Personal Statememt

Program: MSEE / MSTE

A person with dreams is a person of the future. The future of a particular profession comes from the incessant strivings on the part of a multitude of professionals who cherish beautiful dreams about the profession they are committed to. The rocketing growth of electrical engineering in the past millennium is the fruition of the sustained efforts by countless people who have maintained an unswerving vision in their professional pursuit. Even at the age of seven, I wondered at the miraculousness of an old transistor radio at my home, which aroused my determination not only to understand the mysterious world of electricity and electronics but also to develop myself into a specialist in it. That was my dream. For the past two decades, I have been incessantly obsessed by this dream and the dream has always sustained me through the entire process of making hard efforts on my part. Whenever I am confronted with challenges and difficulties and on the verge of retreating, it is the sonorous words of Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have A Dream …” that keep ringing by my ears to endow me with the courage to face the challenges. The faith with which he fought for the realization of his lifelong ideal becomes a source of constant inspirations for me. Under its profound and powerful influence, I keep surmounting challenges and making important achievements.

Up till now, I have undertaken relatively deep explorations in the field of electrical engineering. From my graduation in 1989 from the Department of Automatic Control and Electronic Technology, Northern China Polytechnic University, to being an electrical engineer at Shanghai Mint, I have accumulated a 12-year work experience, which can only be described as “rich”. During this process, I have mastered the technology of designing intelligent control systems by means of PC and PLC Programmed Controller, and the technological application of high-low voltage power transmission and distribution. I specialize in such technical fields as: the realization of self-diagnosis and self-correction of the disorders in complicated electrical equipment and PLC Programmed Control Systems by applying PC technology, the computer-based sophisticated intelligent systems, robotics, sensing technology, and signal transmission over power transmission and distribution circuits.

During my undergraduate studies, I had been enamored of the specialty of electrical engineering that I majored in. For the first time in my life, I was systematically exposed to the world of electronics that I wished to conquer. I was especially attracted by the computer-based and PLC-based technology of designing automatic control system for the realization of a particular purpose. I frequently stayed at the laboratory alone, attempting at some systems designing and hardware setup, and then proceeding onto software designing. I experienced failures, but each single success gave me tremendous satisfaction and a strong sense of achievement. The designing of computer-based and PLC-based automatic control system is part of intelligent system. The ultimate achievement in this field is production of robots capable of human thoughts and actions. My dream is to facilitate this ultimate human dream. Consequently, I became particularly interested in all the courses related to this subject, such as sensing technology, data collection technology, data communication technology, electrical circuits, analog circuits, digital circuits, high-frequency circuits, PC Principles, Automation Theory, etc. My strong academic interest, my intelligence and my industry contributed to my top ranking in my class. My scholastic performance received the top fifth ranking among a total of 30 students and I was awarded first-class scholarships for two consecutive years.

The most part of my professional knowledge and achievements is derived from my 12-year actual work experience as an electrical engineer. I have participated and directed 8 major projects, all of which received awards from my company. Currently, I am involved in three important projects: renovation of P150 high-speed puncher manufactured by MINSTER Company of the United States by using SEIMENS Company’s S-7PLC Programmed Control System, designing the production of electroplated wires controlled by the PLC-5 Programmed Control System of ROCKWELL Company, and designing the communication interface between the analog system of the rectifier and ROCKWELL Company’s PLC-5 Digital System and using the PLC-5 Programmed Control System to regulate the rectifier. At present, I am applying for the professional title of a senior engineer. As a model employee of my company, I have received a series of honors of merit for my expertise and distinguished performance (for a detailed description of my honors and awards, please refer to my Resume).

Due to the special nature of the mint in which I work, almost all the equipment and technology that I come into contact with are sophisticated electrical equipment and technology imported from the West. For instance, PLC equipment and technology come from SIEMENS, NEC, GE, MODICON and ROCKWELL. In particular, the sophisticated large-scale PLC virtually all come from the United States. With China’s own scientific and technological development, especially with China’s participation in the WTO, China will utilize a large amount of most updated electrical equipment and technology. China should cease to entirely depend on importation. Instead, it is imperative that China be able to produce its own equipment and technology. It is against this backdrop that I plan to seek advanced education in the United States, the country with the most advanced development and the widest application of electrical engineering in the world. To be able to contribute to China’s future development and application of electrical technology constitutes my essential motivation in applying for an advanced degree program at UNL, one of the most celebrated universities in the United States. In addition, I am frequently frustrated by the fact that, even if I have designed a computer-based and PLC-based intelligent system, it sometimes breaks down because of problems in data collection and transmission. This frustration has also led me to the belief that I also need further trainings in sensing and communication technology. Meanwhile, I intend to pursue advanced studies in the designing of computer-based sophisticated intelligent systems and in the self-diagnosis and self-correction of system disorders. As far as I have learned, UNL possesses unique advantages in GEEN and in EE, therefore UNL naturally becomes my first choice. My plan for the next four years is divided into two stages. For the first two years I will endeavor to obtain my MSEE or MSTE. I will spend the next two years on the completion of a Ph. D. Program in IT.

My qualifications for pursuing the foregoing two-stage objective are numerous and sufficient—the faith in the ultimate success of human quest in the field of electrical engineering for the realization of highly intelligent robots, my undergraduate academic knowledge, my 12-year work experience and my technical expertise, my capacity for independent analysis and independent problem-solving that I have cultivated in the process of my work, my heightened awareness of teamwork, my independent and self-reliant spirit developed since the age of 12 when I left my home to pursue education in a remote school, and my strong sense of responsibility to the family and the society. As always, I have no doubt about my ability to accomplish what I have chosen to accomplish and I cherish the implicit faith in developing myself into an accomplished professional in electrical engineering, a professional with an American academic background who is bent on making contributions to his native country.