Ideal Motivational Letters

I am writing this letter to sincerely express my motivation for pursuing my graduate education in
Artificial Intelligence (AI) specialization of the Computer Science Master's program offered by the
Institution of Computer Science (ICS) at the University of Tartu (UT).

I am very keen to pursue my desire to become an AI expert with this master's program at UT for
several reasons. As a start, UT's reputation for providing high-quality education with well-known
professors and well-established facilities has been proven through its rich history of existence
since 1632. Furthermore, ICS enjoys several research labs in various research fields, including a
dedicated lab for autonomous driving, one of my most liked research fields. The Industrial
Master's Programme in IT, on the other hand, induces an extra motivation for pursuing a master's
degree in CS at UT as it presents an opportunity to undergo the real-world phase of what
students are learning. Also, Estonia is famous for being a hub for technology startups. I believe
this can have a great potential to expose me to experts, innovative ideas and the latest advances
in my areas of interest in CS and AI. It may also have a potential to provide me with some
internship opportunities relevant to my field of study at UT.

My enthusiasm for technology dates back to my teenagehood when I learned how to program a
micro-controller to steer a line-following robot. This experience deepened my passion for
technology and persuaded me to opt for the Computer Engineering bachelor's program in 2015.
While I started my undergraduate studies at Ayatollah Boroujerdi University, after finishing the
freshman year, I transferred to a more reputable and established school, The University of
Guilan. The more academically vibrant environment of this university magnified my passion and
boosted my hardworking spirit so that I was able to secure a part-time job as a junior Android
developer. I stayed at that job for eighteen months and experienced various software
development tools and methodologies such as JavaFX, SQL, socket programming, Git, and
scrum, which gifted me the precious opportunity to apply university learning to real-world
problems. Also, I have worked as a freelancer. During and after a period of Django freelancing, I
made continuous efforts to master several machine learning (ML) frameworks. Keras, Pytorch,
Pandas, Numpy, and Sckit-learn, are a few of the mentioned frameworks. I believe that my
proficiency in Python was a key to my success. Lastly, I have learned some basics of cloud
development and mastered Golang and Postgres through my most recent job as a remote junior
software engineer in an Australian startup called Trialblaze.

Apart from my bachelor's program curriculum, which was enriched with a wide variety of
mathematics courses, I have been conducting self-studies on ML and deep learning (DL) to
quench my thirst for learning more about this field. As an example, I acquired several certificates
from Coursera on ML course and DL specialization taught by Dr. Andrew Ng. An outcome of
these studies has been deepening and widening my knowledge in mathematics so that I am
confident that mathematics would not be a barrier for my graduate studies.
As I mentioned earlier, the concept of autonomous driving cars is my primary choice of a
research field, and I am enthusiastic about writing my master's thesis about one of its related
areas. I would like to take advantage of reinforcement learning in controlling a vehicle in a more
specific description. Also, I almost completed a self-driving car specialization on Coursera to gain
a minimum intuition about the methods, mathematics, tools, and frameworks of developing a self-
driving car. Moreover, with Bolt and UT's recent collaboration for working on a self-driving car
project, I am very optimistic that this university-industry collaboration may provide unprecedented
opportunities for me to practically learn about my field of interest and being exposed to cutting-
edge research.
I am confident about the significantly positive impact of pursuing the Computer Science Master's
program on my professional career development. I have been working as a developer for almost
four years, but shifting my career path toward AI and autonomous driving requires a certain
proficiency level. Hence, for the reasons mentioned above, UT is considered a perfect place to
gain such mastery. However, my ultimate goal for pursuing such a long journey toward AI falls
into two main categories; first is running a startup in the autonomous driving-related fields and
second is improving today's AI definition by developing more efficient algorithms for learning.
Nonetheless, both of them oblige a tremendous amount of knowledge in mathematics and
extensive research and academic efforts. I firmly believe that the curriculum of the program I am
applying for will set the ground for me the acquire the necessary skill to become an AI specialist.

I hope UT's admission committee finds me qualified and honors me with an admission to the
Computer Science Master's program so that I can start my new journey and start the exciting
path of becoming an AI expert.

Sincerely,
Mehran Rafiee
05 Feb. 2021
Dear Sir/Madam,

It is an honor to express my strong desire to pursue a master's degree in Computer Science at

the University of Tartu through this motivation letter.

I completed my undergraduate studies in Computer Science at the American University of

Armenia. The four-year program has given me a strong background and understanding in
computer sciences and mathematics through calculus, discrete mathematics, optimization,
probability and statistics, programming, data structures and algorithms, image processing,
machine learning, and many more. I have also gained profound experience in the field while
working as a researcher in the Infrastructure team in Joomag AM. To deepen my knowledge in
data science, I have also taken field-related courses like neural networks and parallel-processing
during my junior year at the Technological Educational University of Crete. I have completed my
bachelor's studies as the top student of my class with a 4.0 GPA, demonstrating my motivation,
perseverance, and sense of responsibility. I plan to continue my studies in the same way and
work even harder during my graduate studies.

For my bachelor's thesis, I conducted research in artificial intelligence under the supervision of
one of the leading data scientists in Armenia. The purpose of my research was the application of
self-organizing maps to classification and dimensionality reduction problems. As a result, we
proved self-organizing maps' ability to work as powerful classifiers; although preliminary they
were designed only to solve unsupervised learning problems. Through this work, I gained more
knowledge about artificial intelligence and non-traditional neural networks. I was able to carry out
this extensive research, from studying the basics to implementing new networks and
experimenting with the existing ones.

As my interests in computer science and particularly in data science were increasing

exponentially, I began leaning towards it both academically and professionally. After completing
AI training in the Picsart-AUA laboratory, I started working there as a junior AI researcher. In
three months, I researched and implemented production-ready models for recommending items
to users based on their historic preferences. I conducted extensive research on the collaborative
filtering of recommender systems as well as novel methods like sparse linear methods (SLIM)
and variational autoencoders for collaborative filtering (I am legally obliged not to share the
source code of the project, but I can share my presentation -
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g9AL4w3jylWbpIsSF-5eQvgbwd2QaWU5Gl5t130YCgE).
Currently, I work as a machine learning scientist in the User Behavior team in Picsart. Among my
responsibilities are designing machine learning systems for the User Behavior team, running
machine learning tests and experiments, and performing statistical analysis and fine-tuning using
the test results. My working tool kit includes Python, Apache Spark. Jupyter Notebook, SQL. In
addition to the mentioned, I have strong theoretical knowledge in probability theory, statistics, and
programming in general.

As I continue my studies and work, I realize the need for more knowledge, direction, and in-depth
studies to become a distinguished scientist, which is why I am choosing to pursue my master's
degree at the University of Tartu. The program "Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence" is the
ideal continuation of my studies considering my skills. I have a strong computer science
background, and I need more in-depth and organized knowledge, specifically in artificial
intelligence. This interdisciplinary program is a unique combination of fundamental courses that
will enable me to fulfill my potential and myself among the
frontrunners pushing digital technologies forward.

Courses offered in this program, particularly Machine Learning, Big Data Management, and
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, will allow me to deepen my knowledge and fill in the gaps.
Additionally, I plan to enroll in Introduction to Autonomous Driving. Artificial intelligence is an
interdisciplinary field, and the well-thought and organized integration of theory and informatics is
an absolute must for such studies. Another critical factor for choosing this program is courses
from Theoretical Informatics and Distributed Systems specializations. For example, the offered
courses like Intro. to Theoretical Computer Science and Data Analysis in Software Engineering
will be the necessary continuation of my programming courses studied in Armenia. I think that
solid knowledge of programming is essential for data scientists not to be restricted in their
research and experiments.

I believe that my master's studies at the University of Tartu will be a massive milestone in my
professional research career. I plan to apply for doctoral studies after graduation and contribute
to the world of science. This master's program caught my eye for being "out of the box" and being
very practice-oriented. As a novice data scientist with some experience in the field, I would love to
get practical experience during my master's studies. I plan to do my master's thesis on
"Autonomous Driving," and ideally, afterward, I would like to join the "Machine learning research
group". I want to contribute to the research they conduct, specifically on the "Autonomous
Driving" research topic. Being part of this lab's team will allow me to improve my theoretical
knowledge and diverse practical experience. Consequently, completing my master's studies in
Artificial Intelligence will give me essential knowledge, network, and opportunities to advance my
skills and research methods in the field. It will allow me to expose my full potential, build my
career on firm grounds, and contribute to the university through my knowledge and enthusiasm.

I look forward to your positive response. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Motivation Letter

“Imagination is superior to knowledge. Knowledge has its limitations but imagination encircles the
world”, I have always believed in that quote and this belief that guided me to choose engineering
as my line of study. Though my father is a village farmer, he always wanted to see me properly
educated. From my school life, I was considerably interested in the field of mathematics, physics,
and strong analytical ability. Observing my interest, my elder brother introduced me to the
computer in his office when I was 14 years old. From that time, I was fascinated by computers.
For this reason, I have chosen Computer Science and Engineering as a major in my
undergraduate study. Now I am eager to learn extensively about the subject matters, which has
motivated me to apply for the master’s program.
I have chosen the University of Tartu to pursue my graduate degree because of the course
structure. Moreover, the research facility and environment have made this institute more
interesting. Without any hesitation, it would be a great chance to continue my study and research
there. I am very much confident that the University of Tartu is the right place to build my research
career. The M.Sc. degree at the University of Tartu and then a doctoral degree are the steps to
achieving my ultimate dream of a lifelong career in research. I am fully aware of the dedication,
commitment, and sacrifices of this path I’m pursuing. I believe that I possess the motivation,
dedication, and intellectual ability for this graduate study.
From these three specializations (Theoretical Informatics, Distributed Systems, and Artificial
Intelligence), I choose Artificial Intelligence because its applications can be seen in everyday
scenarios. Artificial Intelligence came from the 4th year of my undergraduate studies when I had
to take the course Artificial Intelligence and at the same time started my research on Machine
Learning. I have completed that course and the lab work because the course was an outstanding
subject to me. Later I discovered that it will be the right place for me to carry forward and still I am
trying to enrich my knowledge on it
For my research purposes, I am so much comfortable with python using PyCharm IDE and
sometimes also use google colab and I would appraise mid-level of proficiency. I have also
completed my undergraduate thesis using MatLab. I have a better level of mastery using this tool.
As I have some real-life work experiences in the relevant field from the industry. I have an
intermediate level of expertise in Java and Spring MVC Framework. I am working as a Software
Engineer in the IT Division of a very reputed Bank called DBBL. I have developed several
modules that are added to the Core Banking System. Technology like Spring MVC Framework,
Angular, and Oracle DB is used in this project. This is an ongoing project. Before that, I started
my career as Junior Software Engineer for a Switzerland-based company where I had the
opportunity to learn new technology and to use it for professional projects. During this time, I was
able to learn a Java-based framework Spring Boot, and implemented some features of two big
projects according to the requirements of the client.
During my B. Sc. study at Khulna University, I worked on many software development projects for
academic purposes. Among them, an interesting project is ‘Emergency Help for Girls’. I used
Android to develop the project. The advantage of this project is using this app any person can
contact easily just shake your phone. There is also an option to set phone numbers depending on
shaking patterns like one shake two shake so on. User-Friendly UI and easily accessible. Here is
the link https://github.com/nipakhatun?tab=repositories to some of my completed projects and
also my undergraduate thesis.
My undergraduate thesis was titled “Content-based paddy leaf disease recognition, its severity
detection and remedy prediction using SVM and AdaBoost”. One part of my research “Content-
based Paddy Leaf Disease Recognition and Remedy Prediction using Support Vector Machine”
has been published in 20th ICCIT (International Conference on Computer and Information
Technology) in December 2017 and available in IEEE explorer and another part of our thesis has
been published in STM Journals. The goal of this research was to introduce an automated
system to recognize paddy leaf diseases using image processing and the supervise machine
learning algorithm SVM and provide a proper remedy to cure the paddy leaf diseases.
From the very beginning of my undergraduate study, I discovered the thrill and satisfaction of
solving problems algorithmically. I am very obstinate to solve any complex algorithms or
mathematical problem and I can’t do anything else until it is completely solved. In my Algorithm
course, I had the experience of analyzing the efficiency and correctness of different algorithms.
So I am also interested in analyzing the efficiency and correctness of different algorithms,
constructing new algorithms, implementing non-trivial algorithms in the future.
My immediate goal is to get admission for master’s study from the University of Tartu, where
there is an opportunity to make a significant contribution along with developing personal skills,
potentiality, notion, and knowledge. Using such talents and skillsets to build me productive and
competent full-time faculty of a university in addition to a development research analyst and
activist in the field of Software Engineering with a progressive line-up. And also for the
development of society in a sustainable environment. To build a successful lever for me, I have
searched for experiences and opportunities in my entire life.
Motivational Letter
I am very interested in the Informatics Master’s programme offered by University of Tartu, as
it is a logical continuation of my studies here in Tartu. I graduated cum laude in Informatics
Bachelor’s in 2020 before becoming a conscript. As I was studying, I was also working as a
software developer at Nortal - my results confirm, this has had a rather positive effect on my
studies.

I am a technical and theoretical person, for example I often delve into proofs and algorithms. I
consult documentation and even standards when solving architectural problems or coding
challenges. Having participated in Informatics Olympiads in the past, I am quite good at
solving complex problems - not necessarily just in the field of software engineering.
I am most excited by the Distributed Systems specialization. While interested in all
specializations, I have some experience in building scalable microservices and want to learn
more about scalable systems. I also have some ideas on how to improve this area - my
Bachelor’s thesis was based around increasing the effectiveness of JWTs (JSON Web
Tokens), which are a key component to stateless inter-service communication.
In general, my main focus has been on customer-oriented software where I have been trying
to minimise server-side work where possible. My ambition is enhancing simple software with
machine-learning techniques to build better and more intuitive user experiences - the
Distributed Systems Seminar (MTAT.08.024) would let me delve into applied computer
vision to accomplish just that. I am also planning on taking cryptography and AI-related
courses in the Electives Module.
I have experience in multiple programming languages: Java for ~10 years, JavaScript for ~8
years and Python for ~5 years. I have been using IntelliJ IDEA as my main IDE, lately
preferring VSCode for front-end development. In addition, I have a comprehensive
experience with Linux both on workstations and servers. I am also fairly familiar with query
languages SQL and GraphQL.
For around 5 years, I have been containerizing most of my work, using Docker - the server-
side code for Telia Online-Help project, which I worked for at Nortal, runs on Kubernetes. I
used to host my own server for personal projects, but in order to ensure higher uptime, data
integrity and to minimise costs and time, I switched to using cloud server solutions offered by
DigitalOcean. I have also done quite a few personal robotics projects.
The tech stack I am most familiar with (at least that which I have used in a project) includes:
Spring Boot, Android Studio, AngularJS, Angular, React, Typescript, REST, JSON Web
Token, Jupyter, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, PostgreSQL, GraphQL, Kubernetes, Docker, Alpine.
The most complex task I have faced is making most standardized, ideal and future-proof
architectural decisions. Both in the Telia Online-Help project and when serving as a conscript,
I have had to deal with figuring out which problems the stakeholders actually have and how to
solve them. Then I have had to figure out how to continually achieve the goals in a
sprint-by-sprint workflow. This involves a lot of base knowledge, heavy research, bouncing
ideas and prototyping before development tasks can be formalized.
The projects where I have had such a consultative or a leading role include Telia Online-Help
at Nortal ( https://telia.ee/abi ), personal project Soli ( https://soli.ee ) and the situational
awareness and command-and-control, the main project at Estonian Defence Forces (for
internal use only).
A research-heavy task was writing a paper on more scalable JSON Web Tokens - my
Bachelor’s degree thesis on Authorization of Web Requests Based on Merkle Trees - where I
attempted to generalize and solve a common problem in scalable architecture.
In case code examples are needed, the only open-source project I have done so far is an app I
built for conveniently displaying timetables and course info at high school
( https://github.com/gregoreesmaa/minu-poska-android ). I have come a long way since then,
but even before attending the Bachelor’s, I have given my best at clean and maintainable code
I feel comfortable in the field of algorithms and mathematics. This is proven by both cum-
laude
in Bachelor’s studies and participation in Informatics Olympiads at National level before that.
I am generally interested in finding most reasonable algorithms to use given the constraints. I
usually consider building specialized algorithms if the need exists. While this question applies
for theoretical informatics specialization, I am more interested in combining theory and
practice.
I have quite a few ideas on the Master’s thesis. My latest thoughts circle around combining
scalable systems, artificial intelligence and music, using AI to solve problems in the
instrumental music industry, using means provided by distributed computing power. Other
interesting thoughts are more general, either finding better ways to build and integrate
microservices or using existing cryptographic methods to solve problems in new ways.
I have ambition to build a better future. This programme helps me gain a depth-first
understanding of key architectural parts to achieve this. My current goals center around the
vision of a digital scorebook for musicians, where I believe AI and distributed systems
knowledge has real value. In general, I am working in Software Development and the fields of
scalable services and AI fascinate me the most, so gaining a better understanding is a win-
win. I am aware my profile might seem better-suited for Software Engineering Master’s, but I
am confident I want to broaden my scope by traversing the world of more theoretical
informatics depth-first - so to speak. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity. I hope the
theoretical knowledge I will receive will help me make the right future-proof decisions a
project needs.

Gregor Eesmaa
I am writing this letter to sincerely express my motivation for pursuing my graduate education in
Computer Science Master's program offered by King Fahad University of Petroleum and
Minerals, As the world has been moving at an exceptional pace with the introduction of newer
technologies. The realm of computer science seems to be the backbone as the world transcends
towards a faster future. I developed a keen interest in computers at a very young age. I was lucky
enough to have a desktop computer in my house from a very young age, which gave me a head
start in developing my interests in how they work. I was born at a time when witnessed the
evolution of technology and the curiosity around it became ingrained within me.

Even though I was introduced to computers pretty early in life, my core interest started evolving
after my introduction to computer languages such as Java and C++. I selected for the graduate
program in Software Engineering from Balochistan University of Information Technology,
Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) Quetta, where I began my journey towards
my goals and ambitions. I have always been extremely interested in computer languages which
developed exponentially once I was introduced to subjects like algorithm development, computer
networks, operating systems, computer architecture, embedded system designs, software
engineering, and microprocessor-based system designs.

My graduate program was a fantastic experience where I got to overcome my limitations and
learned to focus on my ambitions. The program not only expanded my knowledge horizon but
also had an equally great impact on developing my personality and character.

My academic performance has been excellent throughout my graduate program and has been
backed by interships, where i was able to secure a part-time job as a Quality Assurance
Engineer. I worked on various software development tools and methodologies such as
developing Test Scenarios, Test cases, Bug reporting and fixing, which gifted me the precious
opportunity at my introduction to the real world of computer science. It also brought many
challenges to my table and also introduced me to the corporate world and sowed within me this
insatiable desire to grow.

I have been extremely keen on pursuing an MS in Computer Science as this course will equip me
for the future. The King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, provides a brilliant learning
infrastructure, Without any hesitation, it would be a great chance to continue my study and
research there. I am very much confident that the The King Fahad University is the right place to
build my research career. The experience and credibility of the teaching faculty here are immense
and an opportunity to work under their mentorship shall expand my worldview and the future of
technology. I hope to utilize my acquired skills for the betterment of society through the creation
of newer technologies.

I aspire to create a productive atmosphere within your renowned institution with this clear goal in
mind. I remain true to my cause and hope that my statement of purpose has intrigued your
interest. I hope my credibility has the power to impress you and earn me a seat at your
prestigious university.

I look forward to your positive response. Thank you for your time and consideration.