Communications and Marketing | Alumni Office

Sasi Kiran Gade, Autonomous Systems

‘As a child, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut, gambler, actor, artist, lawyer, psychologist and, of course, God himself. Fortunately, I became an engineer and now I am living my dream.’ Sasi Kiran Gade from India began his Master's degree in Autonomous Systems in 2006 and successfully completed it in 2010.

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(To our great dismay, we found out that Sasi Gade passed away in the summer of 2020).

After graduating from H-BRS, Gade not only managed to live his dream, he also founded his own company in India in November 2010. As founder and Managing Director of Gade Autonomous Systems Private Limited, the then 30-year-old Gade had launched the web portal Robolution.Me. The interactive portal is based on crowdsourcing and co-founding strategies.

His philosophy: technology as support for people to exceed their own limits and (re)discover themselves. This in turn should offer the opportunity for personal and professional development. One of his ideas consists of robots that work with psychological positive reinforcement to improve the interpersonal behaviour of patients. Gade programmed the robot Abhirami to speak, dance and play flashcard games with children.

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Visionary with heart

Where does Gade get all his ideas from and how has he managed to achieve so much at such a young age? During his bachelor's degree programme, Gade kept himself constantly informed about what was new in the field of robots. The Robocup World Championships fascinated him the most. He discovered platforms such as Sony AIBO and thought to himself that if robots can already play football, then the next step could be to give robots ‘brains’ to tackle everyday human problems.

Gade began researching universities that offered him the opportunity to learn how such ideas could be realised. The USA was out of the question for cost reasons. In the end, he decided in favour of H-BRS to study the first Master's degree in Autonomous Systems in Germany. The Master's programme is led by globally recognised robotics experts and Gade also felt a connection to Germany for other reasons: One of his cousins did his PhD here and several relatives lived in Germany. Their tips on what clothes he should buy and what kitchen utensils he would need were particularly valuable to him at the beginning.

‘You're never alone at H-BRS’

But Gade not only had relatives in Germany, he also had the university's Studdy Buddies - fellow students from higher semesters who support new arrivals: ‘Alex and Srikanth really helped me a lot with the complicated German bureaucracy. Never in my life have I had to deal with so much paperwork (...) I spoke very little German, so they really helped me a lot.’ Everything in Germany was new to him: the culture, the weather and the language, all of which Gade had to learn to understand from scratch. He remembers that it was a lot of fun: ‘I made new friends in no time, got to know people from different countries and their culture, cooked with them and introduced them to Indian culture and Indian food. It was a very good and new experience that taught me many new life lessons.’

The students' residence also proved to be a great place to stay. There were regular ‘tea and coffee mornings’, parties or football evenings. There was always something going on.

As the youngest member of the family, Gade was very close to his family in India, everyone looked after him and he was used to being spoilt. Here in Germany, however, he was forced to learn how to cook and clean - all things he had never had to do before. Gade's mother later said: ‘He went to Germany as a boy and came back as a man.’

Student life makes you a stand-up guy

In terms of academic work, H-BRS was the place where Gade learnt to conduct research and he noticed differences in the learning process. He is convinced that he owes his research career to the professors at H-BRS. One of them is Prof Erwin Prassler: ‘He taught me what good research means.’ Gade is also very grateful to Prof Paul Ploeger, who taught him how to use mathematical formulae and processes. Prof Gerhard Kraetzschmar (passed away in 2019) supported Gade throughout his studies: ‘Whenever I felt lost or needed advice, he was there for me.’

Gade remembers his very first oral exam in his first semester, which lasted over half an hour. He received a mediocre grade and felt discouraged: ‘After that exam, I was really lost. I just didn't know how it was possible to forget so many things in just forty minutes. I couldn't really have passed this exam, but thanks to my very good homework performance, I did pass. The professor wasn't at all happy about my performance in this oral exam.’ Gade's next exam made up for this to some extent: ‘I don't know how he (the professor) came up with it, but the first thing he did was to lighten the situation by telling me a joke. I managed a 1.3 and that really built me up.’

During his studies, Gade noticed that German students learnt together in groups before exams. After some time, he asked his fellow students and was able to join the study groups, which helped him a lot in preparing for exams. His fellow students not only helped him with his studies, but also introduced him to German culture and invited him home to their families: ‘Today I am really proud to have such friends. We are very close friends, it feels like a big family. I'm also the ‘guilty party’ who set some of these friends up with their future wives.’

The German way of doing things has travelled all the way to India

Being a student at H-BRS has not only meant making friends for life, for Gade it has also meant learning a lot about independence and self-confidence, understanding the different perspectives of decision-making processes and familiarising himself with German customs. The latter in particular is something he applies on a daily basis in India. Gade Autonomous System Private Limited works with companies from France, Germany and Switzerland. The company's ideology is to introduce the German way of doing research.

In September 2015, he met some of his professors and fellow students again in Sankt Augustin and Rheinbach. Gade is very grateful for the constant support he still receives as a graduate and emphasises how much he misses his time in Germany.

Text: Marion Ender, former student assistant in alumni management; now a graduate of the Master's programme in International Media Studies.