The word Empathic Systems, added to the title of this special session, has two meanings:

1. It is intended to celebrate Anna Costanza Baldry. Her unexpected loss had left a huge emptiness and shattered all of us. Anna was fighting violence against women. Empathy was a blessing and a curse since suggested the right way to help but forced her to share the suffering of abused women.
2. It puts emphasis on Empathic Systems, considering that empathy is central for successful social interactional exchanges and challenging for our Projects “Empathic”, and “Menhir”, aiming to add insights to the development of socially and emotionally believable automatic systems.