SMART project wins first AI Moonshot Challenge

The first edition of the AI Moonshot Challenge distinguished the SMART project as the winner of the Call , which was awarded 500,000 euros to develop a solution that uses satellite data and artificial intelligence to combat pollution in the oceans. The winner was announced this Thursday, December 3, during the Web Summit 2020.

The SMART project was the proposal put forward by the consortium led by CERENA-IST, which includes the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory (FEUP), the Associate Laboratory Laboratory Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM), Instituto Hidrográfico and MIT-Portugal, and which proposes the application of various advanced Artificial Intelligence concepts, with a particular focus on "Physics Informed GANs and Deep Neural Networks", and combining them with satellite images to develop a solution to mitigate the problem of plastic in the ocean.

Using satellite data from the Copernicus program, the SMART team intends to determine the appropriate frequencies for detecting plastic in bodies of water. This information will be complemented with advanced models that simulate the behavior of the ocean to increase the probability of detecting plastics, a mission made difficult by the size of the debris and the resolution of the satellite images currently available.

The AI Moonshot Challenge, promoted by the Portuguese Space Agency in cooperation with the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Unbabel, the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Innovation Agency (ANI) and Web Summit, is an international Call for disruptive ideas that combine satellite data and Artificial Intelligence to detect plastics in the oceans. The Call will have a new edition in 2021, and the rules for participation will be announced shortly.