Dear Sir/Madam:

I am writing with pleasure to recommend Mr. Li Guofang for acceptance into your graduate program.

I have been acquainted with Mr. Li since he joined the NUDT (National University of Defense Technology) in 1992. As the chairperson of the Student Affairs Committee, Mr. Li had to help manage routine affairs of his class of 83 students and organize many student activities. To do all this, he was often in contact with me and left me with a strong impression. For example, on Oct 1,1994, he organized the National Day evening party, which turned out to be a resounding success. In doing so, he demonstrated strong organizational and leadership skills with unswerving attention to details.

Unselfishness was a hallmark of Mr. Li’s conduct. Although the work he did as a student leader was time-consuming and tiring, he was never heard complaining about anything. He took all the work as his responsibility. He did it only to help his classmates and enrich his experience. Acknowledged for his devotion to his classmates, he was elected to the chair of the Student Affairs Committee for four successive years in his undergraduate studies. He had a warm heart for not only his classmates but also the society at large. I still have vivid memories of his community involvement. In the summer of 1994, he led some thirty students in voluntarily helping the police to maintain traffic in the busiest streets of Changsha, where my university is based. I always felt that this nice young man would deserve and get a bright future.

Mr. Li was of course much more than a Mr. Nice Guy. He was also known for his distinctive academic performance in academic studies. In his official transcripts, you would find that most of his grades were As and Bs, which put him among the top 10% in his class of 83 students. This, I think, is proof of both his intellectual prowess and the potency of his learning methods. He always read his textbooks critically, thought out the questions independently and did his best in formulating answers.

He particularly enjoyed trying his schemes in experiments. In his third year in college, for instance, he took the course “Digital Electronic Technique” that I was teaching and acted as an assistant of mine. In some experiments for the course, he tendered many insightful suggestions, even though they also betrayed some immaturity. He experimented with his ideas and confidently showed me some scintillating points in those solutions. A perceptive young man with blazing intelligence combined with curiosity and energy, Mr. Li deserves my first-rate evaluation.

I would also like to compliment Mt. Li for his English proficiency. He understands and speaks English very well. His English writing skills are particularly strong. All this will help him if he is needed for the position of a teaching and research assistant.

Considered a promising student with originality and sophistication in his thinking, he was asked, in the winter of 1995, to develop a subsystem of a DBMS project, for which I was the chief leader. This subsystem was designed to mange the information of research projects in our department. To do the job, he read many books about software engineering and took some courses in Database Principles and Management. Keenly aware that the design of a DBMS decides the quality of the whole software system, he did his utmost from the beginning of the project. From analyzing users’ requirements to designing the whole subsystem, from the detailed designing to the final programming, he was very level-headed and full of innovation every step of the way. Taking full advantage of his ability and creativity, he firmly focused himself on his objective and ignored all distractions. He successfully reached his goal. In the final software testing, only a few bugs were found in his subsystem. My appreciation of his talent was thus confirmed again.

I like this assiduous young man and often encourage him to pursue advanced education. I can state unequivocally that he will be well qualified for graduate studies in your department. I would appreciate it if you could give him your favorable consideration.
Sincerely

Professor & Head
Dept. of Automatic control
University of Technology