Vision-enabled Environmental Monitoring Sensor
Microplastics (MPs, <5 mm) have become a global concern due to their vast and growing threat to the marine and freshwater environment. Without significant action, there may be more plastics than fish in the ocean, by weight, by 2050 – as noted by World Economic Forum. There is a lack of technologies for rapidly and accurately identifying and quantifying MPs in the aqueous environment. Through Clarkson’s Team Science 2022 grant, we formed a multidisciplinary team to be led by Prof Abul Baki and supervised by Prof Thomas Holsen. We have been developing the camera-based methodology for MPs’ real-time detection, tracking, and counting in freshwater environments through real-time object detection on the embedded processor. As we have finished our pilot study and come up with a new vision technology, we are now applying to several NSF grants for broader implementation and possible commercialization.