30 Apr Ealing Innovation Pioneers: Go Create Academy and their use of tech-for-good
The Ealing Pioneers Fund, launched by the Ealing Council and managed by West London Business, was a £1 million pot, shared by 12 select businesses based in the borough to boost economic growth and job creation in the region. Go Create Academy, one of the winners, offers creative media courses and qualifications.
With backgrounds in TV, radio and music, Peter and Susan, the founders recognised a lack of specialised creative skills which inspired them to set up their business in February 2020. They started delivering unique courses, such as vlogging, podcasting, mobile film making, creative sound and media production. They were clueless about the rise in demand the global pandemic was gonna bring about soon. Peter said, “Pre-COVID, we were very niche and highly specialised. During the pandemic every academic institution in the word suddenly had to go online.”
Susan Hickey, co-founder adds: “A lot of the educational institutions we were working with were very traditional in their thinking. Tech adaption is usually a slow process. One of the good things of the pandemic was that tech adaption fast forwarded 10 years just in one year.”
Go Create Academy started helping one of the schools in the university working with younger people to deliver online exams. They needed a safe examination system for children to also include relevant safeguarding, which the founders couldn’t find on the market. They then embarked on a research project to see whether technology like artificial intelligence (AI) can help develop a safe system to regulate exams, without unnecessary data obtaining and sharing. They started a developing a system, which they piloted in October 2020 when they ran the first live AI invigilation online. They found it to be more efficient, easily spotting if there was a cheating attempt.
Susan added, “After a few more pilots, last year we realised that we have developed a reliable quality control system ticking many boxes for education institutions when running exams online. We are really proud of it.”
Peter continues: “Our work with the university empowered us to become in essence our own examination board, so we can respond to the needs of the market really quickly. We are releasing the world’s first beatboxing exams later this year and have created the world’s first beatboxing notation system.”
The grant funding will help Go Create Academy to further develop the artificial technology to mark exams. It’s currently not an end-to-end solution. They would like students anywhere in the world to be able to enrol, take their exam and receive digital certification. The funding will also be used for training in new skills areas.
Source: aroundealing