2nd Symposium: AI and the Future of Mental Healthcare

About the symposium

The 2nd Symposium: AI and the Future of Mental Healthcare brings together perspectives from artificial intelligence, clinical psychology, ethics, and value-sensitive design to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue on the role of AI in mental healthcare.

The symposium is organised by the TU Delft SIG Mental Health and Tech and includes keynote lectures, a workshop, and a poster session for PhD students and postdocs.

Programme highlights

Albert Ali Salah (Utrecht University)

Designing computational tools for behavioral and clinical science

Claudi Bockting (Amsterdam UMC)

Between Therapy and Threat: AI’s Complex Impact on Mental Health

Lavinia Marin (TU Delft)

Workshop: Mind the Bot! A Value-Sensitive Design Workshop for Mental Health AI Chatbots

Poster session

PhD students and postdocs are invited to participate in the poster session.

Abstract submission deadline: 12 June 2026

Participation & registration

Registration and the call for posters are available via the symposium registration page.

Find more information here.

Questions

For questions about the symposium, please contact:
Iulia Lefter: i.lefter@tudelft.nl

EdSIG DDfV session | Teaching Values with Q-Sorting

Teaching Values with Q-Sorting

by Maurits Ertsen

We warmly invite the education community to join our upcoming session about Q-Sorting.

This session is part of a series of meetings in which educators share, discuss, and learn from each other’s practices on Design for Values across the university. The series is organised by the Special Interest Group on Education of the Delft Design for Values Institute in collaboration with the Teaching Academy.

In this session

Compared to traditional list-based surveys, Q-Sorting is typically seen as more suited to show diversity of ideas. Maurits has used Q-Sorting quite extensively in courses and projects in BSc and MSc programmes.

The workshop will focus on two aspects.

First, a recent Q-Sort shows the ideas of students at CEG and outsiders about what engineering should focus on in the next ten years. These ideas are diverse and thus allow discussion on how goals and values are determined in the first place.

Second, using Q-Sorting in class – for example by defining a research setup together with students – allows engagement with questions of data, claims, and ideas in both research itself and the topic of the survey, whether this concerns where to go on holiday or which study activities are preferred.

Timeline

09:45 Walk-in & coffee
10:00 Start of session
11:30 End of session

Location

TU Delft Teaching Lab, Arena

Target audience

Educators and Education Support Staff

Registration

Please register here.

Future sessions

If you have teaching activities you would like to discuss or explore in future sessions – whether past, ongoing, or still just ideas – please write to:
edSIG-ddfv@tudelft.nl

We are currently preparing an interesting schedule for future sessions, and contributions are very welcome.

Find more on this event on this website.

Documentary Premiere: “Re-rooting” at Sonnenborgh Museum, Utrecht

Documentary Premiere: “Re-rooting”

Thursday, 10 April 2026 | 14:00 | Sonnenborgh Museum, Utrecht
Free event. To attend, send an email to pact@hetkin.nl.
A documentary screening organized by the Indigenous Liberation Month x Just Transitions Network working group, part of Klimaatonderzoek Initiatief Nederland (KIN).
View the full programme

About the documentary

Re-rooting is the result of a co-creation process between Myra Colis, Anna Melnyk, Laure Herpain, and the KIN PACT working group. The documentary explores a central question: what if the energy transition was led by Indigenous principles?
Through the voices of twelve contributors from Indigenous and academic backgrounds, the film shows how reciprocity, responsibility, intergenerationality, and interconnectedness can help re-root our approach to the future.
Featured contributors include Sarah Pardede (Toba Batak), Semuel Sahureka (AlifURU), Myra Colis (Igorot), Dr. Carolina Sanchez De Jaegher, Skylar Joseph (Sicangu Lakota), Diana Vlet (Lokono & Warau), Cesar Taguba (Igorot), Audrey Christiaan (Kariña), Yvonne Belen (Igorot), Etta James (Arawak), Fatima (Lecturer & Researcher), and Anna Melnyk (Climate Ethicist).
View the full programme

About the creators

The documentary was made by Laure Herpain and organized by Myra Colis, Anna Melnyk, and the KIN PACT working group Indigenous Liberation Month & Just Transitions Network.

Call for Participants: Theater of the Techno-Oppressed

Call for Participants: Theater of the Techno-Oppressed

Tuesday, 21 April 2026 | 9:00 – 13:00 | TU Delft
Coffee and sandwich lunch included.

A participatory workshop with Dr. Frederick van Amstel, organized by the Delft Design for Values Institute’s Special Interest Group “Design for Justice.”

Register here

About the workshop

Despite the promises of digital innovation, many technologies, including those created in university settings, shape everyday life in ways that reinforce inequality, exclusion, and exploitation.

This 4-hour interactive workshop uses theatrical techniques inspired by Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed and incorporates embodied interaction design practices to explore how technologies such as social media, platforms, and apps can mediate power, inequality, and resistance.

Participants will:

  • Act out technology-mediated situations
  • Reflect on power relations in digital systems
  • Imagine alternative and more liberating technologies

The workshop is open to students, researchers, and other members of the TU Delft community interested in technology, society, and social justice.

This activity is open to all human bodies, including those who think they have no talent for acting. Special accommodations can be provided for people with disabilities, people with limited mobility, racialized people living with racial trauma, survivors of sexual assault, and others who wish to disclose specific needs to the organizers before or during the workshop.

Register here

About the facilitator

Find more about Frederick van Amstel and the Theater of the Techno-Oppressed on his website.

EdSIG DDfV session | Student Responsibility and Value Awareness through Portfolios

EdSIG Session | Student Responsibility and Value Awareness through Portfolios

31 March 2026 | 12:45–13:45 | TU Delft Teaching Lab

We warmly invite the education community to join our upcoming reflective session about portfolio trajectories to foster responsibility and value awareness in engineering education.

About this session

In this session, we will reflect on a concrete example from practice: the portfolio trajectory developed at Mechanical Engineering. Pim van der Male will present this case and walk us through how the portfolio approach has been implemented to support students in developing responsibility and value awareness throughout their studies.

Together, we will explore how portfolios can serve as a tool for students to recognize, articulate, and reflect on values in their academic and professional development. We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities that emerge when integrating such approaches, and what lessons can be drawn for other educational contexts at TU Delft.

By examining this specific case, we aim to uncover insights that can inspire Design for Values in education more broadly, whether you are already working with values in your teaching or are just starting to explore the possibilities.

A new meeting series

This reflective session kicks off a new meeting series in which educators share, discuss, and learn from each other’s practices on Design for Values across the University. The series is organized by the Education SIG of the Delft Design for Values Institute in collaboration with the TU Delft Teaching Academy.

The goal of these sessions is to create a space for open exchange, bringing together educators, support staff, and students to reflect on what works, what doesn’t, and how we can strengthen value-thinking in TU Delft education together.

Practical information

12:30 walk-in & lunch (vegetarian)
12:45 session starts
13:45 end of session
Location: TU Delft Teaching Lab, Arena / Forum
Target audience: Educators and Education Support Staff

To make sure there is enough lunch for everyone, please register in advance via the link below.

Register here

Get involved

Have a teaching activity you’d like to discuss or explore in a future session, whether past, ongoing, or still just an idea? Write to edSIG-ddfv@tudelft.nl. We are preparing an interesting schedule for upcoming sessions, and your contributions are very welcome.

SIG on Designing Technology for Mental Wellbeing Talks: Healthy Start Colloquium ‘Mental Health Awareness: Check! – What’s Next?!’

What happens when mental health awareness among young people increases and becomes the norm? And how can we ensure this translates into positive change? On March 30th, we will engage in this dialogue. Register now for the thought-provoking colloquium “Mental Health Awareness: Check! – What’s Next?!”.

We are proud to share extra names with you for the panel discussion. Wanda Tempelaar, Maartje van den Essenburg, Pim van den Dool and Amine Bakkali will share their insights in an interactive discussion. Find out more information about them here: Healthy Start Colloquium ‘Mental Health Awareness: Check! – What’s Next?!’ – Convergence.

Additionally, keynote speaker Prof. Anette Wickström (Linköping University, Sweden) will share thought-provoking insights in her talk ‘Between metrics and meaning: Survey practices, young people’s perspectives, and looping effects of psychiatric labels’, examining how the ways we measure and talk about mental health shape young people’s experiences.

Excited to join? Please register here: Healthy Start Colloquium ‘Mental Health Awareness: Check! – What’s Next?!’ – Convergence

SIG-AI-ACT Kickoff Event: Translating the EU AI Act into Technical Requirements

About the kickoff event

SIG-AI-ACT is a transdisciplinary initiative aimed at translating the principles of the EU AI Act – such as fairness, transparency, privacy, and robustness – into technical requirements and design practices for AI systems.

The SIG is structured into modular subgroups focusing on key topics including risk classification, transparency, human oversight, privacy, and data governance. Through this structure, the initiative works towards concrete outputs such as guidelines, evaluation methods, and tooling.

Founded by researchers at TU Delft, SIG-AI-ACT seeks to operationalise abstract legal and ethical principles through actionable, value-driven specifications, with a particular focus on sensitive and high-impact application domains.

Mission

To bridge the gap between legal obligations and technical practice in high-risk AI by developing tools, frameworks, and design methodologies grounded in the EU AI Act.

Please register for the event via our registration form before 25th February.

Speakers

Organizers

  • Dr. Megha Khosla (TU Delft, EEMCS)
  • Dr. Masoud Mansoury (TU Delft, EEMCS)
  • Dr. Helma Torkamaan (TU Delft, TPM)
  • Dr. Yanan Xin (TU Delft, CITG, SIG-AI-ACT Member)

More info can be found here!

PhD Course: Design for Well-being

Technology holds great promise for enhancing human well-being, improving health, safety, connection, and comfort, yet it can also create new forms of stress, inequality, and harm. This intensive PhD course explores the complex relationship between technology and human well-being.

What you will explore

  • What does human well-being entail?
  • How do technologies promote or undermine it?
  • Who gets to design technologies that shape our well-being?
  • What values are embedded, prioritized, or neglected in these designs?

Topics Covered

  • Technology and values — Historical overview of values in philosophy of technology
  • Embedding values in technology — Key theories and philosophical accounts
  • Design for Values — Value Sensitive Design, participatory design, value conflicts and change
  • Understanding well-being — Different conceptualizations and theories
  • Well-being and technology — How technology can enhance or undermine flourishing
  • Designing for well-being — Practical approaches, examples, and case studies (including AI and digital health)

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Understand the relation between technology, values, and human well-being
  • Argue why technology can or cannot embody values
  • Differentiate main approaches to designing for human well-being
  • Evaluate technology in terms of its impact on human well-being

Lecturers

  • Steffen Steinert (TU Delft)
  • Ibo van de Poel (TU Delft)
  • Pieter Desmet (TU Delft)
  • Naomi Jacobs (University of Twente)
  • Matthew J. Dennis (TU Eindhoven)
  • Iulia Lefter (TU Delft)
  • and guest lecturers

Practical Details

Dates: 9–13 February 2026
Location: TU Delft Campus
Credits: 5 ECTS
Target group: PhD students (ReMa students welcome if places available)
Registration deadline: 27 January 2026

Costs

  • Free — Members of 4TU Ethics, OZSW, or another Dutch research school in the Humanities (LOGOS)
  • €300 — All others

Assessment

Active participation required. Participants must complete required readings before each session and write a blog post as final assignment.

Register

Register via OZSW

Contact

Steffen Steinert and Ibo van de Poel (TU Delft)
i.r.vandepoel@tudelft.nl
Organised by: OZSW, 4TU Ethics, Delft Design for Values Institute

Design for Digital Autonomy – DDfV impact day

Recent geopolitical developments show that the Netherlands is vulnerable when it comes to its dependence on digital infrastructure and services from other countries and large technology companies. This is also reflected in TU Delft’s position paper on Open Strategic Autonomy. It has led to an increasing call for digital autonomy, in politics, in advisory reports and in scientific research. But what exactly do we mean by digital autonomy? And what can organizations, such as municipalities, universities and companies, do to advance digital autonomy?
The event focuses on the question of how we can foster digital autonomy and what choices this entails. What is needed to foster and operationalize digital autonomy? Which policies effectively contributes to this? What knowledge is needed? Digital autonomy is a broad theme for organizations and to act effectively, cooperation, effective policy and clear (design) guidelines are crucial.
During this event, we strive for cross-pollination between policy, practice and science, and between different domains (municipalities, implementing organisations, universities). We investigate where the shared challenges (cross-sectoral) and obstacles lie, what central values play a role in the design of digital technology in combination with digital autonomy, where value tensions occur and how we can put digital autonomy into practice.

More information & Registration

Delft Design for Values Impact Day

About the event

On 5 March 2026, the Delft Design for Values Institute (DDfV) will organize an impact day for all its members (from the faculties of IO, BK, EWI, CITG and TBM).

Recently, the DDfV has established several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on topics such as open strategic autonomy, design justice, education, and the AI Act, as well as a number of seed projects (for an overview, see this page). During this event, members will be informed about these activities and projects, explore potential synergies, and prepare for an externally focused Impact Day to connect insights developed within DDfV to practice*.

The event will contribute to collaboration and synergies between different faculties in the area of design for values, and so help to strengthen the internal ecosystem as well as the possibilities to reach out to relevant external stakeholders. You are cordially invited to participate!

Objectives

The Impact Day aims to:

  • Inform the DDfV community about current SIGs and projects
  • Identify connections and synergies across projects, SIGs, and individuals, and initiate exchanges

Programme

09:00 – 09:30 Welcome
09:30 – 10:00 Opening
10:00 – 11:00 Introductions of SIGs, projects, and researchers (2-minute presentations)
11:00 – 12:30 Brainstorm on collaborations, increasing impact, and matchmaking
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

Registration

Please register via the registration form and upload your slides to the shared slide deck before 28 February. We look forward to exploring how we can support each other in advancing our work and projects.

Questions

For questions, please contact the organizing committee:
Marina Bos-de Vos, Helma Dokkum, Monica Natanael

*During the DfV Impact Day in June we will interact with policymakers and professionals working on (policy for) spatial planning, housing, the built environment, mental health, open strategic autonomy and digital technologies. We will explore how we can collaboratively advance policy and design practices and how the project outputs and outcomes could contribute to the policy agendas around these themes.