Rahul Singh / August 15, 2015 / Applying to PhD, Carnegie Mellon University

Statement of Purpose
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps
learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
-Henry Ford

Within a few months of joining for M.Tech, with the specialization in Digital Signal Pro-
cessing (DSP), I realized that the learning process is an endless journey towards the zenith
of excellence. As I learned signal processing and related concepts over the months, it only
intensified my desire to learn more. I would like to continue my learning through Doctoral
studies. Moreover, I am passionate about teaching. While working as a teaching assistant,
whenever there was an opportunity, I would collect materials from different sources and
try to derive the best way of explaining concepts to undergraduate students and convince
them, and I enjoy doing this. I am inspired by Margaret Fuller’s saying “If you have knowl-
edge, let others light their candles at it” and my ultimate career goal is to join a university
as a faculty, thereby, to continue my research and lit as many candles of knowledge.
I completed my B.Tech in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering in May, 2011.
While in final year of my undergrads, I tried to reserve my seat for graduate studies in one
of the premier technical institutes in India, however, I could not succeed. I thought to
myself, “maybe I am not ready yet, but I will work towards it continuously.” Meanwhile,
after completing B.Tech, I started working as a Software Engineer in Tata Consultancy
Services Inc. (TCS), one of the largest IT services brand worldwide. In TCS, apart from
working as a software tester, I learned value of team work and importance of deadlines.
My job in TCS was just a temporary adjustment that I had to make with my goal of going
for Masters.
I was earning a good sum of money in TCS, but I never felt settled there. My desire
to pursue higher studies always made me agitate in continuing my journey with TCS.
Ultimately, in July 2013, I got admission in M.Tech program (specializing in DSP) at
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), one of the most coveted
and prestigious institutions in India. I had no regrets for leaving a high paying job and
continuing my education with limited scholarship money, because now I was doing what
I always wanted to do.
During my initial days at IIST, I was amazed by the scope of signal processing and
its applications in numerous contexts: communications, networks, speech and image pro-
cessing, biomedical, finance, and controls. After all signal processing is about extracting
information from a set of data.
During the second year of M.Tech, I worked towards my Masters thesis titled “Graph
Signal Processing for Complex Networks” under the esteemed supervision of Dr. B.
S. Manoj, Associate Professor, IIST. First, I did spectral analysis of traditional graph
centrality measures such as degree, closeness, and betweenness centralities over various
complex network models such as random, small-world, and scale-free. Different spectral
patterns were observed for different complex network models, which was used to classify a
network topology. Next, I proposed a new node centrality measure for complex networks,
Rahul Singh / August 15, 2015 / Applying to PhD, Carnegie Mellon University

the Graph Fourier Transform Centrality (GFT-C), by utilizing GFT. GFT-C takes
local as well as global importance into account and its superiority over other traditional
centrality measures such as degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centralities
was demonstrated through various examples. Finally, I proposed a new framework, graph
signal processing based on Directed Laplacian (GSPDL ), for analysis and processing of
graph signals. I proposed Graph Fourier Transform based on Directed Laplacian
(GFTDL ) for frequency analysis of graph signals. GFTDL provides “natural” interpre-
tation of frequency in contrast to the existing weight matrix based method. Further-
more, I proposed Spectral Graph Wavelet Transform based on Directed Laplacian
(SGWTDL ), an extension of Spectral Graph Wavelet Transform (SGWT), for multiscale
analysis on directed graphs. SGWTDL is the first method that allows multiscale analysis
on directed graphs. Based on my Masters thesis work, I have submitted the following
research papers.
• Rahul Singh, A. Chakraborty, B. S. Manoj, “On spectral analysis of node centrali-
ties,” submitted to Physica A, June 2015.
• Rahul Singh, A. Chakraborty, B. S. Manoj,“GFT Centrality: A new node importance
measure for complex networks,” submitted to Physica A, June 2015.
• Rahul Singh, A. Chakraborty, B. S. Manoj,“Graph signal processing: Directed Lapla-
cian based approach,” submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, August
2015.
Working with Dr. Manoj, I have learned the art of creating new knowledge, analyzing
it, and writing about it. Most importantly, I have learned to keep patience, in tricky situ-
ations, when the analytical or experimental results do not go our way. Dr. Manoj taught
me the impact and value of research, which aided to my motivation for doctoral studies.
Although my specialization is DSP, I feel that I have not learned enough and, therefore,
want to further explore signal processing during my Doctoral studies. I am confident that
it will be a big step towards my life-long learning endeavor.
While working towards my thesis, I always used to browse through the research pages
of Prof. Jelena Kovačević and Prof. J. M. F. Moura. The work carried out by the
research groups led by them has been a source of motivation for researchers in the field
of graph signal processing. Moreover, while reading the books such as “Wavelets and
Subband Coding” and “Foundations of Signal Processing” by Prof. Kovačević, I could
only dream of working with her. Over the last one year, while working in the field of graph
signal processing, I have been dreaming of joining their research group, however, I believe
that with significant work it not impossible. My work perfectly matches with the ongoing
research in the Bimagic Lab headed by Prof. Kovačević. I am confident that I have done
a good work to prove my ability to join their research group and continue my learning as
a Doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University.

Rahul Singh