Artificial intelligence innovator partners with Essex

London tech company Filament AI is collaborating with Essex researchers to develop a new tool to help their clients start integrating artificial intelligence into their products and services.

Our latest Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) will help Filament use new machine learning approaches to help businesses make the most of the fast-evolving technology.

The South Bank-based company approached Essex to use our academic expertise to build specialist tooling for their computer vision capabilities. Filament hope to break into new markets and expand their client base as a result of the partnership with us.

Filament is a boutique service provider in AI, who help their clients adopt this technology by creating purpose-built applications.

The UK-wide KTP programme helps businesses innovate through targeted collaboration with leading academics and highly qualified graduates. KTP projects help ensure our research impacts the community, the economy and the skills agenda.

As part of the project, Essex has recruited Antonio Campello, a talented graduate also known as a KTP Associate to join Filament. His role will be to lead on artificial intelligence tooling over the three year partnership project.

Antonio joins two other recent recruits in Filament’s machine learning team, Martin Davtyan and Aela Gourlaouen. Filament have sourced talent from all over the world thanks their rapid rate of AI innovation.

Filament AI Managing Director Phil Westcott said: "The association with the University of Essex gives Filament extra kudos within the market, knowing our tooling and R&D approaches are informed by the best data scientists in UK academia is invaluable.

"We’re delighted with the high calibre team who will work closely with Essex. We will move cutting edge research in academia into applied artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for our clients, bang in line with the UK government’s mission to make AI Innovation a key pillar of UK economic growth.”

Essex is in the UK top 10 for the number of active KTPs and we are the leading university in the East of England and London for KTP collaborations.

Rob Walker, KTP Manager at the University of Essex, said: "Business innovation in the areas of AI - in particular machine learning, fits neatly with our world-leading research streams. The ambition of Filament to grow their business aligns with our eagerness to work with ambitious companies to generate impact, increase productivity and support economic development. I look forward to kicking off this exciting partnership."

The scope of our current partnerships stretches across London and the Eastern region. We are also working with London-based DataSpartan and Signal Media on projects linked to Artificial Intelligence (AI).