My SoP

Statement of Purpose

Kanishk Chaudhary

Impact - this was the keyword that drove my eagerness across school and university. Ever since I took up science in high school, I envisioned future me working on influential projects that could be a part of our daily lives. Moreover, foreign education has always fascinated me. In my junior school in Switzerland and changing schools within India, I interacted with multiple cultures in a national and international environment. Since then, I have envisioned studying and working alongside diverse colleagues. My aspirations for engineering impactful solutions by working in a mixed global culture is the main reason why I am applying for an MS in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. I am confident that after this course, I will acquire the necessary knowledge and experience to work in industrial R&D in a leading sustainability or medical care company as a mechanical or design engineer.

My thirst for innovation started with a robotics competition when I was 17. The aim was to develop a miniature carrier that could segregate coloured boxes and assign them to their designated spaces, akin to an automatic trash segregating vehicle. The achievement of national recognition was crucial in my motivation to get into mechanical engineering. Since then, I promised myself to find and learn about solutions addressing global sustainability issues.

When I joined BITS Pilani, I set up some personal goals for the next four years: perform well in academics and grab any research or project opportunities. I had just wished to work hard and let my profile open up doors to potentially influence a change. Under the guidance of my esteemed Professors, I came to know about a plethora of opportunities to support these aspirations.

In my second year, I took up an entrepreneurial venture to experience what problem-solving meant. Our initial idea was to connect budding artistes to opportunity providers like restaurants for live music, but we pivoted our idea during Covid lockdowns. The next idea was to initiate contactless and collaborative ordering in restaurants through digital means. These ideas were well-appreciated, and we had received incubation and a seed fund. Stanford is well-known to be the best university for budding entrepreneurs, and various fellowships and other programs may attract me to pursue entrepreneurship if my projects lead to something innovative, viable and scalable.

Furthermore, my interests in the computational domain were fuelled by the courses Kinematics and Dynamics of Machines and Computer-Aided Design, both taught by Dr Amit R. Singh. The knowledge I gained in these courses, like equations of motion, modelling them into programming languages, and designing a system of self-interacting bodies, helped me a lot for my undergraduate thesis, which I am currently working on at Hiroshima University, under the guidance and supervision of Prof. Takeshi Takaki and Dr Amit R. Singh. Having no prior experience with Open Dynamics Engine, I was fully prepared to use the engine within two weeks for simulating one-legged, biped and quadruped hopping robots. This experience also taught me that I could easily acquire skillsets for any project if I am very determined.

Additionally, to satisfy my desire for improving the environment, I took up two sustainability projects in my third year. One of those projects - mitigating air pollution across North India due to stubble burning - is close to my heart since I have felt uneasy breathing the severely unhealthy air around New Delhi. It ended up being worthwhile for a journal publication, and my Professor-in-charge suggested sending it to the think-tank body of the Government (NITI Aayog).

Confidence further grew within me when I realised my potential to solve problems with concrete solutions. My first exposure to industrial R&D was in my summer internship at Boston Scientific. I wanted to witness how the company created innovative products globally, so I grabbed the opportunity to work in their New Product Development team. My manager motivated me and gave me a free hand at enhancing the design of the sphincterotomes. I came up with two design solutions to address user needs and prepared invention disclosures for the same. We converted one of them into a patent, but through this experience, I realised that additional knowledge (that I can acquire through a Master's degree) would make me well-equipped to convert even the second invention into a patent. Stanford's MSME courses like Smart Product Design, Computer-Aided Product Creation, or depths like Design Methodology will drive me to pursue careers in R&D Product Development.

Currently, I am working on a 3D printing quality assessment project as a part of the Indo-German challenge with students from TU Braunschweig. This project clubs all my passions into one. We designed a bicycle part that can be 3D printed. With the help of image processing, we determine the quality while the product is printing and save material and energy if any defect is detected, thereby making the process environmentally sustainable. I hope to work on similar projects or research teams at Stanford, where I can apply my passions of design and sustainability using computational engineering.

In addition to my academic commitments, I also find it a personal obligation to help the student community be equally motivated to explore and work on impactful projects. Through two initiatives, Project Expository and Two Quills, my batchmates and I keep sharing our experiences for the benefit of other students. I will continue such initiatives in the future as a valuable alumnus of Stanford. In conclusion, through graduate school at Stanford, I wish to develop my interests further in the computational and design side of Mechanical Engineering and explore how it can help me work on innovative solutions in industries to promote sustainable and healthy living conditions around me. My undergraduate experience in computational engineering, design and sustainability echo well with the research areas that Stanford's Mechanical Engineering Department focuses on. Alongside my courses, I aim to gain experience in corporate or academic research (through internships and research assistantships) and then be at the forefront for impactful work after graduation. Inspired by how Stanford's alumni have solved challenging problems around the world and even created their own companies, I wish to similarly adhere to the prestige of my alma maters and be the torchbearer for other students by inspiring and creating a positive influence. Keeping this in mind, I cannot wait to see what the future lies for me once I get the chance to study at Stanford.