CTO - Nunnari Labs| Independent Researcher | Community Enabler @ AI Tamil Nadu

Abinaya Mahendiran is an AI leader with nearly thirteen years of experience in building and scaling end-to-end AI/ML systems. She specializes in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative AI, and MLOps, with a strong foundation that bridges data science and engineering. She currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Nunnari Labs, Coimbatore, where she leads the development of production-grade AI solutions. Her work is centered on advancing inclusive and multilingual AI, particularly improving representation for underrepresented languages like Tamil. She has contributed to the Aya dataset, supporting the creation of high-quality multilingual instruction data for large language models. As part of GEM (General Evaluation for Multilingual), she has worked on developing fair and comprehensive evaluation benchmarks using both automated and human metrics. She has also contributed to NL-Augmenter, focusing on improving the robustness and reliability of NLP systems. Beyond research and engineering, Abinaya is deeply involved in community building. She co-leads AI Tamil Nadu (formerly AI Coimbatore), a grassroots initiative that brings together students, researchers, and engineers to collaborate on AI and Tamil computing. Through workshops, annotation sprints, and open discussions, she has enabled broader participation in AI development. She is also committed to improving representation in technology. As Program Manager for the Hidden Voices initiative at IIT Madras, she has worked to reduce gender gaps in digital knowledge platforms. Through the Vidhai initiative, she supports early exposure to AI and open source, particularly encouraging young women to enter the field. An active mentor and speaker, Abinaya continues to advocate for building AI systems that are not only powerful but also inclusive and representative.