Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) helps develop tools to counter fake news and online misinformation

Logically was founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain in response to the controversy and polarisation that emerged around the 2016 US election and the EU referendum vote in the UK.

Logically’s head of data science, Dr Anil Bandhakavi, said:

“With fast evolving multimedia manipulation methods and social media platforms, the spread of manipulated multimedia content is growing, requiring robust solutions. We wish to extend our products to accurately detect fake multimedia content such as images and video.

Logically is aware of the advanced research undertaken by the University of Sheffield and believes that a partnership with such a leading research institute in the area of computer vision and AI can significantly accelerate the process of building the necessary intelligent system. In addition it will greatly improve the overall quality of the existing technical stack of the company.

Logically believes that the only way it can continue to maintain competitive advantage and provide quality insights and analytics to its clients is by continuously innovating its technology offering, for which such a KTP collaboration becomes very significant in order to further the already existing innovation culture within the company”.

KTPs link innovation-focused businesses with academic expertise. Each partnership is supported by one of KTN’s specialist Knowledge Transfer Advisers – in this case, Trevor Gregory, who commented “The issue of the use of fake news and misinformation as a means of influencing opinion is a global problem, and one that can have huge societal and economic consequences. This KTP project will develop and deploy tools using AI methods and enhanced video tracking capabilities to counteract this growing influence”.

Leading the academic team at Sheffield is Dr Charith Abhayaratne who is part of a research group which focuses on signal processing and machine learning (M/L) for automated understanding of visual content (computer vision), visual media security and video coding.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr Charity Abhayaratne said,  “This Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is an exciting opportunity for us to share our knowledge on visual content security and machine learning and support the development of commercial solutions for combating misinformation in online visual content. There is a growing need for efficient and robust commercial products for the detection and localisation of manipulated images and video, and we look forward to collaborating with Logically to develop innovative solutions that can bring wider societal benefits.”

Find out more about the project details here.

About KTP

KTP aims to help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills held within the UK knowledge base. The Knowledge Transfer Network delivers the KTP programme for Innovate UK funded through UK Research and Innovation as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy.

KTPs can benefit companies of all sizes and in any sector and last for between 12 and 36 months. Further information about KTPs can be found here and applications for funding are open all year round. The next deadline for funding applications is 30th June 2021.

If you think a KTP could be the right vehicle to help your organisation innovate for growth, find your nearest Knowledge Transfer Advisers today to discuss your project idea.