Krishna Swaroop - krishnaswaroop@hotmail.

com
M.S. in Computer Science – School of Computer Science

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Growing up in academic campuses of repute in India, (my father was a professor, so I spent my
boyhood days in NIT Calicut and IIT Chennai campuses.), the world of academia and books was
something I was familiar with and fascinated about from the beginning. My inquisitiveness and
search for knowledge had given me a jumpstart in wishing to have an aspiring career in life.

While in the 9th grade, I was selected for ‘KIZUNA’- an India-Japan cultural exchange program. I was
one amongst the 100 select students who got the opportunity to experience Japan, explore its
culture and technological prowess for two weeks with the Japan International Cooperation Center
(JICC)’s funding. The visit humbled me greatly on realizing their sense of survival in the face of wars
and natural calamities, their might to rebuild from the ashes, and the humility ingrained in their
great culture. Trips to various heritage sites, homestay with a Japanese family and innumerable team
activities showed me what unity and hard work can accomplish and that love knows not the
difference between South Asia and the Orient.

After my 10th standard (where I scored a 10/10 GPA), I chose the Science stream with Computer
Science, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry as major subjects primarily due to my love for the
subjects of Computers and Mathematics at my plus-two level. I carried forward my passion for
computer science by designing computer games and a Library Database Management System (DBM)
for the school while involving in a multitude of co-curricular activities and serving as the head boy of
my school - all in a judicious balancing act. Subsequently, I topped my school in twelfth grade
securing 94.6%. I was in high spirits as I walked up to receive the Best Student Award in 2016, an
accolade presented to students who exhibit all-round excellence.

Fresh out of high school, with a natural inclination towards the world of data, it’s processing and the
parallel worlds it creates, I enrolled in the Computer Science Engineering program at Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore, one of the top engineering colleges (and a center of
excellence in Engineering as declared by the Government of India) in India. I dove head-first into
Computer Science and the four years of college life that awaited. In my first year, I undertook a
project internship of 2 months at the National Institute of Technology Calicut (NIT Calicut), Kerala, a
prestigious institute of national importance in India. Here I did a project on DBM in Python (using a
micro-environment called FLASK) and broadened my vistas of knowledge. Back in college, I headed a
team of four to develop a game using JavaScript and C# to conduct our independent Tech-club
induction at college where we live-ranked the players. During the same year, I was also involved in
developing a Touch Kiosk application for my department.

The internship and projects married to my innate interest enabled me to develop strong
organizational, leadership and communication skills. Through a range of group projects and labs at
Amrita, I learned that synergy is paramount to achieving the team’s ambitions. I believe there is
quality teamwork behind great accomplishments and that it’s important to outsmart your ego for a
content life. During less than 2 years of my studies, I represented my class and department in various
capacities and my responsibilities included organizing social events and other contests at the
Institute.

For some time after, I toyed with a project idea entailing Machine Learning in the field of healthcare,
duly owing to my long-standing belief that there had to be a humanitarian aspect to cutting edge
computer science. To realize this idea, I thought of a possible student exchange program and started
looking at my options. This long-cherished dream came true when I was selected for Erasmus Plus
Merging Voices 2017-18, an international mobility scholarship to take on a project at the Faculty of

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Krishna Swaroop - [email protected]
M.S. in Computer Science – School of Computer Science

Sciences and Technology (FCT) of University NOVA in Lisbon (UNL), Portugal during my fourth
semester.

At NOVA, I undertook a project in an AI-based healthcare strategy that analyzed a citizen’s holistic
healthcare needs against his multi-criteria environment/ecosystem encapsulating his employment,
income and family and health-related parameters and would devise a suitable healthcare package
with well-defined responsibilities for the state and the person. I utilized different Neural Network
Algorithms to study data and images of patients' scans to determine and glean various outcomes
including detecting cancerous tumors from mammograms with an accuracy of about 75%. Apart
from gaining familiarity with some principles of Neural Networks and Deep learning, the experience
gave me a major insight into the myriad options in regulating financial allocations based on AI-
supported/devised rationale. During this stint, I also took part in the social gatherings around me in a
proactive way, made some solo travel to some of the neighboring countries; all using the savings
from the scholarship.

During the 3rd year, I undertook an internship in Blockchain Development at UL Technology

Later, I took up an Internet of Things (IoT) project that designed an end-to-end fall detection system
(fall of people vs fatality) using Arduino boards accompanied by various sensors and employed
clustering algorithms to categorize falls based on fatality. Upon detecting a fall based on sudden
changes in acceleration, the device will send text messages and calls to those listed as emergency
contacts with precise location and fatality levels. Concurrently, I was also involved in a full-fledged
attendance management system that took all the functionalities and features of the faculty and
students into consideration. During my final year (which is halfway through), I laid my hands on the
design of a Decentralized Application for deploying Electronic Medical Records onto Blockchain. I led
a team that built a private-permissioned network that focused on anonymity, access control,
security & privacy, user experience, and mass adaptability by enabling cross-application
communication on Quorum, a blockchain platform based on Ethereum. I enabled access control and
tamper-proofed the process of deploying encrypted EMRs onto the cloud by employing the Proxy
Re-Encryption (PRE) scheme that implemented elliptic-curve cryptography. I wrote the smart
contracts that enabled all the user-provider functionalities. We used the Metamask plugin for
accessing the public Ethereum network. Through Faucet, we gained enough test-ether to run the
contracts on the Ropsten Test network.

I look forward to my MS as a program that would help me explore ways in which cutting edge
Computer Science can bring about social good and sustainable changes in the lives of people,
especially in developing countries like India, which is an emerging economy on the brink of an AI
revolution. In the process, I sincerely hope to leverage my background in CS coupled with my project
and internship experiences in the broader conversation about Artificial Intelligence for social good.
At this point, I firmly believe that an M.S. in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University will
immensely help me in achieving this goal by bridging the gaps in my skill-set and thereby consolidate
my standing in the field of Computer Science. The breadth and depth of the unique education
offered by the School of Computer Science (SCS) at CMU coupled with associated practical
experiences would result in an all-round personal and professional development from which I would
greatly benefit. If selected, I am confident of contributing significantly to the ongoing work at the SCS
and believe it would equip me with the skills to meaningfully contribute to the field of CS at large. In

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Krishna Swaroop - [email protected]
M.S. in Computer Science – School of Computer Science

the process, I also look forward to a long and fruitful association with the community at Carnegie
Mellon.