Having worked in programming with database and network in financial system for ICBC, Industrial and commercial Bank of China, the biggest bank in China, and after securing a master degree in computer network under the supervision of the respectable professor Wu Zhongfu, a famous computer expert and the president of Chongqing University, I now strongly wish to concentrate on a higher level of computer network research to develop a good command of the magic power of network technology, for this technology not only changes the way people live but also changes the system structure of the computer itself. Furthermore, the technology and the theory in network have been applied to many other fields, such as parallel process, storage technology, and even the CPU architecture. I hope I can master this revolutionary power by pursuing a doctoral degree in the United States, a place where science and technologies, computer science in particular, are most advanced in the world.

I began to be fascinated by the programming practice as early as when I was studying the basic undergraduate courses about computer science and engineering. Human thoughts are accurately described into computer recognizable languages. Under such circumstances, the computer is transformed into a thinking machine whose efficiency and accuracy surpasses the human brain itself. I am always proud of possessing of this powerful and special skill. I was the first undergraduate student in my department to participate in actual engineering projects, compiling software programs in a computer network company for banks and securities companies. Rich working experience has deepened my understanding of knowledge, especially the computer knowledge and technologies, and the high reliability requirements of the banks and securities companies have also cultivated in me a strong sense of responsibility and a prudential approach in the quest of knowledge.

After graduation from university, I started to work on the design of a credit card trading system in the credit card division of the Chongqing Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. During my work there, the credit card consumption clearing system I had designed had conducted over three million transactions with a value of four billion yuan for three years. The credit card business statistics system I designed has provided basic information for the management of credit cards and market operations, its performance ranked the fourth in the national system, this was remarkable for Chongqing, a city in China's relatively underdeveloped western Region, and I was praised many times by the ICBC headquarters.

Due to my excellent performance, I was recommended by the general manager in the credit card division and by the bank president to return to the Chongqing University to get a master degree after completing the upgrading project of the operation system in 1998. I studied basic network protocols under the supervision of famous computer experts during my postgraduate study; research works there further enhanced my understanding of the network. During that period, I wrote an academic paper entitled XXX that was published on Computer Science. The project on the centerless POS network solution I took part in has been approved by the People's Bank of China as one of the two POS network standards. Several months ago, I have completed my graduate program and succeeded in obtaining my Master's degree.

The equipment and the software I encountered during my work almost all come from Western countries, and the whole business operation of our bank credit card system depends almost entirely on those imported products. Being the kind of person that seeks creative and innovative solutions, I personally feel rather uncomfortable and frustrated about this. In addition, during my contacts with the engineers from IBM, HP and other American companies, I have become completely fascinated by their rigorous logical thinking, their pioneering experimental spirit, their professional expertise and pleasant personality cultivated uniquely by the western cultures. I have also become interested in the logical and scientific spirit in the western culture that parallel its advanced science and technologies. I therefore plan to go to the United States to study the most advanced network technology and to obtain a doctoral degree. After finishing my graduate program, I will try my best to become an expert in this field.

At present, network technology and its stratification idea have become the basics of computer technology. Network technology cannot only be applied to the Internet but also to the computer inner structures as well. The network stratification idea is an important measure in realizing the inter-connection of networks, and this very classification of functions and tasks ensures that the networks will be flexible, expendable and reliable and therefore has great application prospects. There are thousands CPUs in the present parallel processing systems, the system itself is an enormous network and the storage network area (SNA) is exemplary in applying network technology to the traditional storage systems.

The United States has undeniable advantage network technology and computer system structures, and the XXX University is especially outstanding in the computer network and its relative specialties of the electronic and computer engineering, such as the parallel processing and computer framework. I think that to any prospective Chinese engineer that understands and loves the network, it is worthy of any cost to come to your university and learn the most advanced technologies and ideas in the world.

Recommendation Letter

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have been engaged in researches on computer system structure and network telecommunications for over forty years. I am now president of Chongqing University. And I am very glad to recommend my student Mr. Foley Xu to you. Before pursuing his Master Degree studies, Mr. Xu had worked for four years and accumulated considerable experience, which deeply impressed me during his postgraduate studies. Mr. Xu can apply C language skillfully in digital database and network programming. He also very familiar with DDN, Frame-relay and other network technologies. He once independently designed the Internet project of VPN (Virtual Private Network) linking up the financial institutions in Chongqing, Fuling, Wanxian and Qianjiang and displayed in his research work the professional prudence accumulated in his long years of work in the financial sector. The systems he designed were clear in logic, simple and practical in structure.

Mr. Xu has acquired excellent academic results. In the project "Research and Application of Bank Transaction Network Safety Model and Data-Coded Transmission System Based on Time and Space Super-Chaos Theory, he fulfilled his thesis entitled "The Analysis of Attacking against TCP Session" after consulting a great deal of data and documentation and conducting pilot programming. The thesis was published in the magazine Computer Science. On this basis he accomplished his Master Degree thesis entitled "The Detection and Defense of Attacking against TCP Session." He got unanimous good comments from the academic thesis query-and-reply committee for his profound understanding of network theory and technology as well as his clear articulation in the thesis defending his arguments. The rapid method Mr. Xu suggested for inspecting network flow volumes in his thesis embodied his active and creative thinking.

I believe that the telecommunications theoretical research Mr. Xu has made and the scientific research capability he has acquired during his postgraduate studies, together with his work experience, have laid a good foundation for him to pursue his doctorate studies and researches in the future. As a visiting scholar in the United States in the early 1980s, I deeply realize the necessity of learning more from the United States and other developed countries in the field of science and technology. That is why I am so glad to see aspiring and capable young people like Mr. Xu pursue their further studies abroad. I am convinced that he will definitely accomplish his study program in your university.

Yours sincerely

Professor
Supervisor for Ph.D. Program
Chairman of the Academic Committee
President of Chongqing University
Former Cultural Councilor of Chinese Embassy to Canada