At the 2022 Innovate UK KTP Awards, we have introduced a new category: KTP Academic of the Year Award. This award recognises the outstanding contribution made to KTP by a member of academic staff and the role that they have had in influencing the uptake of KTP throughout their institution.

Read on to see who is in contention for this award at the Innovate UK KTP Awards, happening in Liverpool on 12th October (register here).

Professor Berthold Lausen, University of Essex,
Profusion Media Ltd,
Juan Pablo Equihua Linares as the Associate

Profusion is a data agency that specialises in predictive modelling, email marketing, business intelligence and customer satisfaction. At their core, they help their clients to monetise their data – whether that involves increasing customer engagement and sales, optimising their operations or simply learning about their customer’s business needs.

The vision of the company and a key objective of the KTP was to build a product that will help democratise the use of AI for digital marketers so that they are liberated to be more creative – which in this KTP applies to charities and foundations.

The academic working on this KTP was Professor Lausen who has over 35 years of experience as a medical and trial statistician and data scientist. During the highly successful first KTP project between Profusion Data Science and the University of Essex, Professor Berthold Lausen encouraged Profusion to engage with Masters Data Science students and acted as the University supervisor of former students now working for Profusion. 

Juan Equihua, the KTP Associate, received highly encouraging support from all members of the interdisciplinary academic team. Berthold encouraged Juan to start a PhD in Data Science in parallel to his role as KTP Associate. 

The two have co-supervised several placement students of the Profusion Data Academy, and Juan took a leading role in recruiting and managing the Essex students at Profusion. The Data Academy placement and KTP resulted in an industry-funded PhD studentship supervised by Berthold at the University of Essex.

Dr Faiyaz Doctor, University of Essex
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)
Ahmad Khaliq as the Associate

Dr Faiyaz Doctor is an academic, innovator and applied technology specialist with over 15 years of experience in the development and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in research and commercial areas.

Mediterranean Shipping Group is a world leader in global container shipping, the second largest shipping company in the world by capacity (2019), offering global service with local knowledge. MSC (UK) delivers a professional, efficient service tailored to the specific needs of its clients.

Faiyaz has extensive experience in working with Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and has led projects across several sectors, including healthcare, property, digital marketing and facilities management. His expertise in knowledge transfer and effective partnership-building has been fundamental to the development of the University of Essex’s relationship with MSC (UK). 

A former KTP Associate himself, Faiyaz’s contribution to the KTP with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has been exceptional, from successfully leading a cross-discipline project working across faculty with other academics from the Department of Mathematics to mentoring the KTP Associate -Ahmad Khaliq.

The project is developing transformative data-driven simulation and deep machine learning capabilities for improving efficiencies in MSC’s shipping and haulage supply chain network in the face of global issues around demand, congestion and space limitations at ports.

Dr Mohammed Yaseen, University of the West of Scotland
ACS Clothing Limited
Dr Emmanuel I. Epelle as the Associate

Dr Mohammed Yaseen the lead academic has shown multi-disciplinary skills & leadership leading to knowledge translation, a new capability in the business, and enhancing KTP Associate personal development.

For 25 years ACS Clothing has specialised in rental fulfilment and clothing renewal for fashion brands & high-street retailers. ACS manages the transport to/from customers, sanitisation, cleaning, repairs, storage and picking of garments. After defining and perfecting their innovative and scalable fulfilment solution for the traditional men’s formal hire market, they have recently expanded into new markets within the fashion industry (womenswear, babywear and PPE) and are proud to have enabled the shift from clothing ownership to access. 

The project between ACS Clothing and the University of the West of Scotland aimed to embed automation, physical chemistry, and microbiological expertise, in the design, development and implementation of a novel in-line garment decontamination process (using ozone); addressing existing batch process constraints and unlocking the capacity for accelerated growth within ACS Clothing.

From the start of KTP Dr Yaseen directed the KTP associate & fellow team members & industry harmonious toward set criteria leading to the successful development of a lab-scale ozone sterilisation system & testing of microbiota on materials leading to 6 publications as lead, a patent, installation of the large-scale system, Scottish Enterprise (£100k) funding, a new studentship £70K and potential new KTP as lead academic.

Register for the KTP Awards 2022

The KTP Awards recognise the people and partnerships behind the UK’s most inspiring and successful KTP projects. Highlighting these outstanding partnerships is just the tip of the iceberg, with more than 800 inspiring collaborations currently happening across the country.

If you want to attend the awards virtually or join us in person, you can register here.