-Dilip Thakore (Bengaluru)

Schröder (centre) in EW Bangalore office: cutting-edge German technology offer

In the provision of education services and attracting students from abroad, the Federal Republic of Germany (pop. 85 million) — Europe’s wealthiest and most technologically advanced country — is an also-ran despite higher education being provided almost free of charge to all, including foreign students.

This is a situation that Dr. Ing (Engineering) Carsten Schröder, co-founder and Managing Director of the German Academy of Digital Education (DADB, estb. 2018), wants to change. “We intend to bring cutting-edge world-class technology knowledge from Germany to engineering students and corporates in India and countries of the Global South, which includes South Asia and Africa,” says Schröder.

Newspeg. Last month (June), Dr. Schröder embarked on a tour of India, visiting DADB’s potential and existing partners. DADB’s online upskilling programs cover a wide range of new-age engineering technologies such as 5G, advanced communication networks, electro-mobility, Industry 4.0 / Internet of Things, renewable energy and bio-mass technology. Corporate clients include Fraunhofer, Siemens, Rohde and Schwarz, Nokia, Intel, and Qualcomm.

Moreover, several top-ranked universities in India have partnered with DADB for student and faculty programs. They include BITS-Pilani, IIIT-Kottayam, Lovely Professional University, Bennett University, and R.V. College, Bengaluru.

History. An industrial engineering graduate of the Technical University of Berlin, research scholar at the Fraunhofer Research Society, Berlin for six years and Managing Director of the National Academy of Engineering, Munich for a decade (2001-2011), in 2015, Schröder went solo and established S2M, a Berlin-based technology transfer “science to market” company. Three years later in 2018, he also promoted DADB to “transfer globally-admired engineering knowledge in higher education from Germany to the world, and particularly to India and the emerging countries of Asia and Africa.”

Direct talk. “DADB is the first company to share Germany’s globally respected engineering expertise. From our studios in Berlin, a team of 50 highly skilled professionals, including scientific editors, graphic designers, and lecturers, provide engaging digital content to university students and working professionals in the Global South to enable them to acquire the latest applicable knowledge drawn from German universities and industry. It’s important to note that DADB is not an engineering education platform like Coursera and EdX. We own and produce our own content and provide short-duration — two/three-week summer and winter programs for university students, and year-round programs for professional engineers to learn and apply latest technologies from German industry. The purpose is to make university students job and start-ups ready and provide professional engineers cutting edge knowledge advantage,” says Schröder.

Future plans. With German companies including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Bosch, Thyssen-Krupp, and Airbus, among others, having established excellent reputations in India, Schröder is bullish about DADB’s prospects in this country. “We have already received a warm welcome from the academy and industry. I believe our engineering upskilling programs can give a huge productivity push to India’s youth and industry,” says this highly-qualified and accomplished educator-entrepreneur with a sharing and caring mindset.