Dr Deepshikha, in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, has been named a winner of the 2026 TechWomen100 Awards, recognising her contribution to technology, responsible AI and innovation in education.

The TechWomen100 Awards, organised by WeAreTechWomen, celebrate emerging and mid-career women making an impact across the UK technology sector. Dr Deepshikha was selected as one of the 100 winners in the Individual category for 2026.

Her work focuses on the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education, particularly in assessment and feedback. She is the founder and lead of EduGrade AI, an educator-controlled AI assessment and feedback platform developed at Queen Mary.

EduGrade AI is designed to help educators generate rubric-aligned draft feedback and indicative marks while keeping academic judgement firmly with the educator. The project aims to reduce the administrative burden associated with marking while improving the consistency, quality and usefulness of feedback provided to students.

The platform has been trialled across different assessment formats and has demonstrated substantial reductions in marking time. The project is also progressing through wider institutional pilots, technical integration and commercialisation activities.

Dr Deepshikha said:

“I am delighted to be recognised as a TechWomen100 Award winner. This recognition is particularly meaningful to me because my work brings together education, technology, and responsible AI. AI has enormous potential to support educators, but it is important that we develop and use these technologies in ways that preserve academic judgement, transparency and human oversight.

I am very grateful to my colleagues, collaborators, students, and everyone who has supported the development of EduGrade AI. I hope this recognition will also encourage more women from education and academia to see themselves as contributors and leaders in the technology sector.”

The award reflects the growing impact of interdisciplinary innovation within SEMS, where expertise in science and engineering is increasingly being combined with emerging technologies to address challenges in teaching, assessment and student experience.

Dr Deepshikha will join fellow TechWomen100 winners at the 2026 awards celebration at Mansion House in London in October.