The SEFI 7th SIG Ethics Spring Symposium 2026 was held from 20 to 24 April in Sofia, Bulgaria. Organised by the SEFI Ethics SIG, the symposium brought together scholars and educators from across engineering ethics, philosophy, pedagogy, design sustainability. The theme of the symposium was empathy, care and attention in engineering education and practice. It created a reflective, interdisciplinary space in which to examine relational ethics in engineering education, offering a programme combining keynote lectures, panels, workshops, dialogue circles and informal community-building activities. The event was designed to facilitate connection, attentiveness, and reflection.
The symposium welcomed participants from 14 countries and brought together representatives from 23 institutions. Among them was Celia Fernández Aller from UPM, the institution coordinating the SkincAIr project. She gave a presentation on the ethics of care within SkincAIr. The ethics of care imply that better societies and technologies can only be achieved by adopting a caring perspective towards one another and the planet. This concept is based on the idea of vulnerability, which can be applied to the digital context.
Various activities have been carried out within the SkincAIr project to fulfil the requirements of the ethics of care. This project is closely aligned with these principles, as it will provide an AI-powered mobile app that can detect skin NTDS at an early stage. During the consent process for collecting personal data for the project, a subtitled video has been made available to help users understand what consent means. This has been very well received in the countries involved in the project. We have started evaluating the implementation of the ethics of care in SkincAIr and hope to present the results soon.
If you want to always stay updated about our project, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Bluesky!