Context awareness has the potential to revolutionize the way people interact with information technology. Whereas conventional computers merely interpret explicit user input, context aware systems analyze and automatically respond to users' behavior and the current situation. This enables electronic systems to assist users in situations in which the use of conventional computers and mobile devices is out of question. This is of particular relevance in the field of healthcare, wellness, and assisted living (HWA) applications. Research on context awareness has continued to intensify in the last decade due to the availability of cheap sensing technologies and mobile systems. Still, building reliable context aware systems that can deal with complex real-life situations and environments remains an open research challenge and requires a multidisciplinary effort. An international consortium of 24 universities, companies, and research organizations have formed to provide a decisive contribution toward solutions, leveraged through an interdisciplinary perspective ranging from sensing and sensor integration to human computer interaction and social factors involved in the deployment of context aware applications and, in doing so, train the next generation of researchers in the field. The symposium illustrates the advances made in the field of context awareness by this large consortium and the benefits for HWA applications in particular.