Letter of Interest - PhD position

[emonroy]

Hi everyone:

Could somebody please read my letter and help to correct any mistake I have made?

Thank you in advance for your time and help.

Dear Dr. xx:

I am sending my CV attached to this letter, in order to apply for the PhD position in Optical Switching Network Modelling and Optimisation, with the XX Institute, XXX University.

As you can see from my CV, all of my academic and professional experiences are related to the study of telecommunications and data networks. During my undergraduate studies in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering, I took several courses related to telecommunications, mathematics, software programming, and in my Master’s degree I also attended advanced courses in optimization techniques, queuing theory, stochastic process, and discrete-event simulation. Moreover, I worked as a teacher assistant, where I developed a discrete-event simulation model of the Hyperlan/2 standard MAC layer, to be used as supporting material for future simulation courses in our Department.

As a way to broad my knowledge and to gain some business abilities as well, I took some courses on economics and project management. Furthermore, in my MSc thesis I proposed an information and communications service management model, based on the management process model eTOM and the service-level management methodology SLM, together with the strategic management system Balanced Scorecard. I developed this framework as a tool to help telecom operators and corporate ICT departments to match business strategy with ICT management. Then, after earning my MSc. degree, when I started working again (this time as a network engineer in the IT department of an important company in Colombia and then as a project manager and consultant in a telecommunication R&D center) this knowledge was very useful for me because it gave me a wider vision of the ICT business, where is very important to have a strategic and holistic approach that takes into account not only technology but also business and user needs and requirements.

But while I was in my last job, I realized that in my country there is a scarcity of engineers with highly advanced knowledge in some topics in telecommunications (such as NGN and wireless networks technologies and protocols, specially in transmission and switching), because when we needed to hire senior experts in those topics as a consultant for our projects, we needed to look for them abroad. Along with the fact that after finishing my Master’s I have already decided to pursue a PhD after working a few years in the industry, I was convinced that I should focus my career in that kind of issues. Additionally, and as you may know, my home country, xx, has been struggling with many problems during the last decades, even though it is a very beautiful place plenty of good, smart and hardworking people. And I firmly believe that one of the better ways to help to overcome these difficulties is through education, and, in particular, high-level research and development (in my country, statistics related to R&D, such as the number of PhDs per inhabitants, or R&D investment, are much lower than they should be.)

My main academic goal in pursuing a PhD degree is to gain the abilities needed to allow me to become an international-level researcher with highly specialized knowledge and expertise in my field. I would like to study, for example, advanced topics in mathematics, simulation, wireless networks and QoS. Therefore my research interests are focused on topics like traffic engineering, traffic modeling, and protocols optimization for wireless or fixed networks technologies. The ideal research topic for me would be aimed at carrying out deep analysis of network protocols issues in layer 2, 3 or 4 of the OSI Model, making use of theoretical and simulation/test-bed tools. However, I do not have a specific topic in mind yet, which gives me enough flexibility to select my specific research topic from a range of options within the previous-mentioned areas, including the topic for the PhD position at xx. Even though I do not have research experience in Optical Burst Switching, I understand the relevance of this topic to the research community and to the future of the Internet, and am fully aware of the fact that this a very challenging and leading-edge research area, where there exists many opportunities to achieve an world-class research outcome.

There are several reasons because I would like to carry out my PhD at xx University within XX, but the most important are related to the fact that many students are supported by studentships and the very low ratio of graduate students to professors (40:20) in Institute, what means that advisors and students carry out their research activities very close each other, what I think it is a great opportunity for students to learn from professors’ and other students’ experience and knowledge.

I am very confident that you will agree with me about my potential to become a member of XX. I look forward to hearing from you about my application, or if you require any additional information.

[RonBee]

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teacher's assistant
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