Our Faculty
Neena Sathi
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS:
Neena Sathi is a seasoned AI Strategist, Educator, and Business Consultant with over 40 years of experience architecting, designing, and deploying AI solutions across industries including finance, telecommunications, healthcare, and public services. She is the Principal and Founder of the Applied AI Institute and a Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, where she teaches Generative AI, Conversational AI, and Business Analytics.
Her contributions directly relate to the development of an Investment Coach with Generative AI. Neena has pioneered frameworks that combine Generative AI with knowledge graphs, symbolic reasoning, and multi-agent systems to deliver transparent, compliant, and personalized financial decision support. She has published six Springer video-books on AI, developed 20+ online courses, and trained more than 4,000 professionals globally through corporate programs, hackathons, and webinars.
Commercially, she has led AI programs at IBM, KPMG, and Accenture, focusing on compliance, analytics, and cognitive solutions at enterprise scale. She has also contributed to the research community through presentations at AAAI, IEEE, DATAVERSITY, IBM Insight, and World of Watson. These combined academic, industry, and community contributions uniquely qualify her to present on democratizing investment coaching with Generative AI.
In addition to running Applied AI Institute, Neena is a Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, teaching courses in AI, Generative AI, Conversational AI, and Business Analytics.
CORE SKILLS AND EXPERTISE
✔ AI Strategy & Implementation – Advising organizations on integrating AI-driven solutions that enhance operational efficiency, customer engagement, and regulatory compliance.
✔ Workforce Upskilling & AI Adoption – Designing interactive learning programs for workforces on AI, Predictive AI, and Generative AI Mastery-level courses, leveraging Agentic Thinking to address high-value, business-critical use cases.
✔ Customized AI Consulting – Helping organizations identify AI-driven opportunities, develop use cases, refine strategies, and implement solutions that deliver real-world impact.
✔ Enterprise AI Enablement – Supporting businesses in seamless AI integration within existing technology ecosystems to maximize ROI and long-term sustainability.
✔ Practical AI Learning Experiences – Conducting hands-on workshops, hackathons, and capstone projects that equip teams with the skills and tools needed to drive AI transformation.
With her deep academic and industry expertise, Neena bridges the gap between cutting-edge AI research and practical business applications, ensuring organizations remain at the forefront of AI innovation and digital transformation.
EDUCATION
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MBA, University of Pittsburgh
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MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago
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MS, Physics, Northwestern University
CERTIFICATIONS
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PMP®, Project Management Institute
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Master Certified Integration Architect, IBM & The Open Group
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Cloud & Cognitive Technologies (IBM, Microsoft)
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MIT AI Business Strategy (MIT Sloan online)
HONORS & AWARDS
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Graduate Fellowship, Northwestern University
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SBIR Grant, US Army, for Advanced AI Research
Dr, MARK S FOX
Mark S. Fox is the Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineering at the University of Toronto and a Principal with Applied AI Institute. He is a Professor of Industrial Engineering with a cross appointment in the Department of Computer Science, Associate Director for Research in the School of Cities, Director of the Centre for Social Services Engineering, and head of the Enterprise Integration Laboratory. Prof. Fox is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), was a AAAI councilor, and was a co-founder of the AAAI Special Interest Group in Manufacturing. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE), and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He was a joint fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advance Research and PRECARN. He is a past holder of the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Enterprise Integration, and was a Senior Fellow in the Global Cities Institute. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 1975, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983.
He was a founding member of the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University as well as the founding Director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory within the Institute. He co-founded Carnegie Group Inc. in 1984, a software company that specialized in Artificial Intelligence-based systems for solving engineering, manufacturing, and telecommunications problems, and was its Vice-President of Engineering and President/CEO. In 1991, Dr. Fox returned to the University of Toronto where he was appointed the NSERC Research Chairholder in Enterprise Integration, and Professor of Industrial Engineering and Computer Science. In 1993, Dr. Fox co-founded and was CEO of Novator Systems Ltd., a pioneer in E-Retail software and services. In 2013 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Global Cities Institute at the University of Toronto, and an Academic Advisor to the iCity Lab, Singapore Management University. In 2014, he was the founding director of the Centre for Social Services Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering whose goal is to apply engineering principles to the design and delivery of social services to the vulnerable in our society. In 2015 he was named a University of Toronto Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineering.
Suvesh Balasubramanian
Suvesh is a principal at Applied AI Institute. He has over 25 years of broad base industry, management consulting and advisory experience aligning enterprise strategy and outcomes with technology enabled business solutions. He has held senior leadership and management positions at UHG, UTi Worldwide, KPMG and E&Y.
Suvesh has successfully led and delivered several large transformation initiatives and implementations working with Fortune 100 companies and mid size enterprises spanning across a wide array of industries including Hi-Tech, Financial Services, Logistics, Consumer & Retail and Healthcare.
Suvesh has a strong background and implementation experience in Transformational Business and Information Technology Strategy, Enterprise Architecture, Design Thinking, Digital Transformation, Customer Experience Management, Supply Chain Management, Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, Robotics Process Automation, Machine Learning, Big Data, Data Warehousing, Master Data Management, Software Development & Integration and Portfolio / Program Governance.
An early adopter of Agile Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) practice, Suvesh has led multiple Agile Transformation initiatives utilizing several lean and scaled Agile methodologies, built out Agile competencies and delivered Agile mindset driven enterprise solutions.
His expertise is in bringing a balanced mix of broad strategic thinking, deep technical expertise and tactical execution with a deep understanding of the intersection between business, technology and operations.
Andrew Cardegna
Andrew Cardegna is a faculty member at Applied AI Institute, where he teaches courses in Generative AI, helping professionals understand and apply the latest advancements in AI-driven workflows. He is also a senior consulting executive with over 20 years of experience in data strategy, architecture, governance, and analytics, transforming organizations into data-driven enterprises.
Throughout his career, Andrew has led enterprise-scale transformation initiatives across healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and insurance, designing modern data platforms that enhance business agility, insight, and innovation. His expertise spans large-scale cloud migrations, data governance programs, and AI-powered analytics solutions that drive tangible business impact.
At Applied AI Institute, Andrew helps students navigate the evolving Generative AI landscape, bridging technical complexity with practical business applications. His hands-on approach ensures professionals gain the confidence to optimize AI-generated content, refine strategic decision-making, and enhance operational efficiency through effective prompt engineering and AI-driven workflows.
Passionate about the intersection of AI and business strategy, Andrew provides a practitioner’s perspective on Generative AI applications, equipping learners with actionable skills to leverage AI in market research, customer engagement, and data analysis.
TED SMITH
Ted Smith is a principal at Applied AI Institute. With over 30 years of experience in technology, application development, product development, outsourcing and data center operations, he has led teams as VP of Engineering, VP of Product Development, Project Executive and Chief Information Officer. His experience spans telecommunications, professional services, environmental sustainability and software product companies.
Ted is a veteran practitioner in the field of AI. He setup an AI incubator at a Fortune 100 corporation, where they deployed a number of conversational AI and Graph AI applications in 1990s. He turned process heavy organizations into agile delivery teams. Ted also co-led a joint venture, the Initiative for Managing Knowledge Assets (IMKA), consisting of five Fortune 100 companies, in developing a technological base for managing corporate knowledge using Graph AI. This venture, IMKA was referenced in the book, Intelligent Enterprise by James Brian Quinn (1992) and is also the subject of a Harvard Business Case Study.
Ted Smith holds a Master of Science in Systems Management from the University of Denver, and certifications as Project Executive, Project Management Professional, Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, Agile Leader and Total Quality Management Instructor. He has presented at Western Communications Forum and has been referenced in Fortune Magazine