Prototyping Lab 2025

16 February 2026, by Omkar Kondhalkar

Photo: Jan-Marius Komorek

On January 22, 2026, next.media Hamburg hosted the Prototyping Lab Reveal, celebrating the successful collaboration between industry leaders and talented students. This round featured students from the Basecamp(UHH) and three IAS students, including Jai, Liam, Nicole, and Similde, who worked in mixed teams to tackle real-world technological challenges. The event served as a vibrant showcase for innovative AI applications designed to redefine the content industry through creativity and technical excellence.

The featured projects pushed the boundaries of media technology, such as SPIEGEL’s "Newscompass" editorial platform and fiindo’s automated AI video process for financial data. At dpa, Jai and Liam helped develop a property-graph-based research assistant to structure complex news, while Nicole and Similde worked with Oetinger to create a GDPR-compliant, interactive web app that brings traditional legends to life for children. Each prototype demonstrated how specialized AI modules and local processing can solve industry-specific problems while maintaining high journalistic and data-protection standards.

Following the impressive presentations, students and mentors gathered for a networking session to discuss the future of these prototypes and potential long-term collaborations. The evening highlighted the power of bringing together fresh academic perspectives and established corporate expertise to drive digital transformation. If you want to be part of the next cohort, applications for the coming round will open at the end of the next summer semester stay tuned to next.media’s channels for updates.