Magora › Projects › University of Essex
Education software · Case study Artificial intelligence apps

University of Essex.

Find out about our project for University of Essex with the goal of implementing open-source models for processing secure data

Client
University of Essex
Industry
Education software
Services
AI architecture · model fine-tuning · development
Delivery
Magora London
Domain
Education software
Built by Magora

This University of Essex project was designed and built by Magora. We are a London software development company (since 2010) building education and e-learning software for UK businesses, from a free working prototype to launch and support.

Education software development → Free working prototype in 5–10 days

University of Essex selected Magora as a prominent AI development company to develop a critical AI Orchestrator module for managing secure data processing.

The core requirement was a specialised tool capable of intelligently analysing files within a specified directory to automatically generate a structured .yaml settings file. This file would contain determined confidentiality levels and rich semantic metadata, enabling other modules in the AI Orchestrator pipeline to process the files appropriately.

Given the highly sensitive nature of the data, the use of cloud-based AI was prohibited, requiring an on-premise system.

Our team architected and developed a secure, self-contained AI Orchestrator module from the ground up, utilising a sophisticated two-model approach to address the project challenges.

The solution employs two specialised local models:

  1. A large language model (LLM), specifically Mistral (7B), was integrated to dynamically analyse text and define new semantic tags and confidentiality rules. This addresses the challenge of being dependent on a static ruleset, allowing the system to discover and propose new tags from the data itself, though all proposals are flagged for human review to ensure precision.

  2. A Named Entity Recognition (NER) model, a finetuned FacebookAI/roberta-large, was implemented to utilise these rules with high precision. This model was meticulously trained on a real, annotated dataset. This finetuning process taught the model to accurately recognize and extract the approved semantic tags from text, with its performance rigorously validated through F1 score testing against a benchmark dataset.

The module's workflow is designed for continuous improvement:

1) Files are processed to extract semantic information

2) The LLM suggests new rules

3) A human expert reviews and annotates samples with these new tags

4) The NER model is periodically retrained on the expanded dataset

The entire system processes files locally on specified paths, combining the LLM's exploratory power with the NER model's precision to output a standardised .yaml file containing confidentiality levels and semantic metadata for seamless consumption by subsequent modules.

The collaboration resulted in a secure and highly adaptive AI Orchestrator module that fundamentally automated and secured the data classification process for the University of Essex.

The product significantly enhanced data governance and security protocols. It successfully balanced the need for automated discovery with the requirement for high-precision, reliable extraction.

This hybrid approach eliminated the risk of human error in manual classification and entirely avoided the data exposure risks associated with third-party cloud APIs.

The local implementation ensured guaranteed data sovereignty and compliance with the strictest security policies. The project delivered a tailored, scalable, and foundational component that intelligently grows more capable over time, fully meeting the client's precise technical and security objectives.

Project facts

University of Essex, at a glance.

AI Orchestrator module that classifies files and generates a YAML settings file with confidentiality levels and semantic metadata

Client

University of Essex

Sector

Education and research: data security

Platforms

On-premise AI module

Scope

Models: local Mistral 7B and a fine-tuned FacebookAI/roberta-large NER model; on-premise only (no cloud AI); human review loop and periodic retraining

Typical budget for this scope

From £25k

Custom fine-tuned open-source model · Magora pricing guide · 2026 prices

Results

Data classification is automated on-premise, with no data sent to third-party cloud APIs and human review of new rules.

ServicesAI architecture · model fine-tuning · developmentCase published on our siteAug 2025
Got a similar problem?

Want your project on this page next?

30-minute call with the team behind this build. We'll tell you what we'd actually do in your shoes — no decks, no pitch.

Book a call
— Cookies

We use cookies to measure traffic and make our marketing more relevant. Necessary cookies stay on. See our Privacy and Cookie Notice.

Free 30-min consult Free consult