Arun Kumar Narasimhan Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

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STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
I am applying to University of South Florida for admission to the Master of Science program in
Chemical Engineering. It was during my undergraduate internship, I was first introduced to the
concept of generating power from solar energy. The idea itself was exceptionally fascinating to
capture my attention and the interest evolved into passion. It was at this juncture I decided to
take research in solar energy applications as my career.

At school I was good at science, particularly chemistry and mathematics which
influenced my decision to opt for Chemical Engineering. With its vast and diverse course works,
apart from giving a detailed knowledge on various physical, chemical and biochemical concepts,
I knew it would also help me in keeping my career options open in future. The key point in my
undergraduate degree and for my career was the summer internship with the college research
center. The project was aimed at designing a solar thermal power plant prototype using the ideas
from conventional CSP technologies and I was instantly attracted to the idea of tapping energy
from sun that is 93 million miles outside the planet. At the end of the internship, I knew that I
wanted to work in this field. Present power situation in my state, where we face power cut for
nearly two-thirds of a day, also served as a further stimulant to do my part to the society.
Growing domestic solar panel use and state-operated field installations shows that solar energy is
the future for power generation in India. All these were the driving force to pursue my career
with focus on solar energy field.
Thereafter I went for a Masters degree in Energy and Environmental Engineering to get
deeper insights into the application oriented aspects in the field. In first and second year of my
undergraduate degree, I was part of an organizing committee for technical and cultural fest at my
college which affected my aggregate percentage. I wanted to get the right balance between these
activities in my graduate degree and successfully accomplished it amidst organizing field trips to
Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research and other group excursions. I worked as a Teaching
Assistant in solar technologies, environmental quality monitoring and fluid mechanics
laboratories that helped me to self-access my familiarity with technical concepts. With the thesis
work, I was able to apply my learning from chemical engineering courses like chemical reaction
engineering to reactor design and catalysis to meet the project objective of enriching hydrogen
for power production from solid oxide fuel cells.
Arun Kumar Narasimhan Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
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Though I worked with my graduate universitys CO
2
and Green Technologies research
center to install solar street lighting in the campus, I wanted to work in a large-scale plant to gain
better hands-on experience. This wish was rightly met by the Research Engineer opportunity at
Siemens Corporate Technologies Research and Technology Center which involved working on
solar cooling projects for buildings. I am involved in the operation of solar concentrators, vapor
absorption machine and data acquisition and analysis. The data analysis improved my knowledge
of thermodynamics and heat transfer in the vapor absorption process. In order to gain expertise in
those areas, I feel it right to continue my education which would involve course works like
Advanced Thermodynamics, Advanced Transport Phenomena, Design of solar power plants and
Reaction systems. With this Master of Science degree, I hope to gain better command in thermal
and fluid sciences that we deal with in the power generation industry and refrigeration for
buildings. In long-term, I see these two years of graduate study and experience in the country as
a solid investment and preparation to pursue my Doctoral studies. With these expectations in
mind for the graduate study, I feel that the works being carried out in the Clean Energy Research
center will help me meet my goals out of the degree. Im particularly interested in Dr. Yogi
Goswamis work on solar thermal power for bulk and distributed power generation such as solar
rooftop systems, antenna solar energy conversion and thermo chemical hydrogen production
from solar energy. Im also interested in the research projects such as energy-efficient building
technologies and solar water desalination and distillation being carried out in the research center.
Accredited as the nations fastest growing research university in federal funding,
University of South Florida offers graduate students with excellent research opportunities
coupled with world-class infrastructure facilities. Chemical and Biomedical engineering program
with its highly regarded Professors and their applied multi-disciplinary research activities
greatly aided by the state-of-the-art laboratory facilities will offer me the best scope to learn and
help in my development as a competent professional in the solar energy field. With the program
comprising of professors who has dedicated their life in harnessing solar resources and
researching to make it a better and viable alternative, I strongly believe Chemical and
Biomedical Engineering program at the University of South Florida is the right place to do my
graduate study. I am confident that I can make noteworthy contributions to the ongoing research
works of your university.