Penn Engineering Personal Statement

Computers and I go a long way back … I discovered them as a toddler, tapping the keyboard on my father’s Dell Inspiron. Later, I learned my English alphabet on the fifteen-inch screen. Today, I know they make the ‘impossible possible’ – IBM’s Watson being the best example. Currently, I am the Secretary of my school’s Computer Club, and hold events where I invite eminent computer geeks. In the last Speaker Series my guests were Microsoft’s Mr. Pradeep Jhunjhunwala, and Mr. Rohit Kumar, from Chapter Apps, a Silicon Valley-based startup. In the June of 2017, while working as an intern with the Gurgaon branch of the latter, I played a pivotal role in translating their training modules into app-based systems. One such was preparing a unit for their

I am eager to create a self-learning robot, which will also interpret a person's emotions and be a companion and nursing attendant for the elderly. Therefore, I hope to translate my nascent ideas into reality in Penn Engineering’s GRASP’s and other cutting-edge labs and research

Working with like-minded Haptic enthusiasts in the HRI and PHRI domains and exploring the frontiers of Haptography promise me countless eureka moments and epiphanies, as I move forward in the area of research that excites me. In addition, I imagine learning will be a series of intellectual and academic adventures during my forays into the realm of developing, enhancing, and fortifying, ways of “continual learning and transfer across diverse tasks, … self-directed learning, … and interaction with end-users and other agents”, as I work with the Lifelong Machine Learning Group. Also, The Rehabilitation Robotics Lab enthrals me, for I look forward to combining my Study Abroad with research in robotics and understand international perspectives, as I create inexpensive robots by combining my engineering skills with my knowledge of neuro-rehabilitation robotics that I would have gained as a student of Penn Engineering. On the lighter side, working UPennalizers, the RoboCup Team, I will further improve my hands-on skills in robotics and be a part of the winning team that will bring home the trophy.

Additionally, at Penn Engineering a plethora of research opportunities will become available to me. Winning the Terry B. Heled Travel & Research Grant under CURF’s umbrella, I will undertake independent research in the summer in universities on foreign shores, beginning with