Prompt 1: Drawing from your previous academic, professional and personal experiences, tell us what has attracted you to the program of study you have noted in your application. Be very specific about your past experiences and how they shaped your interests. 

Everyone has a pivotal moment in life when they discover their passion and start a pursuit which might give a different direction to their lives. For me this moment came in fourth grade, when I wrote my first piece of code. I had only worked with my colour palette and slow brushes; experiencing how a few lines of code could complete a task with immense speed was like entering a realm of matrix. Having an inquisitive bent of mind combined with my deep seated interest in Formula 1 I was always curious about a lot of its peculiarities, how do they decide when to make a pitstop? What tire set to choose? All when the margin of error is in milliseconds. I realised that strategies at lightning speed are powered by computers.

As captain of my school’s graphics and computer club, I excelled at designing posters and digital art. I was eagerly exploring new technologies that came my way. This dual passion for art and technology continued throughout my school years and into my bachelors in Computer science. 

In college, as a member of the debating and MUN club, I connected with people from different career backgrounds and demography – each person had a unique story to tell. It was during one of the conferences that I was introduced to classification problems. Reading through related research, a thought struck me – why are we relying on a single model? Every problem has different layers which can be addressed by a different model. This inspired me to research further during my junior year in college. I authored a research paper about the multi-model ensemble combinations of neural networks and conducted a comparative analysis – with the aim to solve this problem. Going deeper into this research opened me up to exploring the application aspect of ensemble models. I worked on creating a model with the aim to understand the shift in market indicators - and reached out to people who were working in the industry.

Later, I interned at a low frequency derivatives trading firm. This was a new experience for me where I had to collaborate with a professional team. Balancing my academics and work, I adapted to a time constraint environment. Working on a system of high performance strategies, I realised the importance of managing risks and reward ratio in my work. I developed a stable yet scalable order management system and risk assessment models for the firm. As a result, the firm managed to roll out a strategy basket for a larger base of retail investors onto the new OMS platform we developed - which helped quadruple their assets under management. During my year-long stint, I learned about scalability and the importance of reliable systems used in the field of tech and finance. Exploring further into investment options away from traditional products, I became intrigued by the high-risk investment challenges in cryptocurrency due to its volatility. Assessing the risk associated with a coin and making informed investment decisions in this space was difficult. I took this problem statement as a challenge. Together with a couple of my peers, I co-authored a research on — the social media’s influence on a multi-sectorial coin basket and its impact on portfolio risk management. Since it would be impractical to estimate the coin price for a given time in future - due to the low odds of estimation and compute expense - we worked on analysing the directional shift in price movements for a larger time frame and correlated it to the social media buzz. This research enabled us to make intelligent and informed investment decisions for me and my peer group. 

After graduation, I continued to pursue my passion in technology and financial space by joining Standard Chartered as a development engineer. Transitioning from a fast paced trading setup to a more structural environment was a learning curve. It required me to understand the intricacies of complex system designs, while following a common theme to allow long term maintainability standards. Working with a larger organisation we kept in mind to simplify our system for people who might join us later and not get overwhelmed. With the guidance of my mentor and technical manager, I covered numerous technical topics to help build a robust, scalable onboarding platform. This platform simplifies the onboarding process for people often overwhelmed by the complex solutions provided by the bank. We are building a modular platform which will work in four different countries across two different continents. We delivered the required functional setup while managing regulatory requirements for each country. While working on this platform I learned on how to manage requirements when working with multiple stakeholders - without compromising the integrity of our system. Managing functional requirements from the product team from multiple countries and in parallel analysing realistic bandwidth we had as a team – given the nascent structure we had at the beginning. This experience taught me to use what I learned from my peers at squash club to have a sense of realistic goals and keeping expectations in moderation.  
However, over the course of my work, I recognised the need to dive deeper into theoretical topics to find better solutions to the design challenges we faced. To bridge this gap, I sought learning opportunities from team members shadowing them and value conversations and reviews. I also took the initiative to address the slow turnaround time in our review forums. By establishing a standardised theme and processes, we improved our deadline accuracy. I also continued to constantly take up reading more advanced topics. This experience led me to a realisation that — the more I learn, the more I realise how much there is left to learn. This understanding drives my motivation to pursue further education in the field of Computer science. 


Prompt 2: Students often have a wide range of ideas and plans for what they hope to achieve after they receive their graduate degree. Tell us what your 5-year plan is after completing a degree from NYU Tandon.

Carnegie Mellon University’s MSc in Computer Science where I will get exposure to a research focused program, it will help me deepen my knowledge. By the virtue of that knowledge I will gain during my course, I aim to contribute to the development of reliable and more accessible solutions. This solution will address the problem of lack of accessibility, especially for markets where complexity of solution becomes a negative factor. To achieve this, I have a vision to evolve towards designing and implementing deep learning models on scalable systems. I strive to work particularly in finance and banking that demand both accuracy and accessibility. With the development of my expertise, I will be equipped to lead projects that strive forward towards my vision of technology for all.


Please follow the following instructions and refine my prompt answers above,
As part of your application, you are expected to provide a response, in written form, to two prompts. A response to both prompts is required. This is an opportunity for you to give us a stronger sense of who you are, as a person. Your essay should be as unique as you and should be written using your own voice. Include each prompt as the header for each of your two responses.
When finished, combine your response to both prompts into one, single PDF and upload it below. Your total essay upload should be 12pt Arial font and no more than two pages, double-spaced, in length.