Researchers bring the questions. Claude builds the instruments.
We empower non-technical researchers to design, build and ship research-grade tools with Claude - connecting frontier AI to the parts of academia it hasn't reached yet.
Started by a member of the University of Glasgow
Our flagship, Rehumanize: research-grade infrastructure, built by an honours neuroscience student with no technical background, using Claude Code.
Started by a member of the University of Glasgow.
ThinkSpark was founded in Glasgow in September 2025 by Poatri Uma Senthil, a member of the University of Glasgow, who still runs the lab today. Our flagship, Rehumanize, has already represented the University of Glasgow abroad, finishing runner-up at the CIVIS Creathon 2026 in Bucharest.
- Founded and run by
- A member of the University of Glasgow
- Established
- September 2025
- Based in
- Glasgow, Scotland
The best research questions rarely arrive with an engineering team attached.
A media scholar watches misinformation spread. A neuroscientist wants a better way to measure attention. A historian wants to search an archive no software can read. Usually the idea waits - for funding, for a developer, for the next grant cycle.
Frontier AI changes who gets to build. ThinkSpark exists so the non-technical side of academia doesn't sit that change out - so the people closest to the questions become the people who build the answers.
How ThinkSpark works
Bring a question.
You know your field better than any engineer. That's the hard part - and it's yours already.
Build it with Claude.
The Starter Kit, member-led tutorials and hands-on build clinics take you from idea to a working, research-grade tool with Claude Code. No engineering background required.
Make it research-grade.
Validation, ethics, security and peer review, with lab members beside you at every step. This is where the lab earns its name.
Release and graduate.
Your tool ships open source and citable, then graduates to the research groups that will run it.
Meet Rehumanize.
Is the voice behind a post human? Rehumanize works in the background as you scroll Reddit, X, Threads and LinkedIn. A small marker on each post shows whether it's likely AI-generated, partly AI-generated or likely human-written. It never says a post is wrong. What that means is your call.
For researchers, it is also a consented study instrument, run from one dashboard, that measures what people actually see in their feeds.
- Browser extension: private beta
- Android app: in development
- 12 private beta testers
- 50,000+ posts scanned, including team testing
- University of Glasgow runner-up, CIVIS Creathon 2026
AI writes the code. ThinkSpark makes it research-grade.
Members get hands-on support at seven stages, from first question to a tool that outlives the project. Each stage is anchored to a principle research already runs on, so the support is about rigour, not just code.
- 01ScopeValidity
- 02BuildTransparency
- 03ValidateReliability
- 04ProtectIntegrity
- 05ReviewPeer review
- 06PublishOpen science
- 07SustainReproducibility
Every tool is peer-reviewed, exactly like a paper.
- 1Submission
- 2Editorial screening
- 3Independent reviewers
- 4Reviewer reports
- 5Response to reviewers
- 6Decision and publication
Frontier AI belongs in every department. Not just computer science.
The next breakthroughs won't only come from people who code. They'll come from the sociologist, the neuroscientist, the linguist and the historian, the moment they can build their own instruments. ThinkSpark is the gateway: the way frontier AI reaches researchers who don't code, and the way their questions become working tools that research groups adopt and run.
Training, hands-on support and peer review, in your field's language. One door, whatever you study.
Build your tool with ThinkSpark.
Propose a tool. Build it in a term.
Members propose a tool and develop it over a term. The lab provides Claude access once funding is in place (until then, members use personal accounts), on one condition: your tool is open source. Fellows keep a public build log and demo at the lab's demo night.
Have a question, no time to build?
Launching soon
Post the tool you wish existed. A fellow can take it on and build it with you.
Your tool, running in a real lab.
When a tool is ready, it graduates to a university research group that adopts it, with the documentation to run it for years.
One year in.
- September 2025ThinkSpark founded in Glasgow by a member of the University of Glasgow.
- April 2026Rehumanize proposal submitted to the CIVIS Creathon.
- 10-12 June 2026University of Glasgow runner-up, CIVIS Creathon 2026 - “Fake It Till You News It”, a student innovation forum on misinformation and media literacy at CIVIS Days, Bucharest. CIVIS is Europe’s Civic University Alliance of 11 research universities.
- Late June 2026Rehumanize private beta opens after passing Chrome Web Store review.
- 16 August 2026Submitted to the UNESCO Youth Hackathon 2026 - “Play Your Part: Youth Designing the Future of Media and Information Literacy”.ProgressSelected in Round 1. Final selection under way.
- 16 August 2026Research dashboard demo opens to researchers, with sample data.
- NextAndroid app in development. First Builder Fellows.
Answerable to research, not revenue.
We've chosen to fund ThinkSpark exclusively through academic research grants. No investors, no advertising, no commercial interests deciding what gets built - only the questions researchers bring us.
A small lab with an open door.
Three founding members work alongside the lead. Members are named only if they choose to be.
Got a question worth building?
Tell us your field, your question, and the tool you wish existed. Your idea stays yours: we'll help you build it, or pair you with a lab member to build it alongside you.
hello@jointhinkspark.com