Aerospace Engineering Personal Statement Example 1

Fire, the wheel, boats, book printing, electricity, engines, automobiles, planes, spaceships, wireless information transfer: engineering is determining this progress.

Leading engineers are the creators of our future. I find it a challenging aim to become one of them and to design a world for future generations.

Looking back into my childhood, I always found myself interested in problem solving. Puzzles and constructions of any sort were my favourite toys especially the ones suitable for older children. This interest has been growing with time. For me, understanding the working process of any machine, from cattle to spacecraft, has always led to a unique experience of satisfying my interest.

The borders of my imagination about how far technology can go grew even more when I attended my first Physics lesson in secondary school. In Ukraine I took 3rd place in the national (furthest possible) stage of Physics Olympiad in year 8; I also had several achievements in other years at Physics and Mathematics Olympiads. I am doing an Extended Essay in Physics, investigating the effect of magnetic breaking by eddy currents.

During my life I have been fortunate enough to travel a lot and visit various technology related places, which have shown me a spectrum of engineering possibilities. I have been to CERN in Switzerland, exploring limits of particle physics, and to the Volkswagen Phaeton factory in Dresden, to see how an automated plant works.

I have visited a submarine maintenance plant in Sevastopol’, where I saw engineering application in the military, and I have been to a local woodworking factory, where I discovered the use and need of modern technologies for small, developing enterprises. I have also got an outstanding opportunity to have a week of work experience at an industrial factory in Ukraine, where I will be looking at engineering from a different perspective and getting a deeper and more specific understanding of manufacturing processes.

As a consequence of that variety of different engineering possibilities, I have found myself devoting more of my interest to aerospace engineering in particular. The very first reason for that probably was the fact that for half of my life I have lived near the largest airport in my country, everyday waking up and going to bed along with planes landing and taking off.

As well, I have had another source of inspiration, reading. Starting from a variety of science fiction books, where space travel always seemed to me the most exiting, I eventually asked myself about actual physics of the processes, and so I began to read more scientific literature.

I was amused by simultaneous simplicity and complexity shown in “How the Wings Work?” and I have read “The Simple Science of Flight, from Insects to Jumbo Jets.” I also am aware of up to date science news and articles. I have done an investigation in Brooklands Museum, related to the science of Concorde, which also was one of my steps into the area of aerospace engineering.

In addition, I have attended several Physics lectures at Surrey University, one of which was given by Duane Carey, an astronaut who took part in the Hubble Telescope service mission in 2002. I gained lots of motivation to work in aerospace engineering, as it seems to me an unexplored and exciting area, where I would like to develop my knowledge.

I also have sporting interests and hobbies. I am a keen skier and swimmer and also play basketball, do athletics and I have an interest in yoga and meditations. I have completed most of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, work in a charity shop as part of the outreach programme and I enjoy problem solving as a speedcuber. I have also led a School Radio activity and our team has produced two podcasts.

Even with all the different events happening in my life, my main interest remains in being directly involved in the process of the creation of the future and integrating technology with our everyday life.