------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATEMENT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Name LastName
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." Anatole France
As I was spending my summer holiday in one of the villages of Trabzon City which is one of the mountainous terrains of Turkey, when I was 8 years old, one of the main activities to spend our leisure times was driving a hand-made wooden car !e !e could only coast downhill with this car and had to carry it to up the hill to go down again It was really time-consuming for us "ne day, I asked myself why I had I not motorized this wooden car I began to brainstorm how to make a system in order to get out of this #am $eanwhile, choppers in the villages were cutting down trees with handheld chainsaw %uddenly, an idea struck me I thought that if I use the chains from the saw as a drive gear, I could make it mechanically move it with chain links like a bicycle %oon, I grabbed my notebook and a pencil and I started to draw my plan !hen I showed my drawings to my grandfather, he was astonished and he said that when you grow up, you will be a mechanical engineer thanks to your imagination and drawing ability This event and my grandfather &s sayings influenced me deeply, and ever since then I have dreamt of becoming an engineer 'or my underg undergrad raduat uatee studie studies, s, I was accept accepted ed to Atatu Ataturk rk (niver (niversity sity&s &s departm department ent of mecha mechanic nical al engine engineeri ering ng accred accredite ited d by the A)*T A)*T +Accre +Accredit ditati ation on )oard )oard for *ngine *ngineeri ering ng and Technology after taking the nationwide Turkish university entrance eamination +similar to %AT I ac.uir ac.uired ed a divers diversee educat education ional al backgr backgroun ound d at Atatu Ataturk rk (niver (niversity sity from from course coursess such such as physics physics,, mathematics, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, thermodynamics, statics, computer aided technical drawing, computer programming, theory and machine dynamics In my sophomore year, I started to take courses focused on my interest areas, like those related to t o energy fields )y declaring this ma#or, I gained fundamental knowledge in these various fields which I applied to course pro#ects on hybrid electr electric ic vehicle vehicless design design,, wind wind turbin turbinee aerody aerodynam namics ics and struct structura urall design design,, and rolling rolling bendin bending g machine design In these pro#ects, we as a group tried to not only focus on eisting designs but also make suggestions for future ones $oreover, I stayed active in summer months In the summer of /001, I worked for the prestigious national national highway district office for three-mon three-months ths 2uring the internship, internship, I worked worked together together with eperienced technicians As part of the internship, I prepared technical drawings of all my pieces employing skills such as turning, milling, drilling and welding I noticed how my diverse course background was etremely helpful while for hands-on industrial applications As a result, I learned to be well disciplined, patient, careful and also approach a problem from different perspectives 3ater, in the summer of /008, I worked as an intern for the at Askale Cement 4lant in Turkey as an intern I worked there as a supervisor together with a chief engineer I was responsible for supervising all manuf manufact acturi uring ng and .uality .uality contro controll proces processes ses This This intern internshi ship p taught taught me how to approa approach ch and contribute to a real world problem while upholding my work standards In addition, I learned how to manage professional responsibilit y !ith my dreams of being an academician in mind, I studied hard and systematically from my freshman year finishing my degree with high honors and ranking 5 rd out of 660 students and also I was among the list of high honor each year $y undergraduate grade point average was 577900
2uring my university years, I decided to continue onto graduate studies and become an academician In my senior year, I decided I wanted to specialize in the field of dynamics, systems, and controls and also biomechanics after taking account my background and eperiences After having graduated in /00:, I was awarded a full scholarship from the Turkish $inistry of ;ational *ducation to pursue a masteract? with thoughts $oreover, during the last two years of my undergraduate study, I >dreamt? of being a highly respected name in $echanical *ngineering +$* with an abundant body of scientific works as well as and an amiable, effective professor in class >)elieving? in what I want, but also being highly prompted by my dreams, I studied with passion for them to become realized them with the preparations I have made and the resources I have gained !ith my accomplishments and the uni.ue background and skills I have gained so far, I have made reasonable progress in terms of my career goals, but I wish to eplore new frontiers and therefore want to pursue graduate studies in mechanical engineering at 4urdue (niversity
If I get accepted into 4urdue (niversity, I would like to study with 4rofessor 2r 2ouglas * Adams because of his research on structural health monitoring and prognostics I am intrigued by this area of study because I and I believe that it poses a lot of promises for the future I In particularly, various papers he wrote on structural health monitoring of a metallic sandwich panel using virtual forces and the classification of linear and nonlinear structural damage with fre.uency domain A@ models made me more ecited to thoroughly learn about damage identification and life prediction After completing my master, I will do continue to pursue 4h2 in the (%A and be a mentor for hundreds of students when I become a professor at =umushane (niversity in the department of mechanical engineering In summary, I am confident that because of my interdisciplinary education at Ataturk (niversity, I have ac.uired a strong theoretical background via course work and a strong research eperience via course pro#ects and internships $y ultimate goal is to epand my potential by productively and successfully pursuing my graduate studies and further contribute to mechanical engineering through my own research, and teaching career 4urdue (niversity is the best place to attain this goal
