Motivation Letter
I am writing this letter to express my interest in pursuing Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at
Politecnico di Milano.
I graduated from the civil engineering program at Ain Shams University in Cairo, which is renowned for its
challenging academic environment, and despite this I managed to maintain excellent grades with a total GPA of
3.86 out of 4. Among all the courses taught in this program, I find structural analysis and design courses to be my
favorites. I am fascinated by the idea that structural engineers throughout history were able to put theories and
concepts that can predict the structural behavior to a great accuracy and facilitated the practice of structural design
and construction. Among these concepts, one which was most appealing to me was buckling analysis of structural
members discussed in almost 7 courses of concrete and steel structural design. I had a strong concept and wanted
to strengthen it even more. This led me to pursue research work in the lateral torsional buckling of steel beams,
which is quite a fascinating phenomenon with complex theory. The research required that I had to get exposed to
unfamiliar concepts, or better be described as graduate level concepts, such as elasticity theory and variational
calculus, and learn how to use advanced finite element softwares such as ABAQUS. However, I was persistent to
do research with the aim of adding value to the structural engineering science, and now I have successfully published
my first paper on the subject in the International Conference on Structural and Geo-technical Engineering held in
Hurghada, challenging the simple fact that I am still an undergraduate student and the first undergraduate student
to pursue such attempt at Ain Shams University.
Another intriguing topic for me was structural dynamics. However, I only took one basic structural dynamics course,
so I was determined to strengthen my understanding of it. To do so, I co-founded the ASU EERI (Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute) Student Chapter and was member of the technical team who participated in the
International Seismic Design Competition, held in Los Angeles, California 2018. As a technical member of the
Seismic Design Competition (SDC) team, my role included carrying out modelling tasks of our proposed high-rise
structure on SAP2000 software and optimizing the structural design so that the structure is weight efficient. I also
took part in constructing and testing the balsa wood model and making sure that it resembled the behavior of the
software model. Our SDC team performed very well in the competition and achieved top standings in various
aspects. (i.e. 4th in design proposal phase,9th in architecture, 7th in structural performance and 9th in communication
skills) . The skills I have acquired throughout the competition time not only strengthened my concepts but also
heightened my interest and sparked my enthusiasm to do research in structural dynamics and earthquake
engineering.
Since the link between the theory and practice is necessary, I was also concerned to get accustomed to the structural
engineering practice as well. That led me to undertake three internships in the summers of 2015 , 2016 and lastly
2017. During the first two internships, I had the opportunity to witness the first stages in the construction of a food
court building, monitor the erection of formwork, pouring of concrete, and conduct some surveying tasks. The last
internship was at a world-class design firm Dar Al-Handasah, where I learnt how to set up a structural system for a
concrete building and used software programs like ETABS and spColumn to model and analyze the structural
performance.
Having done research as undergraduate and exposed to the industry as well, I find the academic pursuit to be more
appealing and that the next step is to pursue master’s degree at such a reputable university. During my time in
Politecnico di Milano, I expect to build up firm theoretical and conceptual understanding of structural engineering
sciences and get exposed to high quality research methodologies based on strong theory and practical applications
in the labs and facilities available in the university. It has been my dream to become a professor with astounding
research work. Thus, I am confident that upon obtaining the master’s degree, I will become a top candidate for a
doctoral degree.
Thank you for considering my application.
Sincerely,
Hazem Kassab
