Guest Prof. Dr. Mrinalini Kochupillai

Tel:  
Room:  02.241, Lise-Meitnerstr. 9, Ottobrunn
E-mail: m.kochupillai(at)tum.de
More information:

Personal Website
Research Gate
LinkedIn
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Curriculum Vitae

  • June 2020 - Present, Guest Professor and Core Scientist, Ethics Group Lead, AI4EO Future Lab.

  • June 2020 - Present, Affiliated Senior Researcher, Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, Technical University of Munich.

  • June 2013 - Present, Faculty, Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition, Munich

  • 2018 – 2019, Lecturer & Senior Research Associate, Chair of Business Ethics, Technical University of Munich.

  • Jan – Aug 2019, Consultant/Lead Author and Co-Principal Investigator, Sustainable Seed Innovation Project 2.0, Funded by the Research England Global Challenges Research Fund

  • 2014 – 2018, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (MPI), Munich, Germany

  • 2016 – 2018, Co-Principal Investigator, International Development and Intellectual Property Project, Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council

  • 2014 – 2017, Program Director, LL.M. Program in Intellectual Property and Competition Law, MIPLC

Research Interests

  • Legal and ethical in emerging technologies, especially Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications

  • Blockchain-based incentive systems

  • Sustainable agriculture

  • Intellectual Property Law

  • Business Ethics

Research Awards, Grants and Scholarships

Competitive Collaborative Research Grants/Awards

  • 2022, Munich Science Communication Lab, Team Member, Project: “Die Erde unter dem Mikroskop (The Earth under the microscope)”; funding to set-up an interactive exhibit on Planetary Health and Food Security titled (As part of a team lead by Tobias Beuchert, German Aerospace Center)

  • 2019, Research England, Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) 
    Co-Principal Investigator and Lead Author, “International Development and Intellectual Property Project 2.0” (with the University of Leeds and the Art of Living Foundation)

  • 2016 – 2017, Translating Cultures/Care for the Future Innovation Awards on International  Development, Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), UK 
    Co-Principal Investigator, “International Development and Intellectual Property” (With the University of Leeds and the International Art of Living Foundation)

  • 2008 – 2009, Research and Consultancy Grant (as Principal Investigator & author) International Technology Transfer Institute,
    University of New Hampshire, Concord, NH, USA to compile a research report titled, “Developing Effective University/ Industry/ Government Partnerships in Key Economies: Engineering More Innovative Environments” ($10,000).

Scholarships

  • 2009 – 2013, Doctoral Fellow and Scholar, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition

  • 2008 – 2009, Scholarship for Independent Research, Munich Intellectual Property Law Center

Selected Publications

 

Recent Talks and Conference Presentations

Guest Lectures/Invited Talks: 

  • Identifying Ethical Issues and Opportunities in AI4EO Research: A Novel Framework for Academic Researchers, Invited talk for the "City and Society" Team, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany (Online) 02 December 2021. 

  • On the Practical Side: Working Ethics and Human Rights into AI and Earth Observations Research, Keynote Address, Autumn School Geo.X Young Academy, FU Berlin (Online) 17 November 2021. 

  • Incentivizing Conservation, Research and Innovation with Agrobiodiversity: Can a Blokchain Based Solution Overcome Existing Market and Regulatory Failures? Women in Science Talk, PhenoRob (Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production), University of Bonn (Online) 24 September 2021

  • Biodiversity and Emerging Technologies, Invited Talk for School Children in Mumbai, India, Hosted by Coding and More (Online ) 18 September 2021 

  • AI for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, Invited talk for Middle School Students, Cathedral and John Connon Middle School, Mumbai, India (Online), 30 July 2021

Conference Presentations and Panel Discussions

  • Seed Panel on “Development: Towards ‘Oneness’ in thought and ‘Mindfulness’ in Action” selected for the European Association of Development Research and Training Institute’s EADICEs General Conference 2023: Towards New Rhythms of Development, July 2023, Lisbon, Portugal.

  • Invited Panel Chair, Session: Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Alexander von Humboldt’s 12th Brazil-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium, Maceo, Brazil, 29 June – 2 July 2022.

  • Invited Poster Presentation, Big Data for (Agro)Biodiversity: Ethics, Incentives and DLTs, Alexander von Humboldt’s 12th Brazil-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium, Maceo, Brazil, 29 June – 2 July 2022

  • Invited Panel Chair and Speaker, AI in Agriculture: Ethical Concerns and Responsible Solutions, George Mason University and the Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, Technical University of Munich, 22 June 2022

  • Invited Panelist, Panel: Explainable AI, in ML4Earth xAI Workshop co-organized by Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz AI, Munich, Germany, 22 November 2022

  • Invited Panelist, Panel: Innovations in Agriculture – How to Sustainably Feed a Growing Population, in the 2nd Annual Conference of the Indo-German Centre for Business Excellence, Frankfurt, Germany, 22 September 2022

  • Invited Panelist, Panel: Fairness, Bias, Law and Trustworthiness in AI, Helmholz AI Conference 2022, 2 June 2022

  • Looking Beyond Duties and Consequences: Can Eastern Philosophy Based Approaches Support Ethically Mindful AI Research? The Responsible AI Forum, (Online) 06 December 2021. 

  • "Sustainability Workshop" Sustainability and UN Sustainable Development Goals, Presentation for school students at the Ada Lovelace Girls in AI Hackathon, India (Online), 09 October 2021 

  • Outline of a Novel Approach for Identifying Ethical Issues in Early Stages of AI4EO Research, IEEE’s International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 15 July 2021. 

  • Moderator for expert panel on Promoting Student Resilience in Universities: Solutions to the Mental Health Crisis, in the conference: "Changing Paradigms in a Pandemic World: How to Regain Trust - Health Happiness and Ethics" organized by the World Forum for Ethics in Business on World Health Day (Online) 07 April 2021. 

  • Creating a Digital Marketplace for Agrobiodiversity and Plant Genetic Sequence Data: Legal and Ethical Considerations of an AI and Blockchain Based Solution, in the conference: "Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Global Challenges for Food Security and Governance" co-organized by the Alan Turing Institute and University of Exeter (Online), 19 March 2021

Interviews and Public Outreach

Courses

  • Ethics Segment in the Seminar Course: Data Science in Earth Observation (XX Zhu) (Seminar Course, Technical University of Munich)

  • Blockchain: Law and Ethics (Seminar Course, Technical University of Munich).

  • Legal and Ethical Considerations in Sustainable Agriculture (Seminar Course, Technical University of Munich) 

  • Asian Patent Law (Elective Course, Munich Intellectual Property Law Center)

Volunteer Work for the TUM Community

I offer stress management, positive mental health, and well-being workshops for students and staff of TUM via TUM4Mind and the TUM Institute for Lifelong Learning.