Flash Talk Presentations

Accelerating Growth with AI-Driven Marketing

Brittany Trafis

CEO & Co-Founder of Soarion Digital

Keeping up with evolving customer behaviors and digital complexity is a constant challenge. In this flash talk, Brittany Trafis, CEO & Co-Founder of Soarion Digital, will reveal how AI is reshaping customer acquisition for SaaS and technology companies. See the evolution from traditional marketing workflows to AI-powered automation—where data-driven insights, real-time optimization, and intelligent agents streamline paid media, SEO, and content strategy. Learn how this approach accelerates growth, improves targeting, and maximizes ROI. If you're ready to simplify your marketing and drive better results with AI, this session will show you how.

Transforming Healthcare Fundraising: Leveraging AI for Healthcare Breakthroughs

Michael London

London Automation

London Automation, a Cleveland-based company, is at the forefront of innovation in the nonprofit sector. Through the development of multi-modal AI technology, they are transforming grateful patient fundraising across the nation, and have a proven track record of driving real results. In this flash talk, Co-founder Michael London will share how their company's cutting-edge approach to AI-driven, donor data analysis is empowering nonprofit health systems across the United States to build stronger relationships, drive more effective fundraising campaigns, and unlock new potential for human impact and social good.

Why AI for Space Matters in Optimizing the Role of Decision-Making for Mission Operations

Douglas Marsh

Founder & CEO, Martian Sky Industries

This flash talk will address the way Martian Sky Industries is utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning in space, with a focus on debris remediation for this session. Doug Marsh, Founder and CEO, will discuss what opportunities exist for continued growth and expansion of fundamental technologies in this area, and how Martian Sky is positioned as a leader in the sector based on our ability to connect computer vision, synthetic data generation, and machine learning into a novel package for solving debris challenges.

AI models in Finance and Business — are Large Models Necessarily Better?

Anurag Gupta

Professor of Banking & Finance, Weatherhead School of Management

Economists have historically favored parsimonious models that are grounded in theory and can provide a useful level of predictive accuracy. However, there has been an explosion in recent years in machine learning models (with millions, sometimes billions of parameters) in applications in economics, finance and business, with many of these models seemingly providing predictive accuracy significantly greater than that provided by the more parsimonious or "small" models. Gupta will share insights from research across a variety of applications of both types of models, outline trade-offs in using small versus large models in business applications where data are usually scarce and noisy, and summarize guidelines for appropriate model selection which is one of the key pillars of using AI and machine learning responsibly.

The Future of Professional School Selection: Human Expertise + AI

Christian Essman and Alex Mason

Admissions teams struggle with high application volumes, equity concerns, and evaluating subjective data. AthenaScore simplifies professional school selection by analyzing diverse metrics—from academic performance to personal essays—assessing both qualifications and competencies like emotional intelligence. This AI-powered platform mitigates human bias, enhances predictive accuracy, and optimizes yield prediction through historical data analysis. Our demonstration will show how AthenaScore increases reviewer productivity while creating a more equitable selection process, allowing committees to focus on strategic decisions across medicine, law, business, and graduate programs.

A Coaching Case Study: AI's Role in Crafting Coaching Experiences Tailored to The Client

Jonathan Reitz

CEO/Founder, Fluxify

Imagine sitting down for a coaching session, equipped with intuition and expertise AND a partner who never misses a detail — an AI partner you developed yourself. Jonathan Reitz will dive into a 10-minute case study around his journey with AI tools to sharpen conversational flow and capture critical insights from each session. Discover how this unique collaboration between human insight and advanced technology has sharpened his coaching, making each interaction more meaningful and every outcome clearer. Jonathan's story highlights a future where AI elevates coaching by enhancing focus, deepening impact, and ensuring client outcomes remain center stage. Soon every coach will work this way!

AI as a Human-Like Interactive Agent: Current Limitations and the Future of Human-Like Agents

Ruihuang Yang

xLab Project Lead, MBA Candidate

The rise of AI-powered conversational agents is transforming the way we interact with technology, but how close are we to AI that is truly indistinguishable from humans? This talk explores the evolution of human-like AI agents, starting from the Turing Test to the latest advancements in natural language processing, voice synthesis, and multimodal interactions. As AI plays an increasing role in workplaces and education, I will discuss how these agents are being developed and deployed for various industry use cases at xLab and CWRU—ranging from AI colleagues in remote work environments to AI-driven training and simulations. The talk will also examine the remaining limitations of these systems—such as accountability and emotional intelligence—and discuss what future developments could make human-like AI a reality.

Dull The Bleeding Edge of Medical Devices with Advanced AI

Yi Zhu

Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Kent State University

Medevisor is an end-to-end online decision support system that helps small- to medium-sized medical device manufacturers, regulators, healthcare providers, and investors understand and predict medical device adverse events (e.g., recalls). It focuses on the devices cleared by FDA's 510(k) pathway, which clears more than 90% of medical devices in the US. The system aims to help stakeholders evaluate device safety risks with detailed insights (e.g., the recall time and reasons), guiding their preemptive and proactive actions to reduce patient harm and financial loss, enhance device quality, and improve the current FDA medical device clearance pathways.

AI-Driven Personalization: Transforming Marketing Through Data and Context

James Morse

Vice President of Product Marketing, SOCi

AI is making hyper-personalized, localized, and contextualized marketing more effective and scalable than ever before. But how do brands harness the right data to make AI work? This session will explore how 0-party, 1st-party, and 3rd-party data fuel AI-driven marketing strategies. Learn how weather trends, foot traffic, and campaign engagement data enhance predictive models and optimize outreach in ways humans simply cannot match. Through real-world examples, discover how AI refines targeting, improves campaign performance, and adapts marketing strategies in real time.

AI-Led Marketing Transformation

Prakash Hariharabalan

Senior Director, Marketing Analytics, Signet Jewelers

Strategic implementation of AI technologies has enabled the team at Signet to drive personalized marketing efforts, enhance customer engagement, and drive more efficient and effective campaigns. In this talk, Prakash Hariharabalan, Senior Director of Marketing Analytics, will share how they leveraged AWS-based AI/ML technologies to:

• Analyze vast amounts of customer and transactional data (text and product images) using GPT that generated unparalleled insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends, enabling more targeted and impactful marketing strategies.
• Target customers in different segments with personalized product recommendations and messages.
• Resulted in significantly higher response rates (open, clicks, and conversions) in the test group compared to the control group.

As the team continues to explore and implement AI innovations, their journey promises to further transform marketing efforts, ensuring Signet Jewelers remains at the forefront of customer engagement and marketing excellence. This presentation will delve into the key milestones achieved over the past few years, the current applications of AI in marketing strategies, and future directions for AI-led marketing transformation.