Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no one can see but you.

This quote encouraged me to take the

next logical step towards my dream of starting a tech based organization. I strongly believe that the Engineering
Management program adds the breadth in regards to business to my technical background. Eventually, it would help me
to take more advanced and flexible roles.
Physics and Mathematics had always been my forte in high school, and this encouraged me to pursue engineering
studies in Electronics and Communication Engineering at Panjab University, Chandigarh one of the most prestigious
universities in India. This program offered the exposure to a wide gamut of many interdisciplinary fields. My curiosity
and inquisitiveness about the practicality of subjects led me to participate at the Load Runner competition in my first
year wherein I designed the working prototype of a robot with a clamper made up of cycle spokes and a door handle.
The design had several novel features which led me to become a member of the Technical Committee of UTECHNOS
2009 which comprised a group of creative and enthusiastic students with the responsibility of organizing technical
events, workshops, and seminars throughout the year. Working with them, I mastered the art-of-multitasking which
greatly aided my interpersonal skills and increased my confidence and ability to work in this sort of environment. Being a
senior member of the committee in my third year of engineering, I imparted training by conducting workshops on
Robotics, and delivered seminars, majorly focusing on new technologies like Wireless Electricity, Organic LEDs, etc. This
ensured that I kept abreast of the latest trends in Technology. Additionally, being a core member of IEEE student branch
of 2011, I organized an annual national conference ICAER (IEEE Student Conference on Cognizance of Applied
Engineering and Research) which involved inviting manuscripts from various students of various colleges all over the
nation. I also worked towards raising awareness among the students and encouraging them to participate in research
activities in their fields of interest.
My exposure to the industry began when I joined Aricent - as a Software Engineer. As part of my initial training, I worked
on a project - Multi Party Conference Chat system. In doing so, I learnt how the software development cycle works, how
multiple members work simultaneously, how code integrity is preserved with multiple builds, and how important phases
of the development process are documented. My project was adjudged as Best Project- First Runner Up. In my first
ever professional project WiMAX, I worked upon the development of a node simulator in the Access Network area. At
WiMAX, my team also provided support for various breakdown issues occurring at the Live Site of Operation across the
globe. Since we were inundated with such issues, my Technical Lead and I came to a comprehensive solution to design a
Log Parser tool which parses the logs, while looking for the signature of all known issues, into an interactive excel sheets
identifying the issue. Despite a work ex of a little more than a year, I was entrusted with the responsibility of leading a
team of three engineers for its implementation. The initiative was highly successful and it drastically increased the
efficiency of our team. It was a challenging experience since it required quality assurance, compatibility across different
systems; and subsequently presentations to the team and our US based client Newnet.
My next professional project was with Go Pro Cameras where I was the part of the offshore R&D team. I was majorly
involved in Proof of Concept (POC) on Integrated Spherical Camera which was done in regard to a vision for the future
cameras and market. With my seniors, I worked tenaciously to make this Proof of Concept a reality, by capturing
synchronized image frames across multiple cameras. The behavioral change this activity incorporated in me was to
maintain patience even in difficult problems. Since we were working under time constraints, there were times things
were not going smoothly as expected but our hard work and team unity resulted in the successful and on-time delivery
of the POC. In fact, we were awarded Excellence Award in Innovation. After that, I got the opportunity to lead a team
of four software engineers for releasing a new build for Haliewa Cameras. My team fixed bugs on previous releases,
implemented new features like Smart Wireless, re-designed the UX interface. The release was a success. My experience
as a leader taught me that as a leader, one should understand the strength and weaknesses of their team members,

motivating the team members to stay focused, understand the criticality of different issue, practice prioritizing issues,
and actively understand and adapt to changes to ensure timely completion and release within the available limited
resources.
Working at Aricent was an amazing experience which helped me learn advanced algorithms and designs, programming
techniques, and understand key concepts of computer science, telecommunication protocols, real time operating
systems, and embedded systems. Beside these, the work ex of working in a Multi National Company imparts the ability
to work in diverse team, gives opportunities to lead and professionally communicate with clients, learn the processes
and procedures followed to handle large scale international projects, and provides platform to interact with people from
different cultures and varied age groups, thereby aiding in a complete 360 degrees development of oneself. However,
the business aspects of the technology industry were missing. So I decided to use my work experience to move to startups which provide the opportunity to handle both technical and business aspects of the industry.
I joined a startup Zillion Dimensions to help them in managing their projects and structuring their process. Working in
Zillion, I have identified various problems faced by startups mainly due to the missing link between the business aspects
and the technical aspects of the product. For instance, Zillion made a mobile app "xbalance", which captures call and
message details, internet usages; and shows them on a dashboard with the remaining balance. However, they lacked
business acumen due to which they were unable to take the potential product to the market. In contrast, similar product
true balance got handsome investment. In another instance, one of our client "instaspaces.in" had the idea and funds
to go into market but lacked a fair idea of the technicalities involved in their business plan implementation. As a result,
the website and app built for their business, which were expected to be completed in three months, eventually took
over nine months. The financial impact of such oversight can be huge but can all together be avoided with proper
understanding of the business involved and the customer needs. With solutions to these problems, I am definitely sure
that if there were 1 startup in 100 undertakes the successful journey, the number could increase significantly.
Although, I learned how to make a product from Requirement to Testing and to its Release i.e. how to engineer an new
product but the Engineering Management will help me to further take it to manufacturing, marketing, and branding and
get to know a products profit potential or its market acceptance. My immediate career goal is to manage in a
technology-based organization especially start-ups. Long-term goal is to start a technology-based business with life
career goal is to use technology to help people and to make it more accessible especially in underdeveloped and
developing countries. I love technology and what drives me is the implementation of a technology into peoples daily
lives by developing a customer-friendly product. In order to attain my goal, I need a good understanding of Decision
Models, Competitive Strategies, Project Management, Operations Management, Statistical Analysis, and Economic
Decision Making Processes.
There are other similar courses offered by other universities but Duke's MEM program is the perfect blend of essential
business principles with the engineering education. Being in a startup environment I have a habit of reading articles on
Entrepreneurship. During which I came across a few articles by Mr. Vivek Wadhwa, specifically there was an article
which helped me to solve the dilemma between MEM and MBA. This further increased my inclination towards pursuing
MEM at Duke University. Another thing I liked is that a student is allowed to develop an independent study course by
identifying a topic with an interested faculty member.
Thus, I earnestly seek an opportunity to be admitted into this program and would put in my very sincere efforts to make
the institution proud.