Last name, First name: Shojaei Khatouni, Sohrab
Nationality: German
City, Country: Hamburg, Germany
Course of Study, Degree: M.Sc. Mechatronics (in 2 months Dr.-Ing.)
Graduation year: 2016
Employer, Position: Founder

Mr. Khatouni, what was your motivation for choosing the TU Hamburg and this field of study?
I was 9 months old when my father left for Germany. At that time we were still living in Iran. After about 3 years it was time, my mother, my two sisters and I were allowed to follow. There are key moments in life that are remembered into old age - the flight to Germany and the arrival in Germany, where our father was waiting for us, was such a moment. In the years that followed we flew back to Iran again and again during the summer holidays to visit the family. So it happened that I had many (emotional) points of contact with the field of aviation from an early age. For me, the plane was “a magical gateway” to a completely different world that we would not have been able to reach without a plane. That shaped me and later, after some research, I decided to study AIW with a specialization in aircraft system technology.

You did your bachelor's, master's and dissertation at the TU Hamburg, what do you like about the training here?   
I always strive for personal growth and challenges. Although I'm convinced that every individual can create opportunities like this, I found the TU Hamburg to be a particularly good place to start. The demanding courses and the doctorate offered me numerous opportunities to grow and develop myself both personally and professionally.

You took up a second degree in human medicine while you were doing your doctorate, why?
I'm often asked that (laughs). The answer to this question can be found in the topic of my engineering doctorate. In this I worked on developing a surgical instrument for endovas-cular (through the blood vessels) operations in the skull, which records status variables such as pressure and temperature and makes evaluations available to the surgeon using AI. It struck me how little I, as an engineer, actually know about human anatomy: neither that one of the main pairs of arteries that lead to the brain go through the lateral processes of the cervical spine, nor that blood vessels can even lead through bony structures - one Information that is essential for the development of a surgical instrument. I realized that it is not without reason that studying medicine takes six years and that I cannot fill the gaps in my knowledge with a book or two. This decision was six years ago and I am now in my last semester. The knowledge I gained during my medical studies benefited my doctorate, which I have now submitted and will be defending shortly.

And with this knowledge you founded again.
Yes, I recently founded the company "NoscAi" and a second company "AVA Medical Clinics" with two fellow students. Similar to my dissertation topic, we are dealing with the use of technology (algorithms and AI) in medicine. We have opened our first practice on Geibelstraße in Hamburg Winterhude, where we practice proactive medicine and cover many topics of "new/early medicine" or Medicine 3.0. In short, we use the latest scientific methods (also AI) to diagnose "age-related" degenerative processes very early on, reverse them as far as possible and then slow them down. It's basically about staying healthy and vital for as long as possible and not spending the last few decades of life (which we are all heading for, whether we like it or not) in an increasingly immobile and impaired state. I see massive potential in this field.

You have been involved as Alumni Chapter President in Hamburg for several years, why are you doing this and what do you want to achieve?
The honorary position of chapter president has always given me great pleasure, even if I can't do as much as I would like to because of time restrictions. I was recruited by my mentor and good friend Professor Andreas Liese. In the coming period I will focus on the founder alumni in order to create synergies here.

What would you ask an omniscient researcher from the future?
How I can gain his knowledge and make it accessible to the world and all people.

If you were President of the TU Hamburg...
... I would make a massive investment in research and teaching AI.