Georgia Institute of Technology Application Personal Insight Statements

Why do you want to study your chosen major specifically at Georgia Tech?

Georgia Tech Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department uniquely allows me to engage in hands-on practice of entrepreneurship and gain knowledge outside of the engineering field. Courses such as Technology Entrepreneurship and ECE Seminar directly feed my interests in developing the skills to become an engineer and an entrepreneur. Innovating new ideas to benefit society has always been a dream for me. I hope to receive the building blocks from Georgia Tech to make my dream a reality.

I am eager to join the Georgia Tech Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (GT IEEE) and RoboJackets clubs and be part of the like-minded peers who are just as passionate about acquiring and applying the knowledge they learned from the ECE program to a higher level. As a student who has no hands-on experience in anything technological, the passion of wanting to learn more about how to design, manufacture, and program an autonomous robot has grown immensely. I strive to push my physical and conceptual knowledge to participate in national and international competition levels, help my team to succeed, and increase the reputation of Georgia Tech worldwide. I am committed to using the knowledge I acquire from GT IEEE and RoboJackets to design and build the most cost-efficient agricultural vehicles not only for farmers back home in Malaysia, but also every other nation. Georgia Tech ECE’s faculty, along with the small tight-knit community of talented peers from all around the world, would bring out the best of me as I commit myself to their success.

Furthermore, ECE’s unique curriculum path provides me the flexibility to complete once-in-a-lifetime internships in Atlanta. Due to my experiences at ECE, I would be ready to lead a team to empower them while taking on the world’s magnificent challenges to create a transformative technological world.

Georgia Tech is committed to developing leaders to improve the global human condition. Tell us how you have made a meaningful contribution or transformative change in your community.

Amid a confusing time of this global pandemic - escalating cases, deaths rising into millions, international transmissions, with new variants, and protests - I set out on my college journey. With minimal online resources at hand, persistence and tenacity were my tutors, and I adjusted to US education while sheltering in place. Able to find my footing, it struck me how many others were not as fortunate. Students shared with me ways they were struggling and I could not stop my heart's longing to aid them. Everyone should have equal access to education, and I knew I could form a community benefiting generations of students to come.

I partnered with Foothill-DeAnza International Recruitment as Ambassador and volunteered in the National Assembly of Malaysian Students in America (NAMSA), EducationUSA Malaysia, and EducationUSA Singapore. Volunteering opened my eyes that most of my peers struggled with two major issues: scarce access to the latest information about community college enrollment policies, and challenges understanding material through online learning. To address these issues, I launched VolunFlex where I host weekly educational seminars, helping over three hundred students in Malaysian schools. I also built a non-profit website Compidia where I share free programming tutorials, helping over five hundred students.

It felt great helping so many, but more than that, I was proud to have built a like-minded community, all striving to have a positive impact. As the pandemic worsened, we created another VolunFlex project, organizing a donation drive of over one thousand masks and sanitizers to the Mountain View Police and Fire Departments and partnering with the National Zoo of Malaysia to help the welfare of animals during the pandemic.

I firmly believe building a strong-knit community is exactly what will get us through these challenging times. Even small acts of kindness have profound impacts on people's lives.