my statement of purpose for Cornell
Dec. 25th, 2002 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslThe following is my statement of purpose for Cornell. I sent it by DHL yesterday. Harvard is on-line, and it's due in a week.
Gustavo Lacerda de Melo - Computer Science
Statement of Purpose
college career
When I decided to study Computer Science at Bucknell University, I did so in hopes of taking their AI class, so I could explore my persistent interest in this area. I was biting a bullet by taking the introductory CS classes, since I had been a comfortable programmer for a long time, but I decided it was worth it. What I didn't anticipate was that I would learn a lot of interesting things along the way, especially in classes about algorithms and programming languages. I ended up getting a major in Computer Science, alongside my Mathematics major, which made me more comfortable reading papers and advanced textbooks.
In an after-class discussion with Prof. James Lu, I learned about Automated Theorem Proving. This was very exciting, especially because I had started being dissatisfied with the "informal" proofs that I saw in my math classes: it was often unclear how statements followed (causing me to perform unnecessary searches in my head). I generalized the idea, and this is how I became interested in Automated Reasoning. Later, In a statistics class, after I criticized the statistical inference we were doing for neglecting possible causal relationships and other possible prior knowledge, Prof Hutton called me a "Bayesian", and that day I acquired a new search term for my searches about AI.
But, when I finally had the chance to take the much-awaited AI class my senior year, I was very disappointed. The students there had not studied basic probability or logic and the class was working on search algorithms, but the "AI" was nowhere to be seen. After attending a few lectures, I decided I wasn't going to learn as much there as I would in an advanced algebra class, which I decided to take instead. However, most of my senior year I kept reading about AI and related areas, as I have been doing since. Through such reading, I have found many interesting ideas, including Bayesian Networks, Algorithmic Information Theory and the Maximum Entropy Principle.
Since I have never had a course on AI, I think I have a good intuition and a big picture of things, while remaining ignorant of the precise formulations of many basic concepts.
professional career
In the summer of 2000, I spent two months developing a stochastic simulation at Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies. The project was about error-correcting codes, but I found out later that it was implicitly about a Hidden Markov Model. While there, I also learned a little bit about information theory and coding.
After graduating from college, I got a job as a programmer. In the beginning, I was excited to be working on real applications, but I soon found myself in a cycle of repetitive and uninteresting tasks. This was worsened by the fact that I had little freedom to specify my programs.
During this time, however, I became more aware of annoyances, the unintelligent, repetitive things that computer users have to do. So, I explored meta-programming and macros for software automation. I also grew as I recognized "on my skin" the need for standard models for programming (such as UML), and for formal verification tools.
After a year as a programmer, I left my job to go to ESSLLI2002, to get some live intellectual stimulation. I was especially excited about "Situation Theory and The Flow of Information", but my favorite class ended up being "Modal and Epistemic Logic for Computer Science", with W van der Hoek and Lomuscio. When I came back from my trip, I bought "Reasoning About
Gustavo Lacerda de Melo - Computer Science
Knowledge" (Prof. Halpern is one of the authors) and I'm now getting a deeper, and more thorough introduction to the area.
list of interests
The following is a general list of my interests:
* In AI: Machine Learning, Bayesian Networks, Planning, Knowledge Representation, Reasoning under Uncertainty, Automated Reasoning and Theorem Proving; Multi-Agent Systems, Rationality and Game Theory.
* In the systems area, I am interested in Reflective Systems, Meta-Programming, Verification, formalizing (thereby standardizing) models of programs and data, functional programming and Automatic Programming.
* Under Theory, I am interested in Logics (particularly Epistemic Logic), Logic & Games, Formal Languages, Information Theory, Probabilistic Proofs and Proof-Carrying Code, Model Theory, Category Theory, Combinatorial Problems, Complexity Theory, as well as philosophy of science and AI.
* In the realm of possible applications, I am interested in the areas of: music, natural language, formalization of mathematics and tools for mathematicians; physical reasoning, economic reasoning, robotics, common sense reasoning, soccer, interactive educational systems, semantic tagging of unstructured text, ubiquitous computing, cognitive aids and biofeedback systems; visual languages.
why Cornell is right for me
At Cornell, I will have the opportunity to deeply explore many of my interests, as the faculty does research on many of the things that interest me the most.
Besides the large, renowned Theory and AI groups to cater to my theoretical interests, Cornell offers the opportunity to work on many concrete projects: I am particularly interested in the PRL Project, the XML Data Management Project and RoboCup.
I am very eager to learn more about my areas of interest, and to start doing research. Given such great resources, I strongly believe that I will be successful at Cornell.
professional goals
My professional goal is to explore the ideas that I have talked about above, because this is what I love to do more than anything else.
My goal in applying for the PhD program is to climb to the shoulders of the giants, so that I may do this well.
But if you cannot accept me to your PhD program, I would like to be considered for the Master's Program.
What would you think of this applicant if you knew nothing else about them?
Gustavo Lacerda de Melo - Computer Science
Statement of Purpose
college career
When I decided to study Computer Science at Bucknell University, I did so in hopes of taking their AI class, so I could explore my persistent interest in this area. I was biting a bullet by taking the introductory CS classes, since I had been a comfortable programmer for a long time, but I decided it was worth it. What I didn't anticipate was that I would learn a lot of interesting things along the way, especially in classes about algorithms and programming languages. I ended up getting a major in Computer Science, alongside my Mathematics major, which made me more comfortable reading papers and advanced textbooks.
In an after-class discussion with Prof. James Lu, I learned about Automated Theorem Proving. This was very exciting, especially because I had started being dissatisfied with the "informal" proofs that I saw in my math classes: it was often unclear how statements followed (causing me to perform unnecessary searches in my head). I generalized the idea, and this is how I became interested in Automated Reasoning. Later, In a statistics class, after I criticized the statistical inference we were doing for neglecting possible causal relationships and other possible prior knowledge, Prof Hutton called me a "Bayesian", and that day I acquired a new search term for my searches about AI.
But, when I finally had the chance to take the much-awaited AI class my senior year, I was very disappointed. The students there had not studied basic probability or logic and the class was working on search algorithms, but the "AI" was nowhere to be seen. After attending a few lectures, I decided I wasn't going to learn as much there as I would in an advanced algebra class, which I decided to take instead. However, most of my senior year I kept reading about AI and related areas, as I have been doing since. Through such reading, I have found many interesting ideas, including Bayesian Networks, Algorithmic Information Theory and the Maximum Entropy Principle.
Since I have never had a course on AI, I think I have a good intuition and a big picture of things, while remaining ignorant of the precise formulations of many basic concepts.
professional career
In the summer of 2000, I spent two months developing a stochastic simulation at Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies. The project was about error-correcting codes, but I found out later that it was implicitly about a Hidden Markov Model. While there, I also learned a little bit about information theory and coding.
After graduating from college, I got a job as a programmer. In the beginning, I was excited to be working on real applications, but I soon found myself in a cycle of repetitive and uninteresting tasks. This was worsened by the fact that I had little freedom to specify my programs.
During this time, however, I became more aware of annoyances, the unintelligent, repetitive things that computer users have to do. So, I explored meta-programming and macros for software automation. I also grew as I recognized "on my skin" the need for standard models for programming (such as UML), and for formal verification tools.
After a year as a programmer, I left my job to go to ESSLLI2002, to get some live intellectual stimulation. I was especially excited about "Situation Theory and The Flow of Information", but my favorite class ended up being "Modal and Epistemic Logic for Computer Science", with W van der Hoek and Lomuscio. When I came back from my trip, I bought "Reasoning About
Gustavo Lacerda de Melo - Computer Science
Knowledge" (Prof. Halpern is one of the authors) and I'm now getting a deeper, and more thorough introduction to the area.
list of interests
The following is a general list of my interests:
* In AI: Machine Learning, Bayesian Networks, Planning, Knowledge Representation, Reasoning under Uncertainty, Automated Reasoning and Theorem Proving; Multi-Agent Systems, Rationality and Game Theory.
* In the systems area, I am interested in Reflective Systems, Meta-Programming, Verification, formalizing (thereby standardizing) models of programs and data, functional programming and Automatic Programming.
* Under Theory, I am interested in Logics (particularly Epistemic Logic), Logic & Games, Formal Languages, Information Theory, Probabilistic Proofs and Proof-Carrying Code, Model Theory, Category Theory, Combinatorial Problems, Complexity Theory, as well as philosophy of science and AI.
* In the realm of possible applications, I am interested in the areas of: music, natural language, formalization of mathematics and tools for mathematicians; physical reasoning, economic reasoning, robotics, common sense reasoning, soccer, interactive educational systems, semantic tagging of unstructured text, ubiquitous computing, cognitive aids and biofeedback systems; visual languages.
why Cornell is right for me
At Cornell, I will have the opportunity to deeply explore many of my interests, as the faculty does research on many of the things that interest me the most.
Besides the large, renowned Theory and AI groups to cater to my theoretical interests, Cornell offers the opportunity to work on many concrete projects: I am particularly interested in the PRL Project, the XML Data Management Project and RoboCup.
I am very eager to learn more about my areas of interest, and to start doing research. Given such great resources, I strongly believe that I will be successful at Cornell.
professional goals
My professional goal is to explore the ideas that I have talked about above, because this is what I love to do more than anything else.
My goal in applying for the PhD program is to climb to the shoulders of the giants, so that I may do this well.
But if you cannot accept me to your PhD program, I would like to be considered for the Master's Program.
What would you think of this applicant if you knew nothing else about them?