Science and Engineering Experience: College Admission Essay Sample

At the School of Engineering, I hope to concentrate in Mechanical Engineering. I am currently considering the energy conversion or structures tracks.Brown’s program would give me a solid grounding in mechanical and thermal systems, as well as the opportunity to specialize.While shuttling between poverty-stricken Kolkata and futurism-crazed Dubai, I realized the importance of sustainability in both contexts, leading to a longstanding interest in sustainable engineering.While exploring this subject, I was fascinated by ‘Structures’ and ‘The New Science of Strong Materials’ by JE Gordon. I delved even deeper by taking two online courses. One covered advanced classical mechanics, while the other covered materials science, including basic crystallography and the engineering uses of different materials. With a newly solidified understanding of this subject, I could practice extended application of principles with more challenging questions. Participating in the British Physics Olympiad and the UKMT Maths Challenge enabled me to further apply my knowledge and answer questions that were outside the scope of school academics. I received the Silver Award in both competitions. I pursued my passion for sustainable engineering outside of textbooks and courses. An internship at a contracting company served as my introduction to engineering standards- I learned about LEED standards and methods engineers use to achieve gold certification. What immediately struck me was how holistic sustainable engineering could be: every single part of a building or machine could be optimized. To examine these separate parts in a different context, I then took a familiarization course at the Dubai Cables factory about their electrical engineering standards. I completed a lighting audit with an energy solutions company, which included charting the lighting use of a sample of houses and comparing their energy costs. The engineering uses of modeling technologies were my next focus. I learned about the uses and benefits of Building Information Modelling, and the Trace 700 program, which can be used to monitor energy performance and model the thermal conditions of a building using a specific type of chiller. These experiences mainly introduced me to the value of simulations in engineering and the optimization of chillers. I hope to fully explore these pursuits and to discover more interests using the multitude of resources available at Brown.