Preface: Proceedings of the 12th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications ^†

This issue of Engineering Proceedings gathers the papers presented at the 12th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications (ECSA-12), held online from 12 to 14 November 2025, through the sciforum.net platform developed by MDPI. The annual ECSA conference was initiated in 2014 on an online basis only to allow participation from all over the world with no concerns of travel and related expenditures. This type of conference is particularly appropriate and useful because research related to sensors is still rapidly growing, and a platform for a direct exchange of information about the latest findings can provide a further burst in the development of novel ideas.

This year’s edition saw continuously increased collaboration among the authors and the audience through live session presentations of a limited number of contributions selected among 120 submissions which were all formerly reviewed and accepted by the Chairs and/or by the Conference Committee members. Video recordings of the sessions and open access to papers and presentations can be found online at https://sciforum.net/event/ECSA-12.

ECSA-12 collected contributions concerning thematic areas which are deeply affected by the development of sensors and data processing: Chemo and Biosensors; Physical Sensors; Sensor Networks, IoT, Smart Cities and Heath Monitoring; Sensors and Artificial Intelligence; Smart Agriculture Sensors; Electronic Sensors, Devices, and Systems; Wearable Sensors and Healthcare Applications; and Robotics, Sensors, and Industry 4.0. A Student Session also allowed PhD candidates to briefly present their ideas and achievements in all fields of sensors and applications. Keynote presentations were delivered by Michele Penza, Prime Researcher at ENEA—Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy, and Economic Sustainable Development; Hamida Hallil, Professor at the University of Bordeaux; César Vargas, Professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey; Veronica Sberveglieri, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; and Alice Lemarquand, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Applied Biomechanics Laboratory, Gustave Eiffel University.

The Student Session gathered contributions by ten PhD students, all competing for a Student Award. After the conference, the Chairs unanimously decided the winner of this competition to be Danial Ahmed from the Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Ferrara, for his contribution titled “Printable Chemoresistive Sensor Based on PrFeTiO₅ Solid Solution for Acetone Detection”. Another award was established for the Best Contribution to the Conference and was granted to Apostolos Apostolakis, Dimitris Barmpakos, Fadi Jaber, Konstantinos Aidinis, and Grigoris Kaltsas for their contribution titled “Inkjet-Printed PEDOT:PSS Devices on Tattoo Paper for Transferable Epidermal Temperature Sensing and Heating Applications”; and to Candaş Ünal, Pelin Öksüz, Musa Yazar, and Tolga Bodrumlu for their contribution titled “XAI-Interpreter: A Dual-Attention Framework for Transparent and Explainable Decision-Making in Autonomous Vehicles”. We extend our sincere congratulations to the awardees for the great results achieved in their research activities and for the enthusiastic presentations during the live sessions.

A companion Special Issue of Sensors, see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors/special_issues/N1M4SWBYI1 (accessed on 25 November 2025), will collect full-length versions of the accepted papers.