Finding cybersecurity solutions: Meet the academics ready to take their research to the commercial market

Meet the teams

• University of Essex – ACE: AI Privacy Orchestrator

  AI Privacy Orchestrator: Privacy-oriented AI training and permissions control for compliance-by-design

  The team at ACE: AI Privacy Orchestrator knew there was an opportunity to develop a middleware solution addressing the privacy issue of feeding data into AI.

  ACE wanted firms to be able to tailor the knowledge and accessibility of their AI services by the privacy and confidentiality restrictions of their data.

  Their user-friendly middleware platform allows developers to specify the privacy semantics of their data and create cloud-native machine learning pipelines, differentiated by privacy needs.

  Proof of concept at the ready, ACE are looking forward to meeting potential partners and investors that can assist them in the MVP stage of their journey.

• University of Middlesex – AI-bility 4Ds

  Empowering Cyber Learning for diverse minds

  Despite many cybersecurity professionals identifying as neurodiverse, the team at AI-bility 4Ds found a significant gap in supporting neurodiversity in the cybersecurity community.

  This led to the development of an AI-learning assistant that addresses the needs associated with each of the four dimensions of neurodiversity: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, and Dysgraphia.

  AI-bility hope to access funding and recruit a team of experts to take their developments to the next stage:

  We have high hopes for Demo Day and hope to meet investors and partners who believe in what we do.

  – Dr Mahdi Aiash, Project Lead

• University of Sheffield – CybPass

  Autonomous Penetration Testing and Threat Modelling for securing AI

  With their expertise in cybersecurity and business, the team behind CybPass are building a unique platform dedicated to redefining AI cybersecurity by combining precision, efficiency, and robustness.

  Their mission is to safeguard AI assets against evolving threats in the AI cybersecurity landscape, whilst providing an affordable solution where key processes are automated.

  Our solution is fast, it’s autonomous and it’s going to ensure the privacy of our client IPs.

  – Dr. Aryan Pasikhani

  The team is looking forward to meeting early investors and potential adopters on Demo Day.

• University of Oxford – Cyberheels by LITERALLY NEED

  Improving digital-physical wellbeing with IoT enabled cyber smart shoes

  The diverse team behind Cyberheels want to bring a human aspect to the cybersecurity world. By developing smart shoes embedded with IoT technology, their product can monitor our digital presence, protect our data and enhance our overall wellbeing.

  We believe that integrated tech into shoes can become the norm. By wearing Cyberheels, you’re taking control of your digital life and contributing to a safer, healthier digital ecosystem.

  – Dr Adaku Agwunobi, founder of Cyberheels

  LITERALLY NEED hope to bridge the gap between cybersecurity and the fashion world; for the next step on their journey, they are eager to work with strategic partners.

• University of Strathclyde – ECG.Ai

  Powering the healthy heartbeat of AI, securing AI models, improving resilience, reducing risk and enabling compliance

  ECG.ai helps organisations harness the power of AI, enabling them to improve business performance.

  The team has developed a platform that enables businesses to deploy AI by providing a structured framework with API integration.

  Coming from a business school, the team bring a unique perspective to the programme:

  We also have a good understanding of how innovators work – so we have an integrated perspective.

  – Dr Devraj Basu

• University of Essex – FORENSIC

  Fast and Autonomous Platform Anomalies Detection in CPS. Secure Device operation to protect future Cyber-Physical-Systems

  With an 80% increase in cyberattacks on CPS devices, FORENSIC have developed a hardware-software co-design-based solution.

  The platform rapidly and autonomously monitors the health of systems by collecting low-level hardware features from the target device that are hard to compromise for threat detection.

  FORENSIC is a quicker, cheaper and less power-consuming option based on academic research and consistent support from the team’s long term industry partners.

  If you’re keen to interact with FORENSIC’s proof of concept, speak to the team on Demo Day.

• University of West London – IoT-Armor

  Empowering IoT’s future with education on seamless secure-by-default integration

  IoT devices are becoming more integrated into our daily lives, but they face significant vulnerabilities, and a substantial gap remains in educating individuals about implementing Security-by-Default principles.

  Enter IoT-Armor, a toolkit that empowers users to test, learn, and implement crucial security measures:

  Our hardware component and flexible firmware means we can educate our manufacturers without forcing them to build their IoT device around fixed hardware.

  – Dr. Waqar Asif, Project Lead

  If you’re involved in higher education, speak to IoT-Armor about testing opportunities at the upcoming Demo Day.

• Kingston University – SirenPod

  AI Enhanced Honeypot for Cybersecurity on IoT devices

  SirenPod offers the latest in AI-enhanced intrusion detection technology and large-scale data analytics for IoT devices through a honeypot service, to stop real devices being hacked.

  Our solution is AI based, so there will be one solution that is applicable to any device, so we’re ultimately able to simulate any device.

  – Vasileios Argyriou, Project Lead

  The team is developing an MVP in the next 12 months, where they will be ready to work with large-scale manufacturers during the testing process.