GenAI x Gender Tech Hackathon

Emma Pickering is the Head of Tech & Economic Abuse at Refuge, where she plays a pivotal role in preventing technology-facilitated domestic abuse. With a background in working with young people and services, she has developed expertise in tech and economic abuse, providing direct support to women and children facing these challenges. Emma also manages external partnerships and stakeholders, collaborates closely with Refuge's policy and fundraising teams, and contributes to legislative improvements for survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.

Hanae Bezad is an impact entrepreneur, international project manager, board advisor, curator, and the author of Being Other, a personal reflection on culture, gender, and identity. Her expertise spans government and international development institutions, civil society, and business. At the heart of her work lies a keen interest in the convergence of technology, sustainability, inclusion, entrepreneurship, and international development, and supporting the rise of a creative feminine leadership. Born and raised in Morocco, Hanae has worked and traveled across Europe, Africa, and the Americas and Asia, developing and nurturing impact tech enabled creative ventures with different communities and organizations. She is currently focused on nurturing the burgeoning leadership movement among Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color (BIWOC), supporting emerging entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and fostering cultural innovators who are driving global impact.

Jyothsna brings a wealth of experience as an educator, researcher, and writer. With a PhD in Women's Studies from the University of York, UK, she has taught at prestigious institutions including The University of York and Azim Premji University. Her research interests span teachers and teaching, the IT industry, identity and self, and the interplay between work and personal life. Her book "Gender, Class and Reflexive Modernity in India" which discusses how middle class women create a sense of self by drawing on multiple discourses prevalent within contemporary India was published by Palgrave Macmillan, UK. A strong supporter of participatory methods of teaching, Jyothsna facilitates professional development workshops and mentors research scholars and teachers across primary and secondary education. She teaches at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru.

Ranjit Menon is a transdisciplinary designer, design researcher and design educator, currently based in India with close to two decades of international experience across the private and public sector with diverse clients ranging from multinational corporations to Governments. He has been an expert consultant since 2024 to one of the world's top design schools i.e. the National Institute of Design in New Experimental Design Education; from where he led Kerala's Design Policy and the city of Kochi SDG fellowship projects. He is an alumni both from the National Institute of Design as well as Aalto University of the Arts Finland. He has strong interest in prototyping hybrid cybernetic ecosystems - through Design Labs and Design Research Networks for diffusion of innovation for shared SDG goals between international zones. He is a one of the founding members of the ADI (Association of Designers) chapter in Kerala and mentor for the Art+Tech chapter of Kerala Startup Mission. As a design research candidate he is situated within the Social and Behavioural sciences. In 2024, Ranjit led Sir Jony Ive's Terra Carta Design Lab for India, co-drafted the first Design Policy for Kerala state and published internationally in the Arts & Design field for De Gruyter Brill and Transcript. He was recently shortlisted by the Board of International Design Research and the International Design for Government as a keynote presenter.

Kodou Jeng is a seasoned telecommunications engineer with over 20 years of experience, currently serving as the Senior Manager of Transmission at Gambia Cellular Company (Gamcel). As the CEO and Founder of Women in STEM Gambia and Wi-STEM Africa, she has spearheaded initiatives that have collectively empowered over 5,000 girls across 16 African countries through groundbreaking programs including the Stemathon, Annual STEM Conference, STEM Career Talks, and STEM Leadership Dialogue. Elected as a Committee Member by the African Academy of Languages, a branch of the African Union, she works to promote African languages and advance STEM education for girls and women who did not attend conventional schools. Recognized among Africa's 100 Most Influential Women and UNESCO's 80 African Women in Tech and AI, her contributions have earned widespread recognition, including being named STEM Woman of the Year 2024 by the Africa Digital Economy Award and Women Empowerment Ambassador by FAAVM Canada. Her organization won the Women-Led Organisation of the year by SHE Awards Gambia. She is currently developing an AI-based platform to enhance practical STEM skills for African students, advancing education and innovation across the continent.

Lenilda SRR Duarte is a university professor, researcher, and advocate for digital transformation in education. With a licentiate degree in Communication Sciences and currently pursuing a PhD in Communication Sciences, she focuses on exploring the possibilities and challenges of Gen AI in the field. Her master's research in Pedagogy specifically examines mobile learning applications in higher education. Her work aims to empower underserved communities, particularly women in Africa, to access innovative STEM education opportunities. As a mentor and educator, Lenilda combines her expertise in strategic communication and pedagogy to champion gender-inclusive approaches to technology development. She is deeply committed to creating equitable digital ecosystems that foster growth, innovation, and inclusion, with a particular focus on developing AI-driven solutions that can transform educational accessibility and outcomes for underserved populations.

Sameera is an ardent problem-solver whose primary goal is to improve human lives while creating business value. She has over 15 years of experience in all areas of Tech, including Online Video, Music, Advertising, SaaS, and Hardware. She excels in fast-paced entrepreneurial environments, building complex and scalable products, and leading global teams. Her work experience spans for working for both Hardware (Intel) and consumer facing software companies (Twitter, Box, Google YouTube) launching variety of products which have had significant impact on people’s lives. Her latest gig was launching YouTube Shorts creator monetization globally for all YouTube creators and working on a GenAI product flow to create short videos from text while embedding music in them.

Ifrah Butt is a dedicated leader and advocate for social change, currently serving as the Director of Programmes at Bridge Institute. With a strong focus on anti-human trafficking, gender equity, and systemic changes, she spearheads initiatives that unite senior leaders from government, business, and non-profit sectors to foster collaborative solutions for pressing global issues. Ifrah's journey has been deeply intertwined with her commitment to social causes. Before her role at Bridge Institute, she worked extensively in advocating for women and child rights within various organizations across India. This hands-on experience has fueled her passion for driving positive change on a broader scale. Ifrah is also known for her expertise in leadership development and design thinking, emphasizing the importance of innovative approaches to problem-solving. Her work not only aims to empower individuals but also seeks to create sustainable pathways towards peace and prosperity for communities.

Navneet Kaur is the Founder and CEO of FemTech India, a platform driving innovation in women's health tech. She has successfully built and scaled her first consumer brand across six states and now leads FemTech India, offering specialized consulting, mentorship, and networking for FemTech founders. Navneet's impact extends globally, representing India in international forums and collaborating with government bodies to advance women's health initiatives. Her work has been recognized by multiple prestigious organizations.

Christopher Coley leads the Social Data Science and Policy program at Amrita School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Faridabad Campus. As a researcher at Amrita University's Center for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, he explores the question: "What happens to men after women are empowered?"

Dr. Meltem Alkoyak serves as the Head of the Department of Cognitive Sciences and Psychology. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Science and Psychology from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and brings over a decade of experience in academia and research. Her expertise spans across Educational Psychology, Learning Sciences, and Technology-Enhanced Education. Dr. Alkoyak has previously made significant contributions as the Vice-Chair and Head of Research in the Social Work Department at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Presently, she is a member of the Research Committee in the Provost's office, where she plays a vital role in guiding research initiatives. Additionally, Dr. Alkoyak serves as an Assistant Professor at the UNESCO Chair of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Her international and interdisclipinay exposure allows her to address educational challenges comprehensively, commitment to advancing Learning, educational systems and equality.

With 15 years of experience in Silicon Valley's tech industry, Punit Rathore has established himself as a veteran in the field. He played a pivotal role in Reddit's Growth team during the platform's rapid expansion phase. Throughout his career, Punit has been an early team member at various startups, gaining valuable insights into emerging technologies and business models. As a founder of his latest venture, he aims to empower professionals by enhancing their skills, facilitating their journey towards finding their dream job. Punit believes that the ultimate human aspiration should be freedom from psychological suffering, a philosophy that guides much of his personal time and efforts. In his moments of relaxation, Punit can be found immersed in the experience of a full-length music album, savoring a well made latte, and appreciating high-quality audio equipment.

Dr. Vijay Krishna Menon is a versatile data scientist with over 18 years of experience in academia and industry. He specializes in big data analytics, AI applications, and natural language processing. Dr. Menon's expertise spans financial forecasting, smart grid analysis, and computational epidemiology. He excels in transforming complex mathematical models into efficient computational implementations and has consulted for various companies in NLP and data analytics. With 45+ research papers and 1835+ citations, Dr. Menon brings a wealth of knowledge in real-time analytics and streaming data processing to projects at the intersection of AI, big data, and domain-specific challenges.

Loganathan's overall expertise lie in natural language processing (NLP) and related subtasks in NLP. Major part of his research work thus far focused on working with low-resource languages and corpus linguistics. He has experience working in most of the standard NLP tasks. During his PhD at Charles University (Prague), he worked on one of the most pertinent problem facing corpus-based or data-oriented dependency parsing, i.e., how to parse a low-resource natural language that either has no annotated dependency treebank or has little other resources such as part-of-speech (POS) taggers. When it comes to NLP concerning low-resource languages, he is inclined to apply semi-supervised and cross-lingual approaches.

Vishnu Rajan Tejus is a technologist with a passion for creating AI-driven solutions that address critical social challenges. Currently serving as Founding Software Engineer at Nooks, he builds virtual collaboration spaces that transform how remote teams work together. His diverse experience spans multiple domains of social impact: In healthcare, he recently won 1st Prize at the AI + Biology Hackathon (LatchBio, 2023) for developing an application that extracts social determinants of health from patient-physician conversations. As a Computer Vision Researcher at Stanford University, he worked on innovative projects including ergonomic health prediction systems and air quality modeling for California wildfires. In education, as CTO of the CMU XPRIZE Global Learning Team, he led the development of RoboTutor, a finalist in the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE competition. The project created tablet-based software enabling children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Nitesh Anand is a Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung Scholar, an India Fellow and Master's in Politics and Technology from Technical University Munich, Germany. An Engineer by qualification, notably, Nitesh was awarded the Liberal Ambassador certification validating his expertise in political facilitation, designing and delivering multi-stakeholder dialogue-based engagement. Nitesh also serves as an honorary Policy Advisor to the Department of Policy, Ministry of Education, Youth & Sports (MoEYS), Cambodia. Additionally, he has contributed to meaningful policy development, social accountability evaluations and innovations in countries like India, Cambodia, Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Germany. At CCS, Nitesh leads the Policy Impact & Outreach team, responsible for the organization's policy products and strategies for impact in the areas of K-12 education, micro and nano livelihoods and governance reforms. Nitesh is passionate about innovations, human-centered design and legal design approaches for creating participatory platforms for policy design, dialogue and discourse. He envisions contributing to a liberal global world order of choice, freedom and opportunity for every individual.

Passionate about policy impact and research, Vagmi is an interdisciplinary socio-legal researcher committed to the values of collaboration, self-reflectivity, and joy. With an intent to embody the ethic of praxis, she has been actively involved in both academic and policy research. Inspired by Dean Spade's scholarship on Mutual Aid, her evidence-driven policy research aims to formulate non-carceral, community-centric, self-sustainable governance models that reflect a bottom-up approach to social justice and prioritize excluded rights holders. At CCS, Vagmi works with one of its many integral projects, the Jeevika mobile app. Crafted to offer pro-bono legal aid to the Indian street vending community, the objectives of community mobilization, legal awareness and aid remain the cornerstones of this path-breaking innovation. An app designed to democratize institutional accountability and economic freedom, Jeevika ensures a dignified life for those most marginalized.

Biraj Laxmi Sarangi is a passionate public health nutrition professional with over three decades of experience. Her extensive background in Gender, Health, Nutrition, and Sanitation has significantly shaped various large-scale programs and initiatives. As Project Director at PCI's Odisha office, she plays a crucial leadership role, managing projects and offering expert technical assistance to the government. Her work with both national and international agencies eg. UNICEF, CARE, DANIDA, CENDERET has provided her with a comprehensive perspective on addressing public health challenges and devising effective solutions.

Brijesh is the Associate Director of PCI India's Behavioural Outcomes and Decision Heuristics (BODH) vertical. He has extensive experience in various aspects of Behavioural Science, Human-Centered Design, and Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) techniques. Brijesh's role primarily involves supporting the BODH vertical in developing highly effective behavioural interventions by understanding the drivers of human behaviour. Over the past 21 years, he has demonstrated exemplary managerial skills working with organisations such as PATH, Social Mobilization Network (A UNICEF Initiative), and Sahabhagi Shikshan Kendra in Lucknow. Brijesh is an expert in Behavioural Research, designing SBCC strategies and campaigns, developing large-scale capacity-building systems, and conducting program quality assessments, concurrent monitoring, and learning of program interventions. He holds a post-graduate degree in Social Work from Lucknow University.

Kingshuk, a seasoned professional with a remarkable 24-year tenure in both corporate and development sectors, embodies the spirit of digital mastery. His keen intellect and technical prowess are a driving force behind successful ICT solutions for critical stakeholders. At PCI, Kingshuk serves as the esteemed Associate Director of Digital Systems. He acts as the leader of a talented crew of software professionals, expertly guiding them in crafting end-to-end ICT solutions that unlock the boundless potential of technology. His leadership extends to spearheading the development of program implementation plans and innovative strategies, ensuring the seamless rollout of various ICT initiatives. Kingshuk's holds a Master's in Business Administration degree, specializing in Information Technology. Prior to joining PCI, he played a pivotal role in driving IT solutions at CARE India, alongside prominent corporates like Gulf Oil India Ltd., Oriflame India Pvt. Ltd., and G.M. Internationals Pvt. Ltd. This rich tapestry of experience allows him to approach challenges with a multifaceted perspective, ensuring optimal results.

Dr. Smitha Haridasan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with a PhD in Computer Science from Wichita State University, specializing in AI for social impact. With a robust background in mentoring and interdisciplinary research, she is committed to leveraging AI to promote women's empowerment and gender equality while addressing pressing issues faced by marginalized communities. Her advocacy focuses on combating gender-based violence, supporting women's healthcare, fostering economic independence, and enhancing child welfare and mental health. Dr. Haridasan is dedicated to empowering individuals through education and innovative AI solutions that drive social change.

Pallabi Ghosh is an anti-trafficking activist and researcher who has rescued over 10,000 individuals from trafficking and exploitation since 2012. As founder of Impact and Dialogue Foundation (IDF), she focuses on prevention, rescue, and rehabilitation in northeastern and eastern India. Her work spans conducting anti-trafficking raids, leading community awareness programs, and providing skill development for survivors. Pallabi has been recognized with numerous awards including the 2023 Young Achievers Leadership Award for Human Rights and the Mahatma Gandhi Human Rights Award 2023. She holds a Master's in Gender Studies from RGNIYD and brings extensive experience in policy advocacy, stakeholder engagement, and grassroots mobilization for combating human trafficking and modern slavery.

A post graduate in IT from Monash University, Australia with experience as an IT professional both in India and abroad, she switched careers from industry to academia, teaching engineering graduates variety of subjects like Cloud computing, Wireless networks, Agile and DevOps. Currently a sociopreneur, she along with her sister, Sreela Menon, founded a social NGO Mind Empowered creating mental health awareness amongst the youth and empowering women. Maya is the mastermind behind visualization, strategy, and fundraising.

Aparna is an enthusiastic data scientist and multidisciplinary researcher with professional experience spanning three continents. She specializes in developing innovative technological solutions for the manufacturing and built environment sectors. Currently Aparna works as a Data Scientist at a major toy manufacturer based out of Denmark. She focuses on evaluating new business challenges, creating minimal viable products, and assessing their value for the organization. She holds a PhD in Data Science and Construction Informatics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India and Curtin University, Australia. Prior to her current role, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark, where she developed Virtual Reality software solutions for construction digital twin systems. With her rich cross-cultural and cross-functional product team experience, Aparna is passionate about leveraging data-driven approaches to solve real-world problems and deliver impactful outcomes.

Fang (Nirbhaya) Yuan has two decades of experience across management consulting, startup operations and venture capital. She was last a General Partner at AIX Ventures, working with some of the top minds in the AI space, focusing on preseed and seed AI & Robotics investments. Prior to AIX Ventures, Fang worked at Baidu Ventures for four years, also focusing on deeptech investments. Earlier in her career, she worked at two unicorn startups (Stripe & Zendesk) and was a global consultant (Brazil, Mexico, India, Nigeria, etc.) with Oliver Wyman Financial Services Consulting.

Bogdan is passionate about guiding, consulting, advising, mentoring, and coaching individuals across a diverse range of fields, including communication, sales, technology, negotiation, career development, life transitions, financial independence, and mindfulness. He believes in the power of self-awareness and enjoys bringing a touch of humble humor to his work. With over eight years of experience in the technology sector, Bogdan has held customer-facing roles at leading Bay Area startups such as Stripe, Cobalt Robotics, and National Instruments. He has a proven track record of helping clients integrate and leverage complex technical products, fostering a deep understanding and seamless adoption.

Krishna Chaitanya Rao Kathala is an expert in Data Science, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence, currently serving as an Educational Researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. With over 8 years of professional experience, his expertise spans Data Analytics, Machine Learning, Product Management, and various facets of Artificial Intelligence, including Generative AI, Ethics, Bias, Fairness, and Safe/Secure AI. He has co-authored 3 books, holds 6 international patents, and authored over 12 research papers in esteemed journals. Krishna's influence extends to event judging, where he has assessed over 10 national and international events, including research symposiums and hackathons. Additionally, he plays an active role in editorial boards, reviews, and program committees at various conferences. Krishna's reputation has led to invitations to prestigious international forums, including the United Nations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ukraine, UNESCO, UNDP, United Nations Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Talent AI Foundation. Krishna has also served as a judge and speaker at forums such as Princeton, MIT, Harvard University, UMich Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech (GenAI Hackathon by Microsoft), Project Invent, and events hosted by the Ministry of Ukraine, France, and India. He currently advises organizations like Tensereum AI, the University of Artemis, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, Brandon Awards, Globee Awards, and CoDiE Awards. His remarkable research efforts have garnered significant awards and scholarships, underscoring his profound impact on the field. He is also a member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the International Association of Engineers - Hong Kong. He currently serves in a leadership capacity as a Co-Chair at the Northeastern Educational Research Association, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Beyond his research and professional pursuits, Krishna is deeply committed to mentoring initiatives, particularly advocating for first-generation, under-represented, and marginalized students in STEM.

Miriam Silverman is a licensed clinical psychologist. For more than two decades at a community mental health program, she worked with infants, parents, families, and teachers to support those most vulnerable in our society. Dr. Silverman has extensive experience in training and supervision in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, both locally and nationally. As a consultant, she provided mental health consultation to a wide variety of groups including public health nurses, certified nurse midwives, collaborative courts, childcare centers, and residential substance abuse centers.

During his PhD and post-doctoral research in the Netherlands, Gaurang specialized in social inequality issues among youth, such as wealth inequality, educational inequality, intergenerational social reproduction and social mobility, and climate crisis inequality. Gaurang also founded Addendum, a science-communication initiative to "make science more tangible" for a broader audience. His dream is to improve science by establishing more representative samples, both through more diverse inclusion at the start of new research projects as well as through long-term retention in existing research projects.

A Data Scientist and researcher specializing in applied Data Science and Machine Learning with a focus on social impact. Leads initiatives in creating software and data-driven solutions for social intervention programs. Research interests include advancing NLP techniques for identifying and modeling vulnerabilities.

Claire manages international collaborations, UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. She is an advocate for women's rights, women's empowerment and gender equality, with a record and demonstrated ability to handle sensitive social and legal issues, including from an international perspective. Legal expertise with over 8 years of law practice, including in advising and representing international and local organizations and individuals in matters related to criminal and civil law, business and contracts, international regulations, gender related issues, ethics and compliance, policy making and international arbitration.

Sooraj Krishna is an experienced Research Scientist specialising in Human-AI Interaction, Applied AI/ML, Robotics, and Responsible AI. With a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Sorbonne University, France, his work is dedicated to building AI systems that are powerful, intuitive, and human-centered, with a particular focus on trust dynamics in human-AI interactions. Sooraj also co-organises the Talking Robotics podcast, which together experts in AI, robotics, and human-computer interaction to discuss the latest advancements and challenges in the field. Passionate about advancing human-AI synergy, Sooraj is committed to developing AI systems that empower and enhance human potential.

Sooraj is an AI/ML Scientist at Dr. Moopen's iNEST and the CEO of NeuBiom labs exploring the intersection of agriculture and AI.

Balu manages the rural technologies team at Ammachi Labs. The team's focus is on creating low-cost, durable, and easily maintainable solutions. Currently, the team is working on AI-powered early detection systems to tackle the human-elephant conflict, as well as a sapling monitoring system to address real-world challenges. Balu has over 12 years of experience in software development and teaches courses related to machine learning.

Radhika Shetty is a multifaceted professional with experience in product development, impact evaluation, and educational technology. She currently serves as a Product Development Specialist at WeProjectStore.com, showcasing products made by women artisans trained by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Her previous work at AMMACHI Labs involved evaluating government skill training programs and developing innovative educational workshops. Radhika has presented her work at international conferences and has a passion for integrating technology with traditional practices like yoga to create unique learning experiences.

Pranav Prabha is a seasoned professional with a strong background in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and STEM education. Currently serving as a Research Project Manager at AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Pranav has led groundbreaking projects that integrate cutting-edge technology with educational initiatives aimed at fostering digital literacy and 21st-century skills among school children. With a master's degree in robotics and automation and a bachelor's in mechanical engineering, Pranav began his career working on AI-driven systems, focusing on image classification and conversational AI. He was instrumental in developing the Haksh-E robot, a social robot designed to interact with schoolchildren and encourage positive behavior change. Over time, his expertise expanded into mentoring and leadership roles, where he now empowers young innovators to apply their knowledge to solve real-world challenges. As a mentor for various programs, including the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) Mentor of Change and IEEE STEM Champion, Pranav has guided students and educators across India, helping them navigate the evolving technology landscape. With six international conference papers and one journal publication, Pranav continues to push the boundaries of technology in education. He's passionate about guiding the next generation of problem-solvers and innovators to think critically and build solutions that have a meaningful impact.

Unnikrishnan specialises in developing virtual and augmented reality learning environments, multiuser serious games, and data-driven applications for academia, industry, NGOs, and governments. He has a PhD in Virtual Reality from Aarhus University, Denmark, where he also designed and taught the Python for Machine Learning course in 2022. Additionally, he has experience in emotion recognition using biosensors, haptic feedback in virtual environments, teaching computational thinking, and social robotics.