ATHIKA journey
More than 100 students from all around the world joined the ATHIKA course. In the first part of the course (February 2021), the students had the opportunity to get the most relevant contents about the eHealth sector and the Digital Transformation, highlighting the ATHIKA framework for challenges identification and scenario planning presented in the Barcelona’s First Symposium in June 2019. In the second part of the course (March 2021), fundamental concepts about Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Ethics and Governance were introduced to all the students. Thanks to acquiring this background, the ATHIKA students were ready to choose an itinerary (April 2021) based on their specific interests in the context of the eHealth (IoT, AI & ML, or Ethics & Governance). Furthermore, they participated in a Workshop for each itinerary (May 2021) where they had the chance to hear from experts their insights about the eHealth sector (IoT, AI&ML, Gov&Ethics).
During these Workshops, a final challenge was launched (June 2021) in a competition format for each of the itineraries where the interdisciplinary groups had to solve a real-world challenge proposed by the partners of the project. The main objective was proposing a complete pretotypes for solving them. The winners of each competition had the chance to enjoy an internship within the companies of the ATHIKA consortium during 2 weeks in July 2021 (, Barcelona) and October 2021 (Edinburgh) in order to work with them in their daily work.
Indeed, not only the interdisciplinarity of the ATHIKA course was highly appreciated by the participants both coming from technological and not technological backgrounds, but also the “knowledge triangle” (business, education, and research) framework addressed within the course received very positive feedback from all the different actors involved.
During the Final Symposium of the ATHIKA project in November 2021, where the partners presented the main insights of the project, it was announced, after a refinement process, that the ATHIKA platform was ready to be open self-enrollment to everyone.
Finally, after our final online meeting (the number 36), we had to say goodbye after these magnificent 3 years, but, as we all agreed, we are willing to extend our collaboration in future projects and courses.