Personal Statement Program

I was born into a poverty-stricken mountainous area of Shanxi Province, an economically and educationally backward region at that time. I grew up with the clattering sound of my grandmother‘s hand-weaving machine, and felt particularly attached to the clothes made of the fabric of our home production. Little did I know at that time that this would be the beginning of my lifelong association with textile industry. With an outstanding performance at the National University Entrance Examination ranking the sixth in the whole county, I entered the China Textile University, which is located in the country‘s largest industrial hub-Shanghai. The university has been called the "cradle" of China‘s textile industry. And my major area of study was in Textile Engineering.

Life at the university was not easy for me, since my parents, with their meager salary, had four children to support. While picking up various odd jobs to ease the burden of my parents, I made an intense effort in absorbing course material and managed to pull out remarkable grades in spite of all the difficulty. The project I did for my graduation thesis was on the Composite of Warp Knitting Fabric of Reinforced Flexibility. The idea of the project was derived from a comparison of the quality of domestically produced composites with that of their foreign counterpart. For instance, some domestically made composites became loose and out of shape after a period of wear and wash, which affected their looks and even caused delamination, so that the resin matrix became separated from the reinforcing fabric. A wicking effect may also occur, where moisture entered into the fabric from the edge through its filaments, causing the fabric to turn yellowish.

Through thorough research we were able to locate the two main reasons for these defects: First, the strength of the fabric was inadequate; secondly, the matrix resin did not soak fully into the pores of the filaments. To solve these problems, we used warp knitting biaxial fabric as pre-form for the reinforced fabric, and treated the pre-form and matrix with vacuum preimpragnation, before applying heating and laminating over the matrix film and the fabric, and then the curing and setting. With all these measures experimented and taken, we basically solved all the problems that were prior in the art, with satisfying results. Since we started out this project from scratch, with only limited lab equipment and technical literature at our disposal, the success of the project was well appreciated by my Advisor and other experts in the field. Altogether, it was a good start of my research career.

After graduating from the university, I found a position as a patent examiner at the Textile Division of Patent Office of P. R. China, which I have held up to the present. My work involves substantial examination of patent applications in the textile area, especially in knitting and braiding techniques. For every patent application, adequate attention need be given to all the details, from its beginning argument to the final solution it proposes, which requires careful examination of its technical substance. A search in the related art, with the use of the EPOQUE search system, will ensue, which will lead to a final appraisal of the technical merit of the application and a final decision to grant or deny a patent license.

During the five years of my work at the Patent Office, I evaluated about 350 applications, with an area of subject matters covering circular knitting machinery, flat knitting machinery, Rashel warp knitting machinery, tricot warp knitting machinery, braiding machinery, knitting methods, braiding methods, and also knitting and braiding products. Besides the routine work of patent application examination, I also took part in a monographic study, as a member of a three-person team including Mr. Sun Ke, head of the Machinery Division of the Patent Office. The project was requested by a firm in textile industry and was entitled "A Historical Overview of the Development and Characteristics of Palm Fiber Elastic Material and Its Future Outlook in Fibrous Industry." I looked up patent documents extensively for the project, and examined the structure, production method, and the commercial prospect of various palm fibers with a prediction of their future development and use. The firm, which sponsored the project, highly appreciated the monograph, and has put it in use for its development plan, as I was later told. Because of my outstanding performance, the Patent Office sent me on a trip to Munich of Germany to attend a seminar on patent evaluation sponsored by the European Patent Office. I was awarded a certificate after completing the seminar.

My work at the Patent Office has made me keenly aware of the day-to-day development of the textile technology. It has entered into an age of automation, and the products of textiles have expanded far beyond their traditional end-users in apparel and home furnishing, as a variety of high-tech applications in medicine, aerospace, automation, and construction have made their way into textile industry. These happenings excite and inspire me, making me love the subject of my research more dearly. They also convince me that I need to arm myself with newest technology, to truly excel as an innovator in the textile world.

This is why I have decided to apply for admission into the graduate program in Materials Engineering at Drexel University, which holds a leading position in fibrous material research in the world. It is also widely known for its lab facilities, such as the Fibrous Materials Research Center and the Structural Textile Laboratory. I am interested in many of the research projects carried out at the university, and its tradition of testing theories with their practical applications meets my needs well. I believe a Ph.D. degree from Drexel University will help establish me as a top specialist in China in the textile field. In this way I will be able to help many people in China and in the world, like my parents and the people of my home village, who badly need help.