Speakers

Francesca Biagini has a Chair in Applied Mathematics and has served as Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity at the University of Munich since 2019. Her research focus is in mathematical finance, stochastic calculus, and probability theory. She has been  President of the Bachelier Finance Society for the 2020 -2021 term, and is a member of the Executive Board of the Munich Risk and Insurance Center (MRIC) at the University of Munich, a position she has held since 2017.  Francesca was awarded the Princess Therese of Bavaria Prize, an award for outstanding women scientists at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, in 2019.

Ophelia Deroy holds the Chair for Philosophy of Mind and Neuroscience at the LMU, and is a member of the Faculty of Philosophy and the Munich Center for Neuroscience. Formerly, she was acting director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London, and now continues to direct a research center (CREATE) on Experimental Aesthetics, Technology and Engineering there. As an extension, and personal passion, she works with museums, art studios and companies on how to make people think and grapple better with complex ideas, drawing on sensory means - what she calls 'multisensory rhetoric'.

Dr. Alina Gales works as diversity manager in the Staff Unit Diversity & Equal Opportunities for the Executive Vice President for Talent Management & Diversity, Prof. Dr. Claudia Peus, at the Technical University of Munich. Before her current role, she completed her PhD in Gender Studies in Engineering & Science. In her doctoral research, during which she was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley in the USA, she focused on the mutual influence of technology and society by taking gender aspects into account. In addition, Dr. Alina Gales is a speaker on the intersection of gender and technology as well as on the discriminatory factors of Artificial Intelligence. In her weekly newsletter she shares recent media publications on various diversity dimensions.

Ceenu George is an experienced User Experience (UX) specialist with a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from LMU. She is currently a researcher at Google. With expertise in effectively managing cross-cultural agile teams and stakeholders, Dr. George has made significant contributions to the field of UX design. She has a deep understanding of user experience methodologies and product management.

Jana Giceva is currently part of the Chair of Database Systems at TUM, where she is Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Her research interests are in systems support for (big) data management to enable efficient use of modern and future hardware. Her work lies at the intersection of systems, data management, and computer architecture. Jana believes that one needs to adopt a holistic approach to address the system's challenges imposed both by emerging hardware and computing platforms and by the ever-growing need to efficiently process, analyze, and make sense of data collected at unprecedented rates. Prior to joining TUM, Jana was a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London. She completed her Ph.D. at ETH Zurich in 2017. Jana has received several awards and recognitions for her research, including the VMware Early Career Faculty Award in 2019, and the ETH Medal for outstanding Ph.D. dissertation in the Department of Computer Science in 2018.

Dr. Irène Kilubi holds a doctorate in industrial engineering and management consultant and has worked for renowned companies such as BMW, Deloitte, Amazon, and Siemens. After many professional stations, she now follows her very personal passion and dedicates herself to the topics of JOINT GENERATIONS, Community Building, and Corporate influencer strategy. She is also an Expert Advisor for the European Innovation Council Accelerator of the European Commission. Dr. Irène Kilubi is a university lecturer in Digital Marketing and Entrepreneurship and a sought-after keynote speaker and anchorwoman at conferences and events.

Dr. Irène Kilubi was named one of Beyond Gender Agenda's Top 100 Women for Diversity in 2023 and one of w&v's Top 10 Experts for Brand Communities in 2022. She was named "Xing Top Mind 2020" in the Personal Branding and Marketing category and "Xing Top Mind 2022" in the Diversity category and is co-author of the double bestseller (Spiegel and manager magazin) "Future Republic" published in 2021. She has already received the XING NEW WORK Award 2021 twice for her social impact initiative JOINT GENERATIONS, 1st place in the Future Designs category and 2nd place in the Audience Award category, as well as 1st place in the Impact of Diversity Award in the Age Inclusion 2021 category. In addition, the entrepreneur was part of Strive Magazine's TOP 10 FEMALE BUSINESS INFLUENCER with a focus on "NEW WORK" in 2021.

Paula Mertens is a versatile process engineer, certified design thinking professional, and Scrum Master with a powerful blend of technical expertise and business proficiency. Holding an MSc in Process, Energy Environmental Systems from the Technical University of Berlin and an MBA in Digital Transformation and Business Agility, Paula has over 15 years of international experience in start-ups and large organizations. She excels in both agile and traditional project management approaches, with a true entrepreneurial spirit driving her passion for product, process, and business development.

Paula's commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion extends beyond her professional endeavors. As a core team member of Women in AI & Robotics, she actively supports the operations of the Munich Chapter, advocating for equal opportunities and collaboration. She firmly believes that inclusion, collaboration, and knowledge sharing are the key ingredients for delivering innovative solutions that positively impact both people and the environment.

Helen Nissenbaum is a professor of Information Science and founding director of the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech, NYC. Her work on ethical and political dimensions of digital technologies spans issues of privacy, bias, trust online, design, and accountability in computational and algorithmic systems. Prof. Nissenbaum's publications, which include the books, Obfuscation: A User's Guide for Privacy and Protest, with Finn Brunton (MIT Press, 2015), Values at Play in Digital Games, with Mary Flanagan (MIT Press, 2014), and Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life (Stanford, 2010), have been translated into seven languages, including Polish, Chinese, and Portuguese. Recipient of the 2014 Barwise Prize of the American Philosophical Association and the IACAP Covey Award for computing, ethics, and philosophy, Prof. Nissenbaum has contributed to privacy-enhancing free software, TrackMeNot (against profiling of Web search histories) and AdNauseam (against profiling based on ad clicks). She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University and a B.A. (Hons) in Philosophy and Mathematics from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Prior to joining Cornell Tech, she directed NYU's Information Law Institute.

Iulia Pasov is an Engineering Manager for Data Science at SIXT SE. With a background in software engineering and more than 10 years of experience in working with AI solutions, she focuses on building data driven services meant to optimise car rental processes. Iulia relies on her experience to empower others to reach successful data science or software engineering careers. She is also pursuing a PhD with LMU & Politehnica University of Bucharest.