Motivation letter for scholarship

First I would like to express my appreciation for this opportunity to apply for Charpak Scholarship for Excellence.I am a third year undergraduate student pursuing B.Tech in Information Technology at National Institute of Technology Durgapur.

My goal is pursue a career in research ,either in industry or in academia .Ten years from now, I envisage myself as a full-fledged research professional in an organisation ,or a faculty member at one of the leading universities .The first step towards my objective would to pursue some research projects in my field in interest that is wireless networks and distributed systems along with my undergraduate studies .I wish to pursue Masters following with that my ultimate degree would be however a Ph.D.

My interest in in applied science dates back to my school days .During high school, I was fascinated with electronic gadgets and developed many robots both autonomous and mechanical. Soon thereafter along the way I realised that the problem solving aspect of electronic gadgets was what I enjoyed the most, and engineering was a natural choice after this.

Two of my courses Design and analysis of algorithms and Computer Networks interested me a lot .I am very keen on doing some research work in these areas and want to devote quality time towards an in-depth understanding of these subjects and try to implement my own ideas in these field.

Over the past two years my liking for research has burgeoned especially in the fields of wireless communication and distributed systems. I started by studying the coursework on algorithms ranging from divide and conquer to greedy algorithms and dynamic programming .I got interest in distributed algorithms when I read first few pages of Distributed Algorithms by Nancy Lynch and was hooked to the topic after this I shifted my focus to distributed algorithms studied many topics starting from the basic in synchronous LCR algorithm for unidirectional ring to partially synchronous Fischer ME algorithm for mutual exclusion and found the topics extremely interesting .I also did a course in Cisco Network Device Administration and got really interested in wireless technologies used in networks. I did extensive literature survey in the field of wireless sensor networks including networked embedded systems,energy aware routing for sensor networks,power management ,clustering techniques and security portocols for sensor networks.

In third year in my college it is compulsory to do a research project or an internship in the summer, and for that my first choice was France. I had started contacting professors from various universities in France that were conducting research in communication networks basically wireless networks and got positive replies from many professors. The project which I was offered by Prof Hacene Fouchal form University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne was the kind of project I was really looking for and was greatly delighted when I got it.

The project by Prof Hacene Fouchal is for a wireless sensor network in which there is a need to develop a distributed algorithm for a distributed decision.Our main aim would be to have reliable single node systems which are capable of solving complex tasks through spontaneous self oragnisation.The objectives would:

• that each sensor should have minimum energy consumption and should perform only simple tasks
• each sensor should be allowed to fall asleep,at random times for periodic recharge of its battery without compromising network functionality.
• The overall network should have detection and estimation capabilities superior to those of each single sensor,possibly without the need for a centralized fusion centre.

With the implementation of the distributed decision algorithm in analog form with a very simple MAC and routing mechanism the sensor network can be utilized in a many ways ranging from storing of local information such an temperatures in an area ,or as a detector of pressure sensitivity.

Owing to the limited resources I would be grateful to be provided with the scholarship,as this internship is huge learning opportunity for me and apply my knowledge to my field of interest.In addition to that I will get a chance to interact with professionals who are doing quality research in the field of wireless communication, along with that I get a chance to do research in the multi cultural environment in France and have exposure to interaction and integration of diverse ideas and perspectives pertaining to various issues in the field to information technology.I am determined to make most of the scholarship benefits and will optimize my stay at Universite Reims Champagne Ardenne to garner a wealth of ideas that will apply when I return o my country.

Once again I am grateful for considering my application and I look forward to a favourable reply

- VIKRAM ADITYA SINGH