NIGHT LAB III | ENHANCED PERFORMANCE

What happens when human performance is engineered? How can the microbiome, AI, advanced materials, and prosthetic technologies change the way we train, recover, move, and perform? And what happens when the limits of the human body become a starting point for innovation?

With Night Lab III, we move from building within us to performing beyond our limits. The session explores how breakthroughs in biology, materials science, data, and technology are opening new possibilities for human performance—from harnessing the microbiome of elite athletes to developing advanced prosthetics and materials designed to extend what the human body can do.

Biography

Scott Schneider serves as Head of Government, Medical Affairs & Future Development for North America at Ottobock Healthcare LP and is a member of the North American Executive Board. In this role, he leads strategic initiatives involving government and industry relations, clinical research, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, emerging technologies, corporate marketing, IT, operations, and business integration. He is also actively involved in Ottobock’s support of the LA28 Paralympic Games.

Since joining Ottobock in 2003 through the acquisition of TEC Interface Systems, Schneider has held leadership assignments at the company’s global headquarters in Duderstadt and Berlin, Germany, as well as its North American headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Austin, Texas. He has played a key role in advancing Ottobock’s digital transformation, helping evolve prosthetic and orthotic care through technologies including digital scanning, cloud-based design, additive manufacturing, and data analytics.

A longtime advocate for the orthotic and prosthetic profession, Schneider has served on the Board of Directors of the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association (AOPA), chaired its Veterans Affairs Committee, and contributed to its Government Relations Committee and Political Action Committee. He was honored with the AOPA Ralph R. “Ronney” Snell Legislative Advocacy Award for his service and leadership.

Before joining Ottobock, Schneider was a clinical partner at Northwestern Artificial Limb & Brace and co-founder of TEC Interface Systems. Under his leadership, the company received numerous national honors, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Fast Company’s Fast 50 Most Innovative Companies, and the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business of the Year Award, presented during the Clinton Administration.

Founded in Germany in 1919, Ottobock is a global leader in medical technology and mobility solutions, serving people with limited mobility through innovations in prosthetics, orthotics, neuromodulation, and patient care services.

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Thank you to our Part II program partners, Vitra and DWIH. Thank you also to Campus OWL, Deutsches Haus at NYU, Goethe-Institut New York, Heidelberg University Association, UAS7, University of Cologne New York Office, The University of Freiburg, and UA Ruhr North America for their support.

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About the Next Frontiers Symposium

New Spaces. Creative Thinking. Shared Futures

A forward-looking, trans-Atlantic symposium exploring the future of culture, science, technology, and sustainable design where tomorrow’s ideas take shape.

DELIVERING THE NEXT FRONTIERS

How do we get from here to there?

Part II of the Next Frontiers symposium examines how discoveries and innovations are translated into tangible outcomes. From quantum computing and AI to synthetic biology, regenerative materials, neuroscience, and sports science, this three-part series explores the practical frontiers of human potential and technological advancement.

Across sessions, leading experts from the United States and Germany will highlight emerging applications, cutting-edge research, and forward-looking strategies that transform ideas into products, technologies, and experiences, demonstrating how the next frontiers are not just imagined, but delivered. At its core, the series is a story about collaboration: between disciplines, between nations, and between the human and the non-human world.

Next Frontiers II unfolds across three Night Labs, each building on the last:

Night Lab I begins with matter itself — the raw stuff of the built world — and asks what happens when materials become computational and eventually alive. Night Lab II moves inward, to the body and the brain, exploring how synthetic biology and neuroscience are redrawing the boundary between organism and machine. Night Lab III pushes outward into human performance, asking how data, biology, and technology are redefining the limits of what the body and mind can achieve. Together, the three sessions trace a single arc: from the materials we build with, to the bodies we inhabit, to the performance we are capable of.

Each Night Lab follows the same format: part salon, part laboratory, part performance.