Fireside Chats at KI labs; ep. 20
In this episode we talk with Riswan, one of our earliest recruits — our working student turned full time employee, about his journey to Europe, his passion for technology, and his love for the German work culture.
Where did things start for you?
“I was born in Pondicherry, India, a really nice beach town, and a former
French colony — a bit different than the rest of India with its British
influence. There are beautiful sunrises and I’d often go to a coffee shop
near the coast and watch the sunrise. As a student I’d bike there often and
use the time to reset. Each time I go back home now, I do the same.
In Pondicherry people speak Tamil, the local language, and most of us
learn French in high school. We studied in English starting from primary
school, so that is like a second language for us.”
How were you first exposed to technology?
“I still remember my very first programming class — I had no idea what to
write on the Turbo C editor, so I ended up typing — “Hey, how are you?”, of
course with a lot of syntax errors. In University, I wrote a basic program to
find the day of the week for any date I’d input. I was fascinated because I
could enter any date thousand years in the vicinity and I instantly got the
day of the week. And all it took was a few lines.
I moved on to programming small games with friends and then things
began to snowball. Most of my learning at that point came from outside of
the classroom as I worked to see what I could build next. We built a
website for our university after noticing how old our current one was and
proposed it to the leadership. Unfortunately, since it was a public
university, it took a lot of time to get the proposal through and I left the
university before we saw the final result. Still, we were happy with the
results and our initiative.
I became very interested in robotics and studied some electronics on the side. We made simple robots like light-seekers and line-followers before Machine Learning was cool and this was really fun.”
What did you do after university?
“I got a job offer in Bangalore (as usual for an Indian grad) for a consulting
company and got some good exposure to international talent and a
demanding work environment. In one week, our entry class created a
prototype Trading back-office as a part of the so called “Survival Skills
workshop”, something the previous classes were not able to do. The
people I worked with were very inspiring and taught me early on what was
capable in a day’s work.
After a little less than a year, I moved to SAP Research and Development,
drawn by the free food at the SAP campus. We had a lot of freedom to
build what we wanted, and I saw my ideas being implemented by many
big companies. While working at SAP I took a business trip to Germany and
explored other European cities. That trip inspired me to consider moving to
Europe.”
Is that how you got to Europe?
“Yes, I applied to TUM for a Master’s in Informatics along with a few
colleges in America and Singapore. I decided to move to Munich and now
consider that the best decision I’ve made in my life. TUM is an incredible
university, it’s free, and the resources I had access to are amazing. I
worked on several different projects; 3-D interfaces, game development,
frequent hackathons, the Human Brain Project, and many more.
Hackathons became a large part of my life and I strongly recommend
other young technical people to participate in them.
Also, I started as a working student at the DLR (the German Space Center)
and worked on the European Satellite project. I satiated my interest in
space and even got to take an exam for the certification for the navigation
of satellites. This usually was for people working there for many years, not
students, so it was really exciting. This also exposed me to many European
professionals which was eye-opening. I learned customs and traditions of
many different types of Europeans and saw how different everyone is in
terms of culture, language, and food. It was really cool to learn those
differences from the people themselves.”
How did you end up at KI?
“It was actually my next working student job! When I joined there were only
6 employees and a desk. I’ve seen the company grow to around 70 people
in two locations and that has been amazing to watch. I finished my
master’s and decided to take on a full-time role here.”
Why did you decide to stay here instead of looking for something
else after graduation?
“First thing, the people here are great. They are really smart and there is so
much to learn from. Also, there are many projects which allows me to
switch technologies and learn a lot from each one.
It is also great to see how KI helps big companies build startups. We don’t
just blindly do what the client says. We have a say in the decision making
and are able to implement our own ideas. Obviously to a certain extent,
but if we disagree with something, we are free to speak our mind.”
Biggest thing you’ve learned here?
“A mentality to get things done. The company was very small for a while,
so it was very important I learned how to get things done, fast. You are given significant responsibility and you need to really impact the project. I wasn’t doing data entry as a working student; I was doing hardcore programming. My current project is pushing the limits of what today’s technology is capable of and I have to read many research papers to try and build a solution for our client.
Compared with my other working student jobs, I was able to work on
things that moved very fast. At the bigger organizations, approvals took
time and even though the projects were interesting, you were not working
at the same pace. Here, the ultimate goal is to get things done, and then work on the process itself. For a working student, this is an amazing work
environment.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t say how much my Kicker has improved. I think
I can challenge the pros now.”
You’re also a crypto enthusiast…
“Yes! I think Blockchain is one of the most misunderstood technologies
ever. Near the end of my studies I did a small Inter-Disciplinary Project at TUM which meant I had to do a project not involved in computer
science. I chose economics at the TUM School of Management and learned
about the emerging technology of Blockchain. We created a new crypto
asset for experiments, enabling a team to see how people react to
spending and earning cryptocurrency. There were many parameters, and
the subjects ranged from complete crypto novices to experts. This further
led to doing my master’s thesis on Blockchain alternatives. The
democratization of money is a fascinating concept and allowing users to
trust the protocols, thus eliminating the need for trusted third parties is
quite interesting. Most blockchains are designed to work even with rule-
breakers in mind. The technology has a lot of potential with the right set of
use-cases and I’d be excited to see where the field goes.
What do you see for your future?
“I’ve always considered myself a technologist at heart, so I don’t think I’m
interested in moving into management. I’d like to build something that is
widely used and is actually useful for people.
I also don’t see myself leaving Germany anytime soon. Munich is an
amazing place to live. The German work culture allows you to leave work
at work and explore other interests. I’ve started to learn guitar again,
taking different dance courses, and overall am allowed to invest in myself
more. I consider this wholesome growth, not just career-wise, but personal
too.”
