Letter of Mottivation

Hi..!
I am Kurdi and my state origin is Indonesia. I am currently employed as a Civil Servant in Local Government at West Aceh since 2005. I will take master’s degree course of study Civil Engineering centration Structural Building at Faculty of Engineering RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Could you give me some recommendation. This is my letter of motivation:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I remember, there was a time, 8 years ago when Aceh hit by an earthquake and tsunami. The disaster had led 127.720 peoples being victims and destroyed 139.195 of homes. For three months after the disaster, as Aceh during in the emergency response period, I worked as Public Health Engineer of Oxfam, an International Non Government Organization, with the main focus on the provision of clean water for tsunami victims which is also supported by the Red Cross from eighteen different countries joined in International Rescue Federation Committee. Along with the end of the emergency period, I assisted as a trainer to help people affected due to disasters by providing motivational entrepreneurial and financial alternatives for them to start a business which is a part of community empowerment by International Labor Organization of United Nations.

During the rehabilitation and reconstruction time in Aceh, I have got some empirical facts that a number of infrastructure, housing, buildings, roads, bridges, etc, which collapsed with various behavior of structure and brittle models. The pattern of behavior of the structure after entering the area of plastic is also very diverse, that there is an immediate collapse and brittle models which are very dangerous for the occupants and public users. In general, almost all structures designed before the disaster do not follow the economically pattern of earthquake resistant buildings or non-structural building designed. My thesis research focused on the behavior of steel portal structure type D and X due to earthquake loads that it is good if physical infrastructure in Aceh designed referring to the earthquake resistant buildings. The research was carried out numerically and experimentally in one-story structure made of steel. The results obtained that material parameters, sectional parameters, and structure parameters have a significant effect on the stiffness and energy absorption of the steel structure, which further proposed changes to the structure of type D with a link length of 200 to 250 cm. So as to prevent even greater losses if an earthquake happens at a time will come to an earthquake-prone areas, such as Aceh. My research has been developed by other students and submitted on Civil Engineering Journal of Bandung Institute of Technology. I hope to participate in more conferences or journals whilst doing master’s degree course of study Civil Engineering studies.

With the commencement of the rehabilitation and reconstruction in Aceh, I have worked as a representative of the Regional Government of Aceh Barat in Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency known as BRR Aceh-Nias. My responsibility as the head unit of region I and IV covering six districts in Aceh, that is Aceh Barat, Nagan Raya, Simeulue, Aceh Barat Daya, Calang and Banda Aceh, includes activities in the construction of infrastructure projects with the scope of planning, organizing, implementing and controlling as well as community empowerment programs. BRR Aceh-Nias as where I involved in has a 1576 workers with work areas covering 24 districts in Aceh and budgets are managed and supervised by U.S. $ 6.7 billion, including from Germany which provide 135 million euro aid distributed through the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) amounting to 35 million euros and the remaining 100 million euros through German Bank for reconstruction and Development (KfW). The process of rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh involving various stakeholders from different organizations and the states under the coordination of BRR Aceh-Nias, which include 34 countries, 992 NGOs and 16,000 people, has managed to turn back the face of Aceh with the construction of 140,304 homes, 1759 schools, 3696 km of roads, 996 government buildings, 363 km bridges, 23 ports and 13 airports. However, even in September 2012, Aachen, a city in Germany, is still giving an example of the greatness of its heart through humanitarian aid to villages in Aceh, among of them is Lampaseh village.

I was also a lecturer at a Private University for some courses, for instance, Concrete Structure, Mechanical Structure, Steel Structure, and Calculus. When I was teaching for the modeling structure using computer programs in class, I taught students how to develop structural modeling using applications of structural analysis as a tool to help clarify the behavior of the structure such as structure analyze program (SAP) and MSC Nastran. During my postgraduate study and served on Local Government, I took various relevant courses, such as Design of Steel Structures by Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) Method, Planning Earthquake Resistant Buildings, Building Code for Earthquake Resistant Buildings, and Development of Construction. These courses helped to sharpen my knowledge on structural concepts, particularly for behavior of the structure due to earthquake loads. Then, in January 2012, I started my language course at the Goethe Institute Jakarta, Indonesia. I had a preparatory German language as the determination of my desire to continue my studies in Germany especially at RWTH Aachen University.

I plan to explore more about the Structural Building. I find many challenges
to be solved, and I believe that universities in Germany, which offer a world class education system and internationally well known as the leaders in research and teaching that directly links theory with practice, will be able made me tackle those challenges with the course and research I will gain during master’s degree. I am keenly interested in acquiring master’s degree in structural building at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, as the curriculum of the Laboratory-Based Research Program oriented fits my needs. The principles of structural building that are one of main research in Civil Engineering of RWTH Aachen University will increase my expertise. Furthermore, I believe that the Laboratory-Based Research on structural building technologies at doctoral program can be advantage for deepening my structural building behavior knowledge.

I am highly motivated to pursue structural building doctoral program. The study about behavior structure effect loading cyclic in numeric and experimental ways will support me to strengthen my ability to analyze and overcome the problems about infrastructure building policy in Aceh and my country Indonesia. One of my desired achievements is to develop a powerful research in structural building principles for infrastructure policy and development programs in Indonesia.

With solid foundation in academic and many experience in structural building, I am confident that I will have skills, knowledge, experience, and relatives that will open visible perspectives for me to achieve desirable career in engineering profession. Moreover, I plan to share my knowledge with other people, work together with researchers around the world, and probably return to Indonesia, where I can develop, teach, and implement what I have learnt. In the next five years, I view myself becoming a development practitioner. Performing as a world-class researcher or university lecturer focusing in structural building behavior or development infrastructure building technologies works may also be an equally challenging profession.

Yours sincerely,

Kurdi