Sta Statement of Purpose Application to Masters program in Computer Science Sartaj Singh Baveja I first realized the potential of harnessing technology and innovation to address real-world problems when I came across across a TED talk by Pranav Mistry, Mistry, an inventor. inventor. His project, SixthSense, SixthSense, a wearabl wearablee gesture gesture interface terface that augments augments the physical physical world around us with digital digital information, information, fascinated fascinated me. The idea of accessing intangible, digital information and bringing it out into the tangible world, piqued my curiosity. It was during this time that I developed developed a keen keen interes interestt in the developm development entss in science and technology technology.. My current research interests are centered around big data, data management, and analytics. In contin continued ued pursuit of this passion, I joined joined Netaji Subhas Institute Institute of Technolog echnology y (NSIT), (NSIT), Universit University y of Delhi to pursue my undergraduate degree in the field of Electronics and Communication Engineering. The institute’s comprehensive and challenging curriculum coupled with online courses provided me with a strong foundation in math, science, and engineering fundamentals. Through advanced courses on algorithms, operating systems, computer architecture, and software engineering, I have gained a thorough understanding of computer science’s breadth and scope. During my sophomore year of college, I joined an early stage startup Buzz4health, an online platform for medical practitioners to communicate and collaborate, as a mobile app developer. A colleague and I took on the challenge challenge to build build a scalable scalable application application from the ground ground up. I was tasked with analyzing analyzing archite architectura cturall design patterns and frameworks to facilitate code modularization and organization. We successfully created an application that ranked among the top 25 applications on the App Store at that time, and witnessed 100x user growth within three months of launch. From working on my first large-scale project, I learned the importance of mobile app performance testing on user growth and retention. Having gained experience in building scalable systems, I was drawn towards applying my knowledge to solve Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Laboratory , complex complex research research problems. problems. In the summer of 2015, I joined the Lawrence working at their scientific networking division, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). I worked on developing a time-series analytics tool to process large volumes of batch and real-time sensor data and provide analytics. It involved extensive research into the available design architectures and tools such as Amazon Web Services and InfluxDB. My contributions over the course of the internship culminated in a publication titled “Lambda Architecture for cost-effective batch and speed big data processing” at the IEEE Big Data Conference Conference.. This experience, my very first encounter with research, gave me exposure to the world of big data and cloud systems, and helped me appreciate the importance of systems that can harness that data. The next summer, I went on to work at The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where I was chosen as one of the 40 students students from a pool of more than 1500 applican applicants ts globally globally.. As part of the database services group, I was given the task of investigating Oracle to support experimental JSON data (2 TB/year) against a NoSQL database, MongoDB. Both the databases were evaluated on their performance and ability to support relational database features, including indexing, transactions and querying. Working at CERN introduced introduced me to databases databases and data managemen management. t. I learned the significance significance of p erformanc erformancee testing to avoid bottlenecks in speed, stability, and scalability while developing large-scale systems. Inspired Inspired by technology technology to solve solve non-trivi non-trivial al research research problems, problems, I was motivated motivated to use my skills to drive drive social impact impact and address social issues. At CHIMEHACK CHIMEHACK2, 2, a hack hackathon aimed at developi developing ng tools to promote safety for girls and women, I conceptualized Safrzone, a platform for everyone to speak up for safety. In a team of four, we won the award for Engineering Excellence by Twitter competing among fifty other teams. teams. In addition, addition, I was also accepted accepted to the MIT Media Lab Design and Innovation Innovation Worksh Workshop. op. As part of the Lifelong Learning track, my team and I designed an innovative prototype using object tracking and motion detection to assist adult people with physical therapy. Through these social advocacy focused experiences, I recognized the importance of collaborating with people across all disciplines, from art and design to technology, to address some of the most pressing social issues of our time. 1
Application to Masters program in Computer Science
Sarta j Singh Baveja
Currentl Currently y, I am back at Energy Sciences Network Network (ESnet), (ESnet), working working as a Software Software Developer. Developer. ESnet is at the forefront of network research and is working on the most challenging problems in the field of data-driven science, connecting over 40 Department of Energy (DOE) research sites with their high-performance network and carrying carrying over over 100 PB of data every month. month. My most recent recent project consists of building building data processing processing pipelines to handle streaming (as well as batch) time-series data using the Google Cloud Platform. With the aim of improving ESnet’s network visualization portal, I am also developing open-source libraries to support real-time visualization of time-series data. Our goal is to design a system capable of storing, processing, and analyzing analyzing massive massive data sets in order to replace replace the aging aging data collection collection and processing processing system. Building Building a mission-critical, data-driven system that can answer demanding questions has led to a drastic advancement in my learning and contributed to my growth as a researcher. Effective management and processing of large volumes of data is a challenge in both industry and academia. Over the past decade, data has been growing exponentially and it is expected to grow to 50 ZB by 2020. The exploding volume and speed of data growth has introduced several difficulties related to data storage and processing as well well as extracting extracting insights insights from it. Although Although my develop developmen mentt and research research experiences experiences have broadened my understanding, I now desire to acquire in-depth knowledge in order to solve complex problems and catalyze innovations in the field. Stanford’s mission to seek solutions to important global problems and its emphasis towards problem solving, creativity, entrepreneurship and adaptation to change resonates with my own ideals and makes it the perfect place for me to continue continue my education. education. Known Known for it’s advanced advanced research research faciliti facilities es and exception exceptional al peer environment, Stanford will prepare me to enhance my professional skills. Stanford Infolab group, Among the projects of the Stanford group, the work on ASAP ASAP, as part part of the DAWN DAWN project, project, to smoothen time series plots is highly interesting and relevant to my experience of developing time-series data processing and charting libraries. Additionally, the MacroBase project to extract unusual trends from data streams and large-sca large-scale le datasets is quite intrigui intriguing. ng. My interests interests are aligned with the problems problems that are currently being explored at Stanford, and I am thrilled by the prospect of being a part of the university’s tradition of excellence in research and entrepreneurship. Upon completion of the program, I see myself working in a research position in an organization, or in a startup working on ideas towards addressing real-world problems.
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