The love for mathematics saw me studying Mathematics/Economics Education at a college

of Education in Nigeria, where I eventually emerged as the best graduating Mathematics
student of my set. During this time, I bagged the 1st position in the National mathematics
competition for colleges of Education student in Nigeria hosted by the National
Mathematical Center, Abuja. I also won the MTNF Science and scholarship award in Nigeria;
hosted by the biggest Telecommunication Industry in West Africa. My thirst for knowledge
and self-improvement saw me applying to study Statistics major, and minor in Mathematics
and Computer science at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. I graduated with a first Class, and a
C.G.P.A of 4.8 0n 5.0 scale.

I am proficient with the use of SPSS, STATA and R-programming for Data analysis. I have
held series of seminars on the use of SPSS and R-programming Language in Analyzing Data. I
submitted a project entitled "Predicting Students’ Class of Degree using Discriminant
Analysis". The predictor variables used were the core courses offered in statistics
department while the target variable was the class of degree. The data was divided into the
train and test data. Analysis was carried out on the train data while cross validation was
done on the test data. The project was aimed at discovering students that are likely to
graduate with poor class of degree as well as the courses that discriminates the student
class of degree and thereby ensuring adequate measures to help vulnerable student.

During the course of my undergraduate project research, I came across different predictive
and classification techniques which include, Random Forest, Tree Based Modelling, Kth
Neural Network as well as the comparison among these different techniques.
Considering all the facts and experience gathered, I have dedicated myself towards
Statistical research. I have keen interest in machine learning and how it's algorithms works,
the algorithm include but is not limited to: Regression, Decision tree, Gradient Boosting, Kth
Neural Network, Naives Bayes, Dimensionality Reductions, K-means clustering, Support
Vector Machine as well as Ensemblling Modelling. The Algorithms are classified under:
Supervised, Unsupervised and Semi supervised learning.

In summary, I would like to delve into any of Machine learning, Multivariate Analysis,
Biostatistics, Operations Research as well as Bayesian statistics. Whichever area of research
I concentrate on, I will work assiduously and give it my all to make a fruitful completion and
add value to my career.

After completion of my Master’s degree I plan to subsequently study for and gain a PhD
with which I could be better armed to tackle socio-economic and Education situation in my
country, Nigeria. I wish to teach in a university in my country to further encourage and
coach the future of my country. A nation that is better equipped with understanding on
numbers and its application should be on a faster track to development. I also plan to delve
into business and structural analysis.

Saudi Arabia has been a dream country for me as I am interested in the culture, language et
al. combined with this; I have the desire to attend a world class university. The serene
environment, outstanding faculties, and the boundless opportunities that come with a
world class university is quite exciting. The combination of these major determinants
prompted my choice to have my masters in Applied Statistics at the King Fahd University of
Petroleum and Minerals. I expect that a lot of my potentials could be unlocked here and I
look forward to this.