WRITTEN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Ph.D. candidates should provide authentic personal statements to each of the five following questions/prompts reflecting on their own personal interests. In the event that any outside resources are used, resources should be cited in APA format. Submissions should be a maximum of 500 words or 125 words per question/prompt. It is best to respond to each prompt/question individually for clarity of the reviewer. Documents should be submitted in Microsoft Word format.
 

1. Provide a brief introduction focusing on your education, career, and decision to apply to University of the Cumberlands.

2. In relation to your doctoral program application, what area of recent research in the field would you want to study, and why?

3. How does your current vocation relate to your application to the doctoral program?

4. How will your experiences and personal skills help you to be successful in your program?

5. What long-term goals do you have for applying your learning from your doctoral program? 

I will provide you my details and what ever I have. 

I need these to be answer today before 10 PM

Ph.D. candidates should provide authentic personal statements to each of the five following questions/prompts reflecting on their own personal interests.

In the event that any outside resources are used, resources should be cited in APA format. Submissions should be a maximum of 500 words or 125 words per question/prompt. It is best to respond to each prompt/question individually for clarity of the reviewer. Documents should be submitted in Microsoft Word format.

1. Provide a brief introduction focusing on your education, career, and decision to apply to University of the Cumberlands.

2. IN RELATION TO YOUR DOCTORAL PROGRAM APPLICATION, WHAT AREA OF RECENT RESEARCH IN THE FIELD WOULD YOU WANT TO STUDY, AND WHY?

I’m interested in Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning. Data science is one of the most emerging fields.My master’s research project on Survey of SQL-Query Engines with Big data in Hadoop Ecosystem,My extensive study of all the academic papers, journals that I gathered day by day immensely helped in executing my project work. The study and application of various machine learning algorithms satiated my passion for research work.

One of the important features of Artificial Intelligence/data science is that its results can be applied to almost all types of industries such as travel, healthcare and education. With the help of Data Science, the industries can analyze their challenges easily and can also address them effectively. I consciously tried implementing my theoretical knowledge in real-life experiences to optimize solutions using artificial intelligence. As a PhD student I want to research and develop new Machine Learning algorithms and apply it in real time applications. This will give me an opportunity to gain deep insights from complex issues related to IT, human resource and resource management efficiently and successfully.

3. How does your current vocation relate to your application to the doctoral program?

Since the time I commenced my bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, I have been fascinated by machine learning, image processing and their widespread applications. Developing a proper understanding called for a profound knowledge in mathematics, statistics and probability theory. In 2nd and 3rd year of my undergraduate studies, I had the opportunity to study very wide range of subjects such as Probability, Calculus, Statistics and Soft Computing apart from core computational subjects, which have given a sturdy pedestal to build upon along with strong analytical skills.For my undergraduate thesis, I worked on evaluating the performance of using genetic algorithm for load balancing in grid computing. In this project, I focused on optimizing the distribution of workload based on value function, to maximize the average throughput of the system. It was based on a research paper describing Hybrid Load Balancing Algorithm for Grid Computing by Yan, Wang et al. I worked on the project for a year, proposing a new approach and validating it against standard set of workload. I learnt a lot about research methodology, starting from studying literature, coming up with the approach and validating the results. I was awarded outstanding grade for the project by the committee.

After joining Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest IT Company in India, I was given training to use Informatica tool (Stream of Business Intelligence and Performance Management) for three months. It gave me a thorough understanding about the ETL (Extraction Transformation Loading) process, what business objects were and how business reports were generated.My exposure to the industry did not just hone my technical expertise but it also taught me to work in a group, thus it improved my ability to communicate efficiently. I consciously tried implementing my theoretical knowledge in real-life experiences to optimize solutions using artificial intelligence and data science.My research and industrial experiences made me realize the significance of higher study to enhance my skills. The next major step in my career was my admission at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC, Charlotte) as a master’s student in Computer Science department with a GPA of 3.8 out of 4.0.Throughout my master’s,my only purpose was to build my data science profile. After graduating from UNC Charlotte,

I started working as a big data engineer at abc and xyz.I would Therefore by giving me a chance with the Ph.D. program in your institution, I will have an opportunity to fully equip myself for my career. Furthermore, my field of research is data analytics with my past and its my future area of study. Because of the nature of classes at University of the Cumberlands and the kind of mentorship I am privileged to have from different professors, I would like to pursue my Ph.D. in this field.

4. How will your experiences and personal skills help you to be successful in your program?

While my present job has helped me develop a thorough insight into project handling and analyzing data, the industry environment that I am currently in cannot quench my desire for future research. I possess industry-hardened skills in computers, but I must build on these to achieve my goal of undertaking cutting-edge research in Information Systems. I yearn for building up a career in academics and devoting myself to intense research which would enhance my technological growth across multiple disciplines. My eagerness in pursuing a doctoral degree in the field of Information Technology and data science originate from an immense interest for the subjects. I believe that the intersection of management, technology and leadership will provide growth to my career. Therefore, I consider doctoral study as a crucial milestone towards my aspirations for a dedicated research career.
5. What long-term goals do you have for applying your learning from your doctoral program?

My aim in life is to develop a research career and explore the different dimensions of data science. A doctoral degree in IT will be a steppingstone towards the accomplishment of my dream. By pursuing a PhD program, I would be able to acquire the knowledge and skills required to land a research career. An advanced degree along with my industry experience would help me grow much faster by getting into leadership roles in top companies. The PhD program at the University of the Cumberlands would help me achieve my goals in significantly lesser time. Therefore, with a PhD degree in data science, I see myself in leadership roles in the research field of data science and solving complex problems with state of the art data-driven solution.

Deepak Agrawal

dpk.agrawal1@gmail.com

(980)-616-0562

Summary:

➢ 7 years of IT experience in different capacities as a J2EE developer, Technical Lead.
➢ Experience of working in agile methodology.
➢ Experienced in fine-tuning the performance of an application from both SQL and application perspective.
➢ Experienced in building web applications using Java, J2EE, Multi-threading, Servlets, JSP, JavaScript, HTML5, XML.
➢ Extensive experience working with Java Framework Spring, Hibernate, Service Oriented Architecture and web

service API REST and SOAP.

➢ Hands on experience working with MuleSoft (Enterprise Service Bus) and AnyPoint Platform to build web service

API.
➢ Experience in deploying, and administering application servers such as IBM WebSphere Application Server, Apache

Tomcat, JBoss.
➢ Experienced in development, testing and deployment of products in Windows, and Unix Environments.
➢ Extensive experience in writing SQL Queries, stored procedures, triggers with Oracle 10g/11g, MySQL and SAP

HANA.
➢ Hands on Experience with version control tools like SVN, CVS, GIT and Perforce
➢ Hands on experience in different IDE’s like Eclipse and IBM RAD, NetBeans.
➢ Highly motivated and versatile team player with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Education:
Master’s in computer science

| GPA: 3.9/4 |

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC

| June 2017

B.E. in Computer Science | GPA: 3.5/4 | Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, India | June 2011

Certification & Training:
➢ Oracle Certified Java programmer (OCJP 1.6) since Apr-2013.
➢ Industrial Learning Program (ILP) at TCS focusing on Business Intelligence and Performance management including

INFORMATICA and Business Object tools and received a special ‘ILP Kudos’ award for outstanding technical

competence.
➢ Industrial Training Program on Use Case Modeling and Use Case Analysis from Center of Excellence IBM.

Technical Skills:

Languages Java 1.8, J2EE, Servlet, JSP, JSTL, HTML 5.0, CSS, JavaScript,

JDBC, XML, SQL/PL-SQL, HQL, shell scripting, MuleSoft

Frameworks Spring 4.2, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Hibernate, RESTful, SOAP services

Build Tools Apache Ant, Maven

Code Analysis Find Bugs, SONAR, Splunk

Operating Systems MS Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP/7, UNIX, Linux.

IDE environments IBM RAD 7.0, NetBeans, Eclipse, Anypoint platform 6.x and 7.x

Database Systems Oracle (10g, 11g), DB2, MS Access, MYSQL, SAP-HANA

Application Servers IBM WebSphere Application Server 5.1, JBOSS, Apache

Tomcat. OO Modeling Tools UML, Rational Rose.

Testing Tools JUnit and Load Runner

Version Control Perforce, CVS, SVN (Subversion), Git, JIRA

Continuous Integration TeamCity, Jenkins

BIGDATA Technologies Apache Hadoop, Map Reduce, Hive.

mailto:dpk.agrawal1@gmail.com

Professional Experience:

MUFG BANK, LTD (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group)-Charlotte

Role: Senior Consultant Project: Unsecured Consumer Loan (UCL)
Employer: Capgemini America Inc. (April-2018 to Ongoing)
Environment: Java 1.7, J2ee, Spring4.0, Oracle11g, Restful Web Service, JBosss7.1, Git, Agile Methodology,
UNIX, SQL, Jenkins, JAXB. Rally, Splunk. jQuery, AJAX

Unsecured Consumer Loan (UCL) is complex web-based application being developed as part of product bank has to
offer to its customer. It uses various programming language, technology and tolls to develop this application. This
application scopes starts from inquiry/ad to repayment of loan and various other modules. It uses best available security
standards and apparatus. Me and my team are building this application from scratch and designed it is such a way that
new modules can be easily plugged in with just few custom changes. It uses Spring 4.0, Maven, Java, J2ee, JavaScript,
Ajax, jQuery, Rest API.

Responsibilities:
➢ Develop application schema for an enterprise wide and complex application system for Unsecured consumer lending

applications.
➢ Implemented single sign on (SSO) Authentication and authorization for Unsecured consumer loans application using

spring security, REST API.
➢ Requirement Analysis and estimation
➢ Development to Deployment
➢ Release Management, Team Management & Time Management
➢ Bug Fixing and Error logging mechanism
➢ Preformation testing and fine tuning
➢ Integration testing, Enhancement and maintenance.
➢ Disaster recovery testing

Bank of America- Charlotte

Role: Senior J2EE Developer Project: CashPro Payments Services
Employer: Mitchell Martin Inc. (Aug 17 –till date)
Environment: Java 1.7, J2ee, Spring4.0, Oracle11g, Restful Web Service, Web logic 10.3, Perforce, Agile
Methodology, UNIX, IBM MQ, SQL, Jenkins, JAXB. Rally, Splunk.

CashPro Payments Services represents the channel in wholesale banking global payment process. CPS /Global Fraud
Detection (GFD) works as interface into Global Payments. This system initiate transaction or import file which contains
bunch of transaction gets validated/ fraud scan for potential fraudulence and maintain its life cycle till final settlement.

Responsibilities:
➢ Design and develop API to utilize FX interface for cancel trade associated with fraudulent cross currency payment.
➢ Develop application schema for an enterprise wide and complex payment application system for Fraud detection
➢ Work with business to understand requirements and Architecture leads to develop a strategic design.
➢ Gathered requirement with business manager and presenting to vendors associated with systems.
➢ Implemented Authentication for Rest API with help of JSON Web Token.
➢ Developed provider with the help of MQ to drop a message to trigger BPM/GFD Flow.
➢ Developed MDB listener to consume events and persist in DB and Publish events on queue.
➢ Integration Testing with Downstream.
➢ Develop Retry mechanism for project in case of system failure.

➢ Managed offshore team in agile environment, held code review and introspection meetings with peers.

SAP – SuccessFactors

Role: Senior J2EE Developer & Module Lead Project: Learning Management Product (LMS)

Employer: Persistent System Limited (March’ 15 – July 16)

Environment: Eclipse, Apache Tomcat, Apache Ant, SVN, TeamCity, Java 1.6, Spring, Restful service,

JDBC, Oracle 11g, SAP-HANA, SONAR, JIRA.

Learning Management System (LMS) is web-based application which enables user to easily develop, deploy, and
manage a comprehensive learning program. Web-based content supports performance goals, career and succession
plans, organizational development, and compliance objectives. Application enables the organization to track the
progress of their employees includes exams, assessments, and certifications.

Responsibilities:

➢ Lead the development team of 6 Developer and QA to build and test LMS application.
➢ Oracle to SAP-HANA Migration: rewrote complete database structure, views, and procedures from Oracle DB to HANA.
➢ Developed various REST API’s which are consumed by product UI & the mobile app.
➢ SQL Optimization, Code Analysis, Defect Fixing using agile development methodology.
➢ Having Experience in all phases of SDLC as Requirement gathering and Designing (Object-Oriented Design,

Technical document), Implementation, Bug fixation and UAT/Production support for monthly releases

➢ Acquaintance with Coding standards, Configuration management, Defect prevention activity, Performance

improvement and various other processes as part of project adherence.

Oregon Department of Transport

Role: Senior J2EE Developer Project: Road Usage Charges Product (RUC)

Employer: Persistent System Limited (Oct’ 14 – March 15)

Environment: IBM RAD, Apache Tomcat, Maven, SVN, TeamCity, Java 1.6, REST API, Spring MVC, Hibernate,
JSON, MySQL SONAR, JIRA, HTML, CSS, JavaScript.

The Oregon Road Usage Charging System is a web-based application which was implemented for volunteering group of
vehicles. This system allows automatic collection of road usage charges from subjected vehicles. This system uses a
Mileage Collection subsystem, which is comprised of a Mileage Reporting Device (MRD) and a Data Collection component
(either located in the MRD or on a Server). This Data Collection component will send a “mileage message” to the Road
Usage Charge Processing Servers run by Account Managers (Which produces customer invoice and sends revenue to
the Oregon State Treasury).

Responsibilities:

➢ Experience in creating ER, Class Diagrams, and Sequence Diagrams using Unified Modeling Language (UML).
➢ Designed and developed the Authentication / Authorization functionality using Java, Spring Security.
➢ Experience implementing messaging systems (JMS / Active MQ) and distributed caching product (Hazel cast).
➢ Developed Spring Controllers, Service Components, DAOs, Web Services and UI Integration
➢ Hands on experience with data persistency using TopLink and Spring Framework.
➢ Was responsible for creating the design documents for several java services that were built.
➢ Created the CSS style sheet and wrote various JavaScript routines that handle the UI validation
➢ Wrote complete and thorough unit and functional tests using frameworks including JUnit, Mockito mocking

framework.

Morgan Stanley

Role: Java Developer Project: capture Product

Employer: Tata Consultancy Services (March’ 12 – Oct 14)

Environment: Eclipse, IBM WebSphere, Apache Ant, IVY, Perforce (P4), TeamCity, Java 1.6, REST API, XML,
spring, Oracle, JIRA.

ICapture application used to capture trade messages (FIX derivative), enrich trades for an e-trading system and pass
trade information downstream to predict risk and margining factors of a trade portfolio. Project requirement was to
enable the application to capture messages from different e-trading platforms such as Carbon, Passport and remove
dependency from third party tools.

Responsibilities:

➢ Gathering the Business requirements, development for handling different trade strategy.

➢ Experience in independently handling a project. Interaction with client on daily basis, taking
down the requirements, implementation and maintenance tasks.

➢ Created the XML Schema definitions, and the logic to parse the XML request and response using JAXB.

➢ Collaborated with Client and various Off Shore teams across the globe to support System.

➢ Extensive use of spring core, Spring Security, Spring AOP, Spring DAO modules.

➢ Wrote JUnit tests for the services developed

➢ Involved in peer code reviews and re factored java code to make it more maintainable.

➢ Experience to work as L3 Support under Service Level Agreement (SLA) by using different client specific tools.

Academic Projects:
Analysis of Airplane data using Hive on Hadoop:

• Deployed Hive on HADOOP in a single node cluster and series of Experimentation was done using
different set of queries and their performance is compared with relational database.

Telecommunication Churn Prediction:
• Predicted Telecommunication company churn rate by analyzing the data and applying Machine

learning algorithms like Random Forest, J48 decision tree using R language.

PBL Clothing Closet (E-Commerce Website)
• Designed and developed an e-commerce website using J2EE, Spring MVC, Restful Web services,

MySQL. Under Dr. Pamela Thompson as a Major Project for Database Systems Course at UNCC.

Knowledge Discovery using Action Rule Mining:
• Designed and developed Classification Model using weka to perform Action Rule Mining on Fragile State

Index Dataset with new extended features and assess how the action rules would change from year to
year.

Extra-Curricular Activities:
➢ Mentoring college students for their final year projects as a part of Persistent Foundation.

➢ Worked as a freelancer for a firm (PR 24×7 Release PVT Ltd) for 6 months.

➢ Member of the undergraduate college organizing committee which was involved in the success of
various events such as recruitment drives, cultural festival, technical festival, annual function, sports
competitions.

DEEPAKAGRAWAL MS in Computer Science

Fall 2016 University of North Carolina at Charlotte

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

When I come across new technologies like GPS, Sixth Sense, Neural Networks, etc or when I use Google Wave, Facebook or commercial websites I feel an immense sense of marvel and amusement. There are innovations that keep evolving technically and also hold an infinite scope for creativity and logic. I feel a similar sense of exhilaration when I see my own code run successfully. Considering my exposure to programming and algorithms on various application, my aptitude, interest and industry experience, I have decided to pursue my graduate studies in Computer Science, specializing in _____ and in Big Data Systems which will lead me to achieve my future professional goals.

I have appetite and fascination for areas requiring an analytical approach. Right from early days at school, Mathematics has intrigued me. With good scores in science and mathematics and obtaining 904 rank among the 50,000 candidates in an entrance examination for my undergraduate admission at the renowned institute of Central India. The undergraduate program provided me with a strong foundation of Computer science and exposed me to various fields of it. I was most interested in Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures and Database Management Systems, Theory of Computation, specifically in areas which required analyzing, designing and performance optimizations. I implemented numerous projects, including a prototype of a “Student feedback Management system” for a college and the simulation of “online voting System” using Java, J2EE, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Oracle. Learning proactively, I started working as a freelancer for an organization (PR 24×7 Release PVT Ltd) for about 6 months. During this period I developed an application which automated all their paper work. I completed my under-graduation in 2011.

Work Experience

Further studies were always a priority for me but it was my belief that before that I must gather some valuable work experience in order to gain a larger perspective of the industry and I joined TATA Consultancy Services as a Systems Engineer. I was subjected to an intense training program with components that provided hands on experience on SQL, Java and ETL with Informatica and Business Objects XI, performance management, planning, reporting, query and analysis and enterprise information management. I completed the training and received a special ‘Kudos’ award for outstanding and technical competence.

After completing my training I was interviewed and selected for a project “iCapture” for our client Morgan Stanley, which captures and enrich Trade Messages for an E-trading System and passes trade information downstream to predict risk and margining factors of a trade portfolio. In this project tasks such as New story development, Studying the existing business process and decoding the logic for better understanding, Designing solutions, design documentation and Mentoring new resources were under my belt. This experience gave me huge exposure to Servlets, JSP, SPRING, HIBERNATE Frameworks and Agile methodology. I collaborated with various Off Shore teams across the globe in UK, America, Philippines and china. This gave me a chance to enjoy working with teams of different cultures and gave me the confidence to overcome challenges posed by a multicultural environment. During my stint at Morgan Stanley I have been awarded with TCS-gems ON THE SPOT award twice and several client appreciations. This phase of my career also helped me hone my interpersonal skills acquired through various organizational and leadership roles. I was also in charge of conducting team-building activities which helped me mingle with my team and mould myself as an effective team player.

In the past one and half year, I worked as Senior Software Engineer for a leading computer engineering and information technology corporation —Persistent Systems. Here, I worked for international clients such as Oregon Department of transport and SAP. These projects enhanced my technical skills in Database Concepts, PL/SQL and JAVA. Additionally, I got an opportunity to mentor college students for their final year projects as a part of Persistent foundation which helped me realize my potential of technical contribution that I can make to larger organization.

Simultaneously, I was actively involved in a wide range of extracurricular activities which ensured the all-round development of my personality. I was a member of the college organizing committee which was involved in the success of various events such as cultural festival, technical festival, Annual Function, Sports Competitions. I am avid volleyball player and my team has won the intra college volleyball championship. To contribute to the society’s wellbeing, I led a team of 10 colleague, distributing gifts and teaching basic of computers to nearly 120 needy girls at the Anandibai Primary School, Pune. This experience brought to fore my leadership abilities, while also assisting in honing my social skills.

Having acquired a solid foundation in the field of computer science through a rigorous undergraduate program, and a 4 year experience in the IT industry, at this point, I feel that it is the right time to take up graduate studies. The MS program in Computer Science offered by the Northeastern University is equipped with intensive core courses and cutting edge electives that would give me the necessary skills required to handle the size and complexity of today’s digital world. I see myself actively engrossed in developing an innovative technology product that helps make our lives easy. My short-term goal is to place myself as an efficient engineer of a renowned computer organization where I can give a better shape to my skills and capabilities and to be in a process of continuous learning. This Practical Oriented Program given me a strong understanding of the fundamentals, which I believe, is essential for any research career.

I am very keen on developing innovative products that improve the lifestyle of people, especially in developing countries. In my firm, I would like to formulate innovative ideas or partner such ideas, implement them, market them and bring to vast market segment of people, bringing disruption in traditional living styles.

Additionally, I would continue my journey in bringing social prosperity as an obligation to my society as well as my personal interest of common good.

Now, as I target next phase of my career evolution, I foresee myself in a role of a strategy consultant. Hence, after graduating from Owen I would like to work in the technology practice of a leading consulting firm such as KPMG, Deloitte or PWC.

My aim right now is to get in touch with all new techno. Around the world and introduce to rest.

In long term, I see myself in the role of CTO for a leading technology company with the vision of disrupting existing technology.

In long term, I seek to start my own venture encouraging innovation and emphasizing research and development efforts catering niche segments. I am convinced that this course program will place me at a higher level in the burgeoning industry, worldwide.

In addition student diversity and wide alumni network across geographies and student-led club activities makes it the best program in the country which will help me lead the field of Computer Science and add tremendous value in enabling me to realize my professional goals.I also hope that university will also consider me for teaching assistant and financial aid, which will help me to reduce my financial expenditure for education in US and give me valuable teaching Exposure.

The practical-orientation of your in-depth coursework will allow me to not only acquire a clear understanding of the subject but also the skills to execute it.

Considering my past experience and study records, I am confident that as a student, I will be able to meet or exceed your expectations. I am hopeful that my application will get a positive response and consider my profile for your perusal.