Within the ANDROMEDA project, funded by the MCST through the JPI Oceans mechanism, the University of Malta is launching a new citizen science campaign on microplastics this summer.
Engaged members of the public will be invited to extract microplastics from a standard volume of sand on beaches, as shown in the video clip just released on social media, and to take photos of the extracted microplastics. This new citizen science campaign will then avail itself of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by enabling the visual analysis of submitted microplastic photos by an algorithm developed in-house, with all the submitted microplastic records feeding in a European-wide database.
A flagship ANDROMEDA app launch will take place on a local beach on the 31st May and further information about the ANDROMEDA project can be gleaned through this website . Prof. Alan Deidun and Dr. Adam Gauci from the Oceanography Malta Research Group of the Department of Geosciences (Faculty of Science) are representing the University of Malta on this project.
Click on the video for more details.