STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Department of Civil Engineering

NABILA NAFSIN
I graduated from the best engineering university in my country in the department of Civil Engineering
(CE) from which I successfully attained a B.Sc degree with CGPA: 3.40. As an engineer, I have
determined to develop my career in the field of civil engineering and so I made myself able to use the
opportunity that I’ve got a job in one of the best real estate structural companies of my country. This helps
me to increase my knowledge as well as improving professional skill. My long term goal is to do research
in academia from a good civil engineering program. I believe that the research opportunity will lead me
on to the roads of my destiny.

Academically, Science has always been my main interest. However, during my higher secondary school, I
realized that my interests lay deeper in math and physics. My problem-solving skills gave me a broad
understanding of simplifying real life situations mathematically. That made me more interested in civil
engineering - the appeal of a challenging career where I would have the opportunity to theoretically solve
problems and practically apply the solutions for the benefits of the world around me. Moreover, I like the
idea of shaping the world to meet the future demands and civil engineering is a perfect platform for this. I
hope for a challenging career which I will find it personally rewarding and will be able to feel that I have
given something back to the community.

During my four years of undergrad, I got to know about different aspects of this field. In my second
undergraduate year, I learned about structural drawing and realized its importance in doing complex
design and structural analysis. In my computer aided drafting course, I got immense pleasure when I was
able to design the different components of a building including slab, beam, column, footing, stair and
finally a multi-storied building by using AutoCAD. I also got the chance to know about SAP software
system for designing steel structured bridge and earned a full score in that bridge design class. My
Environmental Engineering courses made me realized about the importance of environmental
management and ways of pollution control. The knowledge that I gained during my undergraduate
courses is helping me a lot in my professional life. My transportation engineering courses gave me the
opportunity to learn about the overall transportation system. I got to know about how different traffic field
data are collected by doing practical surveying. The courses related to geotechnical engineering created a
definite path for me to gather knowledge about foundation design and experiments including soil testing.
Thus, civil engineering, as a field, had always fascinated me right from my undergraduate college days.
This, I believe, was a turning point in my career. I made up my mind to pursue a career in civil
engineering and hence decided to enroll in a graduate program in one of the best universities.

Since the United States of America is widely known all over the world for its best universities and
advanced learning program, I have decided to train myself in a specialized institution where I will find the
way to expand my knowledge. As I browsed through the list of universities, I narrowed it down to a few
selected ones according to their course structures. University of Wisconsin fulfills all of my requirements
of a well-designed course with adequate facilities, broad curricula, flexible course structures and practical
training opportunities. Hence, I become motivated to apply to University of Wisconsin where I can
accomplish my goal in the field of my research interest.

With the continued growth and evolution of the world, the demand for new buildings and good
infrastructure continues to rise. In this situation, the issue of environmental pollution makes me feel tense
about the protection of nature and its surroundings. This awareness leads me to grow my interest towards
the environment. And finally, my interest finds its way in the field of the environmental engineering that
reflects in my undergraduate research. It focused on environmental pollution control and an effective way
of waste management. I explored a textile industry and collected their effluent sludge sample that I used
in making brick for sustainable disposal option of sludge. In that way, I could reduce and control the
leaching of heavy metals from sludge that might pollute the natural resources. Thus, my research gave
 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Department of Civil Engineering
me insight into environmental pollution control and at the same time I became accustomed to some
characterization techniques like Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) and Scanning electron
Microscopy (SEM). I am currently working on preparing a manuscript for the publication in a peer-
reviewed journal.

One of my future research interests is related to waste management and pollution control in the
field of environmental engineering and many professors at University of Wisconsin are carrying
out research similar to my aspirations especially Dr. Jin Li whose research interest includes
Water and waste water treatment, Hazardous waste treatment; Research area of Dr. Yin Wang
including Wastewater treatment and reclamation, Drinking water supply and treatment
encourage me to do further research in the field of Environmental Engineering. At the end, I
firmly believe that University of Wisconsin, with its reputation for civil engineering research and
distinguished faculty, would be an appropriate locale to pursue my further research.