Annegret Mündermann, PhD, is currently the Chair of Research and heads the Department of Teaching, Research, and Technology at the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich. In this role, she plays a key part in shaping the regional orthopaedic research ecosystem while collaborating closely with national and international partners. With a strong background in mathematics, sport science, orthopaedics and biomechanics, she specialises in translational research that bridges basic science and technological innovation with patient care. Dr. Mündermann’s international career includes academic and research positions at the University of Calgary, Stanford University, the University of Konstanz, and the University of Basel. Her prior work has focused on musculoskeletal biomechanics, particularly joint mechanics and osteoarthritis prevention and treatment. She is committed to integrating clinical expertise, advanced technologies, and outcome research to improve diagnosis and treatment of orthopaedic conditions through interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering and clinical fields. She is a member of several clinical and academic societies.

Georg Rauter is an Associate Professor at the University of Basel’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, where he leads the Bio-Inspired RObots for MEDicine Laboratory (BIROMED-Lab). His research focuses on developing bio-inspired robotic and mechatronic systems for medical applications, such as in rehabilitation and surgery. In rehabilitation robotics, Prof. Rauter has a particular emphasis on the FLOAT robot. The FLOAT is the world’s first 3D overground gait rehabilitation robot that facilitates safe gait training within different tasks and allowing to use different gait aids at the same time and has been brought to market by Prof. Rauter together with the SCI Center at the Balgrist, University of Zurich, and the company Lutz Medical Engineering. In surgical robotics, Prof. Rauter’s main focus is on minimally invasive semi-autonomous robotic surgery for laser ablation of hard tissue, such as bone or cartilage. In general, he is interested in advancing the field of medical robotics and its translation to the patient through industry. In addition to his research, Prof. Rauter is active in the academic community, such as IftoMM, the Swiss Robotics Association, and CURAC.

Prof. Henri Lorach is Assistant Professor in the University of Lausanne within the Defitech Center for Interventional Neurotherapies (.NeuroRestore) – a research, innovation and treatment center that develops and applies bioengineering strategies involving neurosurgical interventions to restore neurological functions.

His research focusses on understanding 1) how the electrical activity of the brain encodes behavior and intentions and 2) how to use this knowledge to build real-time Brain Computer Interfaces to restore function after neurological disorders.

In particular, he is leading clinical trials implementing invasive electrocorticography recordings at the level of the sensory motor cortex in patients with spinal cord injury to infer their intentions to perform specific movements and restore those movements through neuroprosthetic technologies. Prof. Lorach graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and completed his PhD at the vision institute working on the encoding of visual information in the retina. He completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University to develop retinal implants that stimulate electrically the retina and restore visual perception to the blind.