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Leveraging AI/ML for plastic marine debris

Marine debris is one of the most pervasive threats to the health of coastal areas, oceans, and waterways. Your challenge is to leverage Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to monitor, detect, and quantify plastic pollution and increase our understanding about using these techniques for this purpose.

  • What is marine debris?

    Marine debris is defined as any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, is released or abandoned in the marine environment", National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2015 NOAA.

  • How does waste end up in the sea?

    When we dispose of our plastic waste, it can end up in a landfill, among other places; but due to the action of wind, rain and storms, it can end up in fluvial areas, sewers and rivers, once there, it is only a matter of time before it reaches the sea.

  • Did you know...?

    The United Nations estimates that each square mile of ocean contains an average of 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

Some other questions

  • What are the main garbage piles?

    The concentration of this material is housed in five plastic islands discovered in the oceans, two in the Pacific, two in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean.

  • What is the estimate of garbage that exists?

    The massive consumption of single-use plastics, driven by the companies that put them in our hands, and poor management systems, mean that up to 12 million tons of plastics reach the sea each year. World plastics production has risen from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 162 million in 1993 and to 448 million in 2015.

  • Recycling

    Only 9% of the plastic we have consumed since we created it has been recycled, 12% has been incinerated and 79% is in landfills or in the environment.

Here we go...

consequences of marine debris

What are the threats and damages that marine debris produces to flora and fauna?

The impacts that plastic pieces have on marine life have long been documented: entanglement, suffocation, strangulation or malnutrition (after being ingested and blocking the animal's stomach or intestine). Recently, a special focus has been placed on the particular problem of microplastics (fragments smaller than 5 mm).

In our oceans there are trillions of these microplastics floating all around that impact even the smallest species that are the basis of the marine food web. Microplastics can be ingested by marine fauna, including plankton, crustaceans and fish, and can cause problems, and that because of their physical presence in the gut and because of the chemical contaminants they carry. They can even be passed along the food chain to reach our plates. Microplastics can incorporate chemicals and release them and remain in the tissues of marine species, joining the food chain.

Meet our team

Kourais Khryseai

Marine debris

interesting facts

  • This experience was something completely new for me, but it is definitely something that everyone should do at least once in their lives, it is something that teaches you to work as a team in a better way, challenges you to think faster, to think out of the box, I would like to thank each and every one of my teammates, despite not having such extensive knowledge in this area, they gave me the opportunity to work with them, they stopped to explain me and they helped me find those things in which I am good, and in which my knowledge and skills were useful to take this challenge forward
    Sofía Sánchez
    Medicine Student
  • It was very interesting, since I've never been so concentrated for so long in an exhaustive research about something in specific. At the same time, it was fun to plan so many different solutions to a problem and harder to choose the most adequate answer. I wanna say thanks to my team for being so united and productive, solve the problem in a group way and always help each other when we do not understand something, I am proud of all the work done, I love you friends.
    Mayra Fernández
    Engineering Student
  • For me it was a fun but stressful experience, but I learned to work better in a team and I also learned that it is possible to build a website in 10 hours and I will do it again, I want to thank all my team for their hard work and determination
    Evelyn Arias
    Engineering Student
  • My experience was very good because I was able to get to know teamwork better and get to know each other better with all the members and be able to have synergy. Give thanks for the support we have given each other and see together how to get the project afloat.
    Sandra Seminario
    Engineering Student
  • It's definitely one of the "Live changing experiences", totally! It made you step out of your comfort zone, and look for different answers with the existent technology in such a small time frame
    Miriam Molina
    Engineering Student

Data and types of plastics