Saving the Earth? One annotated plastic bottle at a time!

We’ve said it time and time again: plastic pollution in marine environnement is a global threat. More than 350 million tons of plastic are produced every year and more than 15 million tons end up in our oceans. At Kili Technology, we wanted to do our part, and we did!

From Feb 14 to Feb 18, 200 eager developers, data scientists and tech enthusiasts joined us to annotate one of the biggest datasets in ocean cleaning. Our goal was clear: boats like Efinor Sea Cleaner are specialised in waste cleaning but they are not yet autonomous. Our dataset could help develop models and develop a fleet of autonomous cleaning aquatic drones, help guide boats targeting plastic riddled area, and so much more.

And we are one step closer!

On Feb 18, after hundreds hours of annotation by 200 participants, we annotated 100% of our dataset. More than 25,000 plastic bottles were identified and tagged on Kili Technology.

Now, our dataset is available on Hugging Face, free to be used by corporations and NGOs around the world. Feel free to keep annotating!

During this challenge, we met a lot of Earth conscious developers and data scientists. Many of them were anxious to begin and become our top labellers, either most accurate or most productive. Meet some of them!

Sharjeel

“I am a self-taught software development professional and have spent several years developing software products in various leadership and engineering roles. I am a licensed ham radio operator (K0DEV), a contributor to OpenStreetMap,  a big fan of open-source software, a techie, a runner, a cyclist, and an environmentalist.”

You can find Sharjeel on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Sshubam

“Currently I'm in my second year studying Computer Science from MAIT, Delhi. I'm exploring the depths of Machine Learning which is my main area of interest, alongside I am working on my own open-source Machine Learning platform MLharbour which aims to make machine learning simpler to understand for everyone. I see my future job as to make machine learning more better, accessible and use it to make this planet a better place for everyone.”

Meet Sshubam on LinkedIn or Twitter

Hartoyo Wahyu

“I’m currently focusing on Information Security, especially investigating its defensive aspect (Blue Team). My motto is to always be learning and helping others, and filling my bucket in this ocean of knowledge.”

Connect with Hartoyo on Twitter and LinkedIn!

A massive thank you to all 200+ participants of this challenge, stay tuned for our upcoming missions!