Dr
.
Elena
Voss
Associate
Professor
of
Computer
Science
Paul
G
.
Allen
School
of
Computer
Science
&
Engineering
University
of
Washington
,
Seattle
,
WA
98195
elena
.
voss
@
cs
.
washington
.
edu
· (206) 555-0192
October
14, 2025
Graduate
Admissions
Committee
School
of
Computer
Science
Carnegie
Mellon
University
Pittsburgh
,
PA
15213
Dear
Members
of
the
Graduate
Admissions
Committee
,
I
am
writing
to
offer
my
strongest
possible
recommendation
for
Marcus
Chen
in
support
of
his
application
to
your
PhD
program
in
Robotics
.
I
have
known
Marcus
for
three
years
,
first
as
a
student
in
my
undergraduate
course
CS
341:
Distributed
Systems
during
Autumn
2022,
and
subsequently
as
the
principal
undergraduate
researcher
in
my
lab
,
the
Autonomous
Systems
Group
,
where
he
has
worked
since
January
2023.
In
both
capacities
,
Marcus
has
distinguished
himself
as
one
of
the
most
intellectually
gifted
and
driven
students
I
have
encountered
in
my
twelve
years
at
the
University
of
Washington
.
In
CS
341,
Marcus
consistently
operated
at
the
level
of
a
seasoned
graduate
student
.
The
course
covers
Paxos
and
Raft
consensus
,
distributed
transaction
protocols
,
and
fault
-
tolerant
state
-
machine
replication
material
that
many
undergraduates
find
conceptually
demanding
.
Marcus
not
only
mastered
the
theoretical
underpinnings
but
also
completed
the
final
project
implementing
a
Byzantine
-
fault
-
tolerant
key
-
value
store
with
linearizable
consistency
checks
,
a
feat
only
two
other
students
have
achieved
in
the
past
five
offerings
of
the
course
.
He
earned
a
final
grade
of
3.9/4.0
in
the
class
and
received
the
Allen
School
Merit
Award
for
outstanding
undergraduate
coursework
.
I
rank
Marcus
in
the
top
1%
of
the
approximately
400
undergraduate
students
I
have
taught
and
the
top
3%
of
the
50+
research
assistants
I
have
mentored
.
He
has
the
intellectual
horsepower
,
creativity
,
and
persistence
required
to
make
fundamental
contributions
to
robotics
and
distributed
systems
.
Please
do
not
hesitate
to
contact
me
if
you
require
any
further
information
.
Sincerely
,
Dr
.
Elena
Voss
Associate
Professor
of
Computer
Science
University
of
Washington
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