Join Volta for an evening of showcasing AI applications, knowledge sharing and collaboration at the AI Showcase and Mixer!

When: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 from 6:00pm – 8:30pm

Where: Volta, 1800 Argyle St, Suite 801, Halifax, NS, B3J 3N8

Description:

Dive into the world of AI at an evening of inspiring showcases, expert insights, and meaningful connections—in partnership with Springboard Atlantic.

Together with Springboard Atlantic, Volta is bringing the AI community together to spotlight real-world innovation, practical applications, and the people shaping what’s next.

What’s in store:
🚀 Showcase – Experience live AI demos and projects from innovators in the field.
📚 Learn – Hear from industry experts and on how AI is being applied across real-world use cases.
🤝 Network – Connect with professionals, entrepreneurs, students, and AI enthusiasts from across the ecosystem.

Agenda:

• 6:00 PM – Doors Open
• 6:30 PM – Welcome from the Host
• 6:35 PM – AI Demos & Presentations
• 8:00 PM – Wrap-Up Demos & Presentations
• 8:30 PM – Doors Close

Dr. Suresh Neethirajan

Dr. Suresh Neethirajan develops AI-driven digital twins for dairy and poultry farming to improve sustainability, animal welfare, and emissions management. His work combines computer vision, multimodal sensing, and satellite data to monitor livestock health and benchmark greenhouse gas emissions at farm and regional scales. By translating real-time farm data into actionable insights, his research supports producers in reducing methane, improving productivity, and meeting climate targets. He is particularly interested in collaborating with agri-tech companies, climate tech startups, and data infrastructure partners to scale trustworthy, secure AI systems for the future of food.

Bio:

Dr. Suresh Neethirajan is a Professor and Dalhousie University Research Chair jointly appointed in Computer Science and Agriculture. He leads the MooAnalytica research group, focusing on AI, digital twins, and climate-smart livestock systems. His work integrates computer vision, sensor networks, and satellite data to advance sustainable food production. He is also Founder and CEO of Agnovix Inc., a startup commercializing digital twin and methane-monitoring solutions for livestock producers.

Dr. Xichen Zhang

AI Agents for Simulating Human Decision-Making

Description: Human decision-making is shaped by roles, expertise, personality, and demographic characteristics, as well as by interactions with others and the surrounding environment. This presentation introduces how AI agents can be used to simulate human behavior by explicitly modeling these characteristics. Such AI-driven agents can represent different types of people—customers, workers, managers, or citizens—and be used to explore a wide range of tasks, including pricing and inventory scenarios, daily activity patterns, business decision-making, customer questionnaires, and other decision-driven processes. By simulating populations of diverse AI agents, we can better understand how individual behaviors give rise to collective outcomes across many application domains.

Bio: Dr. Xichen Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, and an adjunct professor with the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity, as well as at the University of New Brunswick and Dalhousie University. He earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Brunswick. His research focuses on cybersecurity, business analytics, large language models (LLMs), and AI agents, applying machine learning and generative AI to detect digital threats, analyze online behavior, and support trustworthy decision-making. He has received funding from SSHRC and NSERC and collaborates with industry and public partners on practical AI-driven solutions.

Reza(Enayat) Rajabi

Agentic AI and Knowledge Graphs

Description: A Knowledge Graph (KG) serves as the semantic skeleton of a Digital Twin, mapping complex business logic into a machine-readable “living model.” Unlike static databases, a KG defines the intent and constraints of your operations—linking assets, processes, and people through their real-world relationships. For Agentic AI, this is the ultimate operating manual. It allows agents to simulate “what-if” scenarios by traversing the graph to see how a change in one node (e.g., a supplier failure) cascades through the entire logic chain. By grounding agents in this Digital Twin, companies ensure that AI actions remain context-aware, compliant, and synchronized with the actual state of the business.

Bio: Reza(Enayat) Rajabi is an Associate Professor of Business Analytics at Cape Breton University and a knowledge scientist. He has secured various research grants from NSERC, Mitacs, IRAP, and Research Nova Scotia in context of AI and Knowledge graphs.

NOTE: If you are unable to attend any of our events please take a minute and cancel your ticket. This allows our team to better prepare for every event.

By attending this event, you agree to be photographed and/or filmed and give permission to Volta and Springboard Atlantic to use your image in promotional and/or marketing materials.