Post by Sahil Madan

In January, I started my Master’s thesis at Digital Health Cluster, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam under the supervision of Prof. Katarina Braune. My research focuses on Automated Insulin Delivery (AID) systems and exercise - a topic that is deeply personal to me. Fifteen years ago, when I was diagnosed with #Type1Diabetes, I almost stopped playing sports. Managing blood glucose during exercise and sport felt like an unsolvable puzzle, and there were barely any resources or guidance available. At the time, it often felt like the rules of athletics and sports performance simply weren’t written for people living with T1D. That experience changed the direction of my life. What started as a struggle gradually became a mission: from navigating my own glucose levels through workouts, to becoming a certified personal trainer and diabetes educator, to working with and supporting hundreds of people with Type 1 Diabetes in sports and fitness. Today, that journey has brought me to research. Studying AID systems and exercise feels incredibly meaningful because it sits exactly at the intersection of technology, physiology, and lived experience. If we can better understand how these systems perform during physical activity, we can help make exercise more accessible, safer, and less intimidating for people living with T1D. Looking back, the path from diagnosis to this moment feels surreal. What once felt like a barrier has become the motivation behind my work. Prof. Dr. Katarina Braune Christine Knoll MD,PhD Hasso Plattner Institute KTH Royal Institute of Technology #T1d #Sports #exercise #AID #technology #Research #diabetes #healthcare #India #Sweden #Germany