Vinay Setty (right) received the award from Thor-Christian Haugland during the University of Stavanger's annual celebration on 29 October 2021. Photo: Mari Løvås

Vinay Setty, Associate Professor at the University of Stavanger and Visiting Professor at Leibniz AI Lab, has won the Norwegian SR Bank's Innovation Award 2020. He has developed software that identifies false reports and untrustworthy news.

The software, called deep neural architecture, can process large amounts of digital news and information from social media and then flag potential false news. The technology enables the production of commercial and intelligent processing tools that help, for example, journalists and scientists gather relevant evidence and proof.

Vinay Setty is co-founder of Factiverse, which is funded and supported by Huddlestock, the Norwegian Research Council, Innovation Norway and Validé Invest II, among others.

The jury highlights the awardee's exceptional ability to translate research results into patents, licensing agreements and the establishment of a company that has taken the research further.

"This award means a lot to me and to Factiverse. It confirms how important and necessary it is to develop solutions against misinformation. The award will help us to continue to fight misinformation with cutting-edge technology," says Vinay Setty.

Thor-Christian Haugland, Executive Vice President of SR Bank presented the award during the annual ceremony at the University of Stavanger on 29 October 2021. It consists of a certificate and a scholarship of NOK 50,000 (around EUR 5,000).