General Introduction*
I am a third year master major in automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, P. R. China. With tremendous interest in Industrial Engineering, I am writing to apply for acceptance into your Ph.D. graduate program.
Education backgroundIn 1995, I entered the Nanjing University of Science & Technology (NUST) -- widely considered one of the China’s best engineering schools. During the following undergraduate study, my academic records kept distinguished among the whole department. I was granted First Class Prize every semester, and my overall GPA(89.5/100) ranked No.1 among 113 students. In 1999, I got the privilege to enter the graduate program waived of the admission test. I selected the Shanghai Jiao Tong University to continue my study for its best reputation on Combinatorial Optimization and Network Scheduling where my research interest lies.
At the period of my graduate study, my overall GPA(3.77/4.0) ranked top 5% in the department. In the second semester, I became teacher assistant that is given to talented and matured students only. This year, I won the Acer Scholarship as the one and only candidate in my department, which is the ultimate accolade for distinguished students endowed by my university. Presently, I am preparing my graduation thesis and trying for the honor of Excellent Graduation Thesis.
Research experience and academic activity
When a sophomore, I joined the Association of AI Enthusiast and began to narrow down my interest for my future research. In 1997, I participated in simulation tool development for the scheduling system in Prof. Wang’s lab. With the tool of OpenGL and Matlab, I designed a simulation program for transportation scheduling system. It is now widely used by different research groups in NUST. In 1998, I assumed and fulfilled a sewage analysis & dispose project for Nanjing sewage treatment plant. This was my first practice to convert a laboratory idea to a commercial product.
In 1999, I joined the distinguished Professor Yu-Geng Xi's research group aiming at Network flow problem solving and Heuristic algorithm research. Soon I was engaged in the FuDan Gene Database Design. My duty was to pick up the useful information among different kinds of gene matching format. Through the comparison and analysis for many heuristic algorithms, I introduced an improved evolutionary algorithm -- Multi-population Genetic Algorithm. By dividing a whole population into several sub-populations, this improved algorithm can effectively prevent GA from local convergence and promote various evolutionary orientations. It proved more efficiently than SGA in experiments, too. In the second semester, I joined the workshop-scheduling research in Shanghai Heavy Duty Tyre plant. The scheduling was designed for the rubber-making process that covered not only discrete but also continuous circumstances. To make a balance point between optimization quality and time cost, I proposed a Dynamic Layered Scheduling method based on hybrid Petri Nets. The practical application showed that the average makespan was shortened by a large scale. I also publicized two papers in core journals with this idea. Recently, I am doing research in the Composite Predict of the Electrical Power system assisted with the technology of Data Mining for Bao Steel. I try to combine the Decision Tree with Receding Optimization to provide a new solution for the Composite Predictive Problem. This project is now under construction.
Besides, In July 2000, I got the opportunity to give a lecture in English in Asia Control Conference (ASCC) which is one of the top-level conferences among the world in the area of control and automation. In my senior year, I met Prof. Xiao-Song Lin, a visiting professor of mathematics from University of California-Riverside, I learned graph theory from him for my network research. These experiences all rapidly expanded my knowledge of English and the understanding of western culture.
I hope to study in depth
In retrospect, I find myself standing on a solid basis in both theory and experience, which has prepared me for the Ph.D. program. My future research interests include: Network Scheduling Problem, Heuristic Algorithm research (especially in GA and Neural network), Supply chain network research, Hybrid system performance analysis with Petri nets and Data Mining.
Please give my application materials a serious consideration.  Thank you very much.