STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

As a child, I had, the opportunity to play a lot of indoor games; from Ludo, Snakes &
Ladders etc to video games. Every summer vacation was a completely new gaming
experience. And one such game (a project based game), is the main reason behind me
writing this SoP. It was a game in which simple electric circuits were to be wired to make
them work. It was like a kit with insulated wires, an electric motor (a D.C. motor, now to
be specific) coupled with plastic vanes, ring magnets, iron nail, screw driver, iron
powder, different types of switches, bulbs and a small booklet to guide in
connecting/making simple electric circuits mentioned in it. I successfully worked out
some of the circuits but a few like the making of an electromagnet, using an iron nail
wound with insulated wire and the working of the electric motor, were difficult for me to
visualize and understand . Actually, I could not visualize how a nail could turn into a
magnet, simply by winding a wire and exciting it with a battery. I was curious about it.
And, from here started the journey of electrical engineering, more because of my inability
to visualize, how it worked.
For my undergraduate study, I had to choose between Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering. I chose the former. The reason behind it was, as I mentioned, my inability to
visualize the working of many such things e.g.
1) How a power station located, some 500 Km away would know whether Ill
switch ON a fan or a tube light, or both or none and generate the power
accordingly, and this generated power would reach my house, instantaneously?
2) What was inside the energy-meter that could calculate the energy used?
3) What was the purpose of those tall towers, from which hanged thick wires and
from them came a hissing sound on a rainy day?
During my graduation at NIT Rourkela, all such questions were answered (and many
more arose).
During my post graduation at Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, I
was lucky to have the mentoring of a young yet experienced and energetic doctorates and
a couple of highly experienced professors. They gave us an insight, in the advanced
topics namely: Advanced Electrical Machines, Electric Drives, Multilevel Inverters and
Power Quality.
During the placements, I was selected in INFOSYS, but I opted to work in a small power
electronics based company in Gandhinagar. I learned a lot about the practical aspects of
power electronics based power supplies, as a design engineer.
With practical experience gained in the working of power electronics based power
supplies, I want to pursue PhD in Electric Drives, which is like a step forward, as it deals
with controlling of an electromechanical device along with the power supply module. My
main interest is in implementation of different control schemes to control speed and
torque of advanced electrical machines, so as to apply them in traction application.