Personal Statement

My educational goal is, and has been for awhile, to do research. I have always been fascinated with the world and learning about how it works. Although throughout my life I have varied what specific subject I was interested in, and to this day I still find myself interested in a wide variety of subjects. However I know I have finally narrowed down what I want to actually go to school for and that is computer science. I know that I would like to pursue and earn my doctorate degree in computer science, and then continue on in a career in academia, continuing to research. The field I specifically want to go into is Computational Sustainability, which is am extremely exciting new field which basically uses computational power and machine learning

Examples would be recognizing patterns in poverty locations to better provide support and help those affected. Or creating plans for the environment to have long term sustainability. All of these things have such a huge impact on society itself, which is motivation enough to do whatever it takes to help with these programs. But for me it is really ‘killing two birds with one stone’ because for me to be able to help other people I must first master the skill set that is computer science, and more specifically machine learning. So I believe that by going to graduate school I will be able to learn about and grow the field that is machine learning, which has a massive variety of possible applications. But equally important, if not more, the field I will help advance poses to solve some of the greatest sustainability problems facing humanity. Specifically I am really interested in Dr. Gomes work at Cornell University, and how she is using this technique to deal with poverty. The thought of my research being able to help people in such a profound way is so exciting for

I would always ask my mother questions about everything that popped into my head, and in a way I haven’t changed, the questions have just become deeper. Because my mother was a professor of Biology she was able to answer a lot of my questions in detail about living matter, and at a young age I began to love science. This developed throughout my childhood as I was constantly taking apart and reassembling my toys, especially remote control cars. I began to become very interested in electronics and would assemble little circuits with the motors and batteries I took from the RC cars. In high school my school required that everyone have a technical class that they specified in. Mine was Computer and Networking, and I learned all about how computers work from the hardware to software and was able to build my own computer because of it. When it came time to apply to colleges I picked a major which seemed to me to combine my interests. I wanted to understand living matter, in the way I could understand machinery or computer code. More specifically I loved the idea of being able to fundamentally understand a cell’s ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ to the point that I could repurpose it and control it. So I applied to a Bioengineering program with a minor in physics. I believed that the physics would help me with my math skills and teach me problem solving methods, which it has and I am grateful for. However what I have realized