Best Paper on Service Innovation 2025
From October 21 to 23, the IEEE International Conference On Metrology for eXtended Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Engineering was held in St. Albans, London (UK). The JOINclusion: A Mobile Game for Social Inclusion in Multicultural School Contexts paper, written by various authors from the “Federico II” University of Naples, the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, the University of Maastricht, and the Greek Odyssea Academy:
- Alessandra Colella (UNINA)
- Annaleda Mazzucato (FMD)
- Dario Bacchini (UNINA)
- Ioannis Christidis (UNIWA)
- Concetta Esposito (UNINA)
- Enrique Hortal Quesada (UM)
- Eleni Leligkoy (UNIWA)
- Loukas Oikonomakis (Odyssea)
- Katerina Palaiologou (Odyssea)
- Yusuf Can Semerci (UM)
The paper, which presents the results of Project Joinclusion - Joint Problem-solving Strategy Towards Social Inclusion of Children with a Migrant Background, received an award yesterday, Oct. 24, from the International Society for Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP), as "Best Paper on Service Innovation 2025."
ISSIP is a non-profit organisation that promotes innovation in the service sector for the benefit of people, business, and society. It is a platform for innovators to connect with each other and share knowledge, resources and support. ISSIP offers a variety of programmes and resources to help innovators develop and commercialise their ideas, including a recognition and awards programme, publications, and training and collaboration opportunities.
The award, sponsored by ISSIP, is presented to an organization or group of organizations that have designed, developed, or deployed an innovation that will benefit business, society, or innovation itself. Nominations are rigorously evaluated by the ISSIP Awards Committee, which is composed by experts in industry and academia who are not affiliated with the submitting companies.
The JOINclusion game was developed by a team of researchers at the University ofHelsinki and the University of Tampere, and was produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Mondo Digitale ETS, the Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering at the University of Maastricht, the Natural and Artificial Cognition Lab at the “Federico II” University of Naples and Odyssea Academy Greece.
The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme, which aims to promote the social inclusion of primary and lower secondary school children (aged 7-12) in multicultural educational contexts through the use of game-based learning strategies and actions based on cognitive perspective taking.
“This recognition confirms our constant commitment to creating a fairer and more accessible world for everyone. In fact, ISSIP defines "service" as the use of resources for the benefit of others. Resources may be anything: from knowledge to material goods or technology. Benefits can improve the human experience. So, a commitment to service innovation is a commitment to improving our interconnected world. This award is an incentive to continue working with passion and make JOINclusion an increasingly effective tool for creating more united and inclusive communities,” explains Project Manager Annaleda Mazzucato.
The JOINclusion: Strategies for Inclusive Education and Empowerment of Empathy course will soon be available on FMD Academy. The course provides the skills necessary to develop inclusive learning environments that promote cultural differences. Module 1 introduces the learning framework and strategies for empathy as a crucial ability. Module 2 guides the class in the use of the app to train empathy. Module 3 provides recommendations on activity evaluation.
