A short summary of our project

We are raising £10,000 to build an algorithm that would help universities detect essays that have been outsourced by students and submitted as their own for grading purposes.

THE PROBLEM WE ARE AFTER

It has become increasingly easy for students to get their essays, reports, dissertations and other coursework made by somebody else. With a higher number of affluent students opting for such services, the deserving ones are often left behind due to the extremely professional work done by agencies or individuals on a regular basis. These agencies offer a range of services starting from writing the Statement of Purpose to the end dissertation. It not only demotivates high quality and hardworking students but also damages the brand of universities around the globe.

The problem has recently made headlines due to such agencies being promoted extensively on social media. Click here to read.

We at Authorencity, wish to bring an end to it.

OUR SOLUTION

Using advance machine learning technology, we intend to train our algorithm to understand the pattern of writing of a student after his/ her work has been submitted. Once enough data points have been gathered, the piece of work will be compared to the previous assignments using these data points. Any moment the algorithm recognises extreme discrepancy, the software flags up the submission to the relevant professor who can investigate further or conduct a viva.

Who we are

• Abhimanyu Chakrabarty -  The CTO is a Masters of Software Systems Engineering graduate from UCL. Abhimanyu holds in-depth knowledge of computer science and is an experienced project manager making him the perfect person to lead a team of data scientists.
• Hriday A Agarwal - The CEO is currently studying MSc Entrepreneurship at UCL. Hriday has the experience of having lead two ventures earlier and has great contacts with university professors as well as machine learning and data science enthusiasts.

our story

Here is what lead to all of this...

Being a student at Middlesex University prior to coming to UCL, I met with a classmate and we got along pretty well. On having a conversation about his family and friends, he mentioned how so many of his friends were studying at some of the top universities in London. One of them being at Oxford. When his friend from Oxford came to London, I was pretty shocked inside. His command over the language made me believe that this man would be having the toughest time in his life due to the level of work and assignments of a university as good as Oxford. Without being rude, I asked him how he was fairing with all of it. It hit me hard when he told me that all of his work, starting from his Statement of Purpose to every assignment he gets, was outsourced. Someone else was doing his work while he was carelessly drinking with us. Though I enjoyed my time with him, I lost sleep thinking that just fours months later, I would be competing with students who are not only better but also students like the person I just met who definitely did not deserve to go to this university, or any university for that matter.

As one would have guessed by now, since then, I have been bent on changing this for once and for all. Thousands of people like me, who are ready to give in blood, sweat and tears to get into the university of their choice simply do not get in because of people like him. Rich and fraudulent !

Where will the money go?

• A team of three full-time data scientists for MVP development. Two Indian senior hires and one junior data scientist in the UK. Salary for three months of development in India: £4000 and for the UK £4000 (with sweat equity)
• IT Infrastructure, Security and Design: £1500
• Contingency: £500

Rewards

• Pledgers if
• We have some really cool tees up for grabs for every contributor who pledges more than £50.
• People who pledge £500 or more would be featured in the "contributors" list for perpetuity and most definitely receive a set of tees and a lunch with the team at Level 38, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London.

How you can help

• As much as the money you pledge with us, we would love it if you could make introductions to teachers and professors at your university to help us get their valuable feedback .
• Tweeting and telling all your friends about us is highly encouraged and most definitely, it will also make you look cool for funding and supporting something so novel.