Dr Deepshikha from the School of Engineering and Materials Science (SEMS) has secured a place on the highly competitive Innovate UK ICURe Explore Programme for her education technology venture, EduMark AI, with support valued at up to £35,000. For a scholarship-led education innovation project, this represents one of the most significant external awards available at this stage of development.

The ICURe Explore Programme is one of the UK’s leading innovation commercialisation programmes, designed to help research-led ventures validate market demand, engage customers, and accelerate routes to market. Selection is highly competitive and recognises projects with strong commercial potential and scalable impact.

EduMark AI is an AI-powered, human-in-the-loop assessment platform developed to help universities improve marking efficiency, consistency, and student feedback quality. The platform enables educators to generate rubric-aligned draft grades and structured feedback while retaining full academic oversight of all final decisions. The project began with support from Queen Mary’s Drapers’ Fund for Innovation in Learning and Teaching and later received the Queen Mary’s President and Principal’s Prize (2025) for educational excellence and innovation.

Early pilot studies have shown promising results, including significant reductions in marking time and strong positive responses from both educators and students.

Through the ICURe Explore Programme, Dr Deepshikha will now undertake structured customer discovery with universities and education leaders, validate commercial models, and prepare the platform for wider institutional adoption.

Dr Deepshikha said: “This award is a major milestone for EduMark AI and reflects the growing importance of responsible AI solutions that support educators rather than replace them. I am proud that a project developed within SEMS is now being recognised nationally for its commercial and educational potential.”

This success shows how SEMS is contributing to interdisciplinary innovation by combining engineering thinking, digital transformation, and real-world educational impact.