Letter of Motivation: KU Leuven PhD position in machine-learning modelling
of cardiorespiratory fitness
Dear Professor,
My name is Nagendra babu Swami, and I'm a final year master's student in computer science and
Technology at Chang’an University. I’m writing this letter to express my strong interest PhD position
in machine-learning modelling of cardiorespiratory fitness at KU Leuven.
My particular interests in computer science are Machine learning and Computer Vision. The interest
in Machine learning has started when I worked as a Research Associate in South Korea from 2017 to
2018. I noticed that many successful apps, integrated the abilities of computer vision, such as face
recognition, object tracking and edge detection. I wondered how those apps were built and which
algorithms were used to create such really amazing utilities. To answer part of these questions, I
started building an app for myself named “Scanner” 1 for scanning documents from pictures. From a
programmer’s view at that time, I used computer vision libraries and used them computer-vision
libraries without understanding what happens inside. To gain a deeper understanding, I tried to
study Machine learning via from published papers and online tutorial. I found computer vision huge
area with plenty of conducted research and applications from in face recognition, which is very
common in mobile phones, object tracking, which is widely used broadly in traffic cameras, to and
other specialized things uses such as in medical imaging. That was when my desire for mastering
Machine learning emerged.
At the same time, my attention interest in machine learning developed when I did the course
“Techniques of Artificial Intelligence” at Chang’an University. For that course, I had to learn many
machine-learning algorithms and implement a small project for recognizing human faces. To fulfill
the project’s requirements, I made my neural network in Java and used a free dataset available
online from CMU2. The success of the project encouraged me to keep going, on and I took an online
course of on machine learning on Coursera3. Having finished the course, my self-confidence
increased, and I decided to keep my focus not only on computer vision but also on machine learning.
As a result, my master's thesis uses different techniques in machine learning including the emerging
deep learning technique "convolutional neural network."
As can be seen from my CV, I have a lot of experience in programming languages and frameworks.
However, I started my professional career in the Research and Development because I found
programming interesting. Luckily, I found my passion and took the Master of Computer Science
program under the fully funded scholarship program of Chang’an University. In fact, the courses in
that program have equipped me with a wide range of knowledge and skills, especially in Machine
learning, Image Processing and Computer Vision. Currently, I’m doing my thesis on the topic of Road
Mark Detection based on Machine learning and I expect to complete it in June 2021.
Having heard about the PhD Position at your famed research center, which lies at the interface of
machine learning and computer vision with application to discriminative learning for segmentation
of images and tomographies, I think this is a great chance for me to deepen my knowledge, pursue
my passion and contribute to medical imaging. With my experience and solid theoretical knowledge.
I believe that this PhD Position is ideal for me. It will be a great honor if I can work under the
supervision of prominent experts, within a best-equipped laboratory and in a stimulating academic
atmosphere of a highly recognized Organization like KU Leuven.
For further information, please take a closer look at my CV. I would be obliged if you could give me
an opportunity to fulfill my dream at your research center and at the KU Leuven.
Thank for your consideration and I am looking to forward to your positive reply.
Best Regards,
Nagendra babu Swami