Statement of Purpose Parikshit Shah In the following essay, I have attempted to set forth my objectives and future plans

in the context of
my ultimate professional ambition of pursuing a career dedicated to research and teaching. It is my belief that pursuing graduate studies at Stanford University would be the natural and correct step towards this goal. I therefore seek admission to the Department of the Aeronautics and Astronautics, with the intention of pursuing Masters followed by Doctoral studies. It is my pleasure to introduce myself to the graduate committee of Stanford University. I am a senior undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, about to complete a very fulfilling, and indeed thrilling four years of undergraduate studies. In the course of my undergraduate studies, my academic and research interests have evolved and taken shape. I have found that what has always most interested me is the fundamental behavior of systems (be it an aircraft, a fluid flow in an aeroengine or a structural member) and ways of altering behavior to make it desirable. Thus, I am interested in the study of dynamical behavior and control of systems. After discussions with my faculty members and close scrutiny of the web pages, I realized that considerable research effort is directed in this field at Stanford. The research related to optimal, robust and adaptive control, model reduction, coordinated global control of distributed systems, nonlinear and geometric control with applications to aircraft navigation systems, precision space robots, UAVs and hybrid systems was truly fascinating. The intense yet diverse research in these areas convinced me that Stanford would be the ideal place to pursue graduate studies. The reason that I am so strongly inclined to pursue a research career is that in the course of my undergraduate studies I have had research experience, and I have found it exhilarating. It has been the kind of course-altering experience that has brought focus to my life. Perhaps the most invaluable among these was related to my major thesis involving the study of aircraft dynamics in non-linear regimes. Under the guidance of my advisor, Prof. N. Ananthkrishnan, I gained some insight into the art of problem solving. I also learnt that in research, problem discovery is as important as problem solving. My thesis work has resulted in two publications, one at the national conference of the Aeronautical Society of India, and another at the AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics conference to be held at Austin in Aug. 2003 (referees reply is awaited). 1

Another significant research experience was my two month internship at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a research lab of the Indian Ministry of Defense, where I had the privilege of working under the direct supervision of the Flight Control System Project Director, P. S. Krishnan. The ADE is currently involved in the development of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), and I had the unique opportunity of working on the designing of the redundancy system of a part of the flight control system. In addition to sharpening my problem solving skills, the project gave me a sound understanding of the flight control system. At the end of my sophomore year I performed a two month research project at the Indian Institute of Science under the guidance of Prof. P.R. Mahapatra. The project involved deriving fuel efficient optimal flight paths for aircraft under varying conditions. I started with the simple problem of drag minimization for the aircraft, and then gradually increased the complexity of the problem to incorporate effect of wind profiles, complicated flight states and incorporation of efficient optimization and search algorithms. Even in the course of my undergraduate academics, I have always striven to go well beyond the curriculum and discover challenging problems. For example, in my Multi Variable Control course I read papers by Kalman, Gilbert and Luenberger to view the problems of controllability and observability from different perspectives. I have also presented a seminar and home paper on aeroacoustics and jet noise. This kind of exploratory approach has reflected positively in my academic record, I am currently ranked 2nd in a class of twenty with a sharply increasing GPA. I have invariably excelled in courses that have interested me (mathematics, control theory, aerodynamics, flight mechanics to name a few). Given my academic background, aptitude and love for problem discovery and problem solving, a career devoted to research and teaching is a natural choice. I believe that Stanford can provide me with a truly unique opportunity to pursue an academic career, and that I have both, the credentials to be worthy of, and the drive to be able to do justice to this opportunity. I look forward to a long and fruitful association with Stanford, where I intend to continue with the exhilarating task of discovering and solving new problems in my chosen field of research.