Compassion and Technology Conference

The Compassion and Technology Conference at Stanford is an innovative conference presented by the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE).


  • Venue: Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge (LKSC)
    Stanford University Medical Center
  • Date: December 6, 2013

Conference Overview

The Compassion and Technology Conference at Stanford is an innovative conference presented by the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) in collaboration with Facebook, 1440 Foundation, HopeLab, and The Dalai Lama Foundation. This inaugural one-day conference will take place at Stanford University on December 6, 2013 and will include talks by academic experts and tech industry leaders, as well as presentations by innovators, engineers and designers who are competing as finalists in the Compassion and Technology Contest.

What Is Compassion?

Compassion is defined as the emotional response when perceiving suffering and involves an authentic desire to help. Compassion is a virtue that is promoted across cultures and religions. A growing body of evidence suggests that compassion is a natural and automatic response that has ensured our survival and that has benefits for psychological and physical health as well as longevity and flourishing.

Why Compassion And Technology?

Given the benefits of compassion and the public’s increasing use of technology for learning and communication, the Compassion & Technology Conference aims to support the development of compassion-based technology: technology that helps people learn, practice, improve, and share compassion, empathy, social connectedness, and/or altruism.

To this end, the first part of the conference will bring together leading scientists and engineers currently engaged in building and implementing technological tools to foster compassion. In particular, attendees of the Compassion and Technology Conference will learn about how compassion can be trained using technological education tools, tracked geographically through mapping tools, used to inspire, and implemented as an intervention in communities where it is most needed (e.g., prisons, at-risk schools, trauma populations, and healthcare systems).

A Compassionate Contest

The second part of the conference will incorporate the Compassion and Technology Contest, in which inventors, engineers and designers (who applied and were invited to participate as finalists) will present their technological designs for compassion-inspired applications and compete for best design idea before a panel of judges and the conference audience. Three winning finalists will be selected to receive a 1440-CCARE Award (one $10,000 award and two $5,000 awards), an hour consultation with the operating partner of the growth capital fund The Bridge Builders Collaborative, and the opportunity to meet His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama when he visits the Bay Area on February 24, 2014.