CleanMe!

A machine learning, artificial intelligence recognition software aimed at identifying, warning, and notifying underrepresented and neglected communities of potentially dangerous environmental conditions through a grassroots, citizen-science approach.

In 2018, EPA case studies revealed an evident difference between environmental conditions based on socioeconomic status, specifically within the Durham-Raleigh area (North Carolina) and our school: the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM). A subsequent study by the EPA further concluded that 93% of environmental resources are going to stable communities rather than tackling struggling, underrepresented communities. Part of this environmental disparage is because agencies like EPA do not have streamlined methods for determining areas of weak environmental support; thus, there is a critical need to provide an accurate, accessible solution.

The advantage of NCSSM is that many students come from different regions in North Carolina, and our students can assess the environmental impact from their home regions. Unfortunately, over 90% of our students found the same problems in their community: over-construction, polluted waterways, and numerous abandoned building sites and garbage piles. Specifically, in NCSSM’s surrounding community, we see neglected homes in Durham and poor building-nature ratios throughout the city; construction-waste secreted from these sites spreads pollution to other areas and our campus ---sometimes smog-covered mornings, other times contaminated ponds. 

Even when the student population (in coordination with the school board) tried to solve this problem, a nonconcentric ideology was adopted. Sectors barely scratch the surface of the environmental crisis, and as funding is so limited, most of the campus’ pressing issues are left unsolved and malignant. Waste is left strewn around our lawns, garbage is never disposed of properly, and oil leaks are recurrent throughout campus. While this is a pressing issue on our campus, it is not limited to North Carolina--- this problem is also prevalent throughout the United States. 

"CleanMe!" (our innovation) hopes to employ a hybrid machine-learning recognition application and soil/water-sampling device model for citizens to assess the environment near them. We can record the drastic changes municipally by systematically detecting soil and water quality changes over time. Since our design for the CleanMe! is pretty simple; we aim to mass-scale distribute to all residents for scientific plotting, analysis, and testing. This will ensure a large dataset is established for testing in technologically-challenged areas.

The most critical problem is the need for more community involvement in environmental issues. We hope that our invention, CleanMe!, will bring attention to high-risk areas of environmental pollution and degradation and give a voice to marginalized communities that would otherwise be overlooked. One of our most prominent features is the ability to pinpoint precisely where unsanitary practices occur. This can alert federal authorities and highlight specific areas for environmental organization cleanup efforts, offering aid an individual would need to pursue the next step in the ecological sustainability journey.

CleanMe! is a community-friendly approach to promoting environmental sustainability --- consisting of an app and a soil sampling device, which work hand-in-hand to assess local soil and water quality. 

Our solution consists of two main components, the CleanMe! App and CleanMe! Shovel, both go hand in hand to serve their purpose of environmental sustainability. With the mass distribution of the CleanMe! Shovel, individuals can test the soil quality and upload their data into the open-source framework of CleanMe! App, allows agencies and regular people to access data and look at real-time recordings of soil/water quality in their local area, as well as areas they would otherwise be unable to collect the data for. As mentioned, the term “middle man,” is a perfect description of this product. It is a way for people to access the soil/water quality data, effectively making everyone their own “citizen scientist,” the app promotes awareness of current issues in the soil and water quality of their communities and ecosystems. The product itself, CleanMe! Shovel (reusable) is made entirely of recycled materials and effectively uses conservation practices.

To foster a sustainable community, existing passionate individuals come together, and play the role of citizen scientists, inspiring others to join. In this process, CleanMe! plays a significant role in the actions that are taken. By fostering interest and building a group that cares about the environment, and bringing awareness to local issues, the environment will receive greater raised awareness. Similar to existing citizen science projects, CleanMe! will allow everyone to access the data collected by the product, highlighting issues faced by specific areas. CleanMe! hopes to foster environmentalism and aims to promote environmental sustainability.

CleanMe! will impact nearby communities and residents living in the same environmental situation worldwide. Underrepresented and neglected communities strewn worldwide pose the most significant vulnerability to environmental sustainability.  In the current process for measuring environmental habitability, government officials take biannual samples of soil and water data to indicate if an area is environmentally harmed or damaged. However, this system is highly subjective and noninclusive (individuals usually sample a 10 x 10-mile area for efficiency and convenience). Due to this practice, many already underrepresented communities become even more neglected, and their lack of funding continues to decline. Through CleanMe! and our affiliations with local and national environmental organizations, CleanMe! can pinpoint areas of low environmental quality, warn authorities, and pressure municipal and statewide environmental organizations to distribute funding relative to our environmental score. This will not only benefit underrepresented local community members but also greatly alleviate the role of environmental agencies in mapping the entirety of the United States. Taking this grassroots, community-oriented approach is the first step in bringing inclusivity regarding environmental considerations.

Through NCSSM (host school) affiliations, students can connect with Duke University professionals to engage in machine learning and scientific computing fundamentals. Since CleanMe! recently partnered with MIT-Lemelson Program for Innovation, students will have the opportunity to discover application design and launch. Then, through partnerships with North Carolina Biogen and NIH-DEE (both located locally), students will be able to design and construct CleanMe! Shovel, a prototype to measure soil & water quality. As CleanMe! grows, students will begin pilot programs in Durham for local residents; we also plan to host meetings to encourage participation, resiliency, and creativity. Students will also be able to attend NCSSM-sponsored trips throughout North Carolina to: 1) improve CleanMe!’s database and 2) observe the dire consequences humans have on the environment. Lastly, we hope to patent CleanMe! as our contribution to fighting environmental sustainability locally and nationally.

To advance CleanMe! efficiently, we will create sub-teams for efficient translation. Students in CAD will have constructed multiple prototypes of CleanMe!, run pilot trials with local residents, and documented data to achieve a patentable final design. Students in CS will have constructed and tested multiple machine-learning models based on community environments through in-site visits or virtual tours. Students in Outreach will have published multiple explanatory videos online to teach CleanMe! to new users. Furthermore, all students will partake in community outreach events: encouraging mass usage of CleanMe! to build a more robust public representation and database. Documentation of all experimentation, surveys, and models will be published and archived for public use to improve CleanMe!. Lastly, with backing from BioGen and CAROLINA BIOLOGICS, CleanMe! will mass distribute models for no cost — providing the public with accurate and straightforward environmental monitoring.

At the beginning of CleanMe!, we sent community impact surveys to Durham residents to gauge their experiences with past environmental programs; responses from the surveys can help better implement CleanMe!. Through consulting local community representatives and environmental professionals, CleanMe! will greatly reduce environmental spending (~7.5x), increase grassroots participation (~10x) and decrease waste production (~500%). Specific community improvements include nature-inclusive areas for local businesses and redirection of greater funding towards areas in need (as marked by CleanMe!), potentially saving millions of dollars on timely, costly, and unneeded projects. CleanMe!’s prototype design and application are open-sourced to promote community participation. Lastly, we hope to educate young children through CleanMe!’s affiliate nonprofit, STEMable (www.stemable.net) — a program specifically designed for underrepresented minorities in underprivileged communities.

CleanMe! is the only device in the market that can provide point-of-care accessibility in measuring environmental sustainability through a panorama picture of a person's surroundings. CleanMe! also introduces the aspect of using machine learning recognition systems to provide an accurate and reliable assessment of environmental hazards through our curated "EnvironScore." Furthermore, with help from local organizations like NIH-DEE and NC BioGEN, we were able to integrate multiple databases to construct a holistic overview of environmental quality. CleanMe!'s uniqueness also stems from our desire to provide resources philanthropically --- including models paired with Cleanme! to distribute to residents to systematically and continuously test for soil and water data throughout their community. This trend in data can be used in public offices when determining the need for more funding to be applied in one community rather than the other. CleanMe! will completely revamp the environment-managing industry by setting precedents for future funding distribution and knowledge of critical communities in need of environmental support. Furthermore, markets will transition from government-dependent to consumer-dependent data as implementing ClenaMe! will lead to the advent of data for environmental monitoring.

Next year, CleanMe! will expand to over 7 countries with a new consumer base for database training. Specifically, CleanMe! would hope to generate 100,000 panoramas taken by over 5000 people from over 500 communities by next year. These pilot training programs will implore people to be more environmentally minded in their communities and provide promotional advantages to CleanMe! in scaling and brand recognition.

Another goal for CleanMe! is to generate cost-effective and portable soil and water-monitoring devices that can be distributed (free of charge) to communities in need. Currently, while CleanMe! have many prototypes, these prototypes can be made more accessible and cost-effective through polymer substitutions or other methods. 

Furthermore, we plan to release our designs, code, and prototypes by next year so the general public can engage, edit and revise CleanMe! for suitable usage worldwide. Since CleanMe! is trained on a collection of databases, using specific databases may be better than extrapolating from multiple databases. While CleanMe! will no longer have proprietary physical data by next year, company affiliations and brand recognition will likely fund the continuing distribution of cost-free CleanMe! products around the world. To clarify, CleanMe! will still keep control of the root code in the CleanMe! trianing model --- just additions to CleanMe! will now be available without strenuous partnerhsips.

By utilizing an algorithmic model created to identify and isolate locations where soil and water are likely to be contaminated, CleanMe! acts as an environmental “middleman” of sorts. Communities can use this free-on-demand app to assess their local soil and water contamination levelsindividually.

Our solution consists of two main components, the CleanMe! App and CleanMe! Shovel; both go hand in hand to serve their purpose of environmental sustainability. With the mass distribution of the CleanMe! Shovel individuals can test the soil quality and upload their data into the open-source framework of CleanMe! The app allows agencies and regular people to access data and look at real-time recordings of soil/water quality in their local area and sites they would otherwise be unable to collect the data. As mentioned, the term “middle man” perfectly describes this product. It is a way for people to access the soil/water quality data, effectively making everyone their own “citizen scientist,” the app promotes awareness of current issues in the soil and water quality of their communities and ecosystems. The product itself, CleanMe! Shovel (reusable) is made entirely of recycled materials and effectively uses conservation practices.

Implementing biopolymers allows CleanMe! to maintain our product's sustainability and maintain the system's efficiency by using non-degradable materials. With the effectiveness of this product unparalleled to anything currently in the market, directly due to the innovative use of biopolymers and the functionality of the product itself, it will be revolutionary in the existing soil/water conservation departments. Once a test has been run on the shovel, the data is transferred directly to the app, which is available for all to see and is processed to give the individual a proper reading of the water or soil quality in their test sample. With these results, people can take the appropriate measures that ensue. 

Another critical point here is the fact that CleanMe! App and Shovel are entirely free for use. We aim to take advantage of grants, and subsidy options, which will pave the way for more individuals to contribute to this movement, increasing the sustainable development associated with CleanMe!

By fostering interest and building a group that cares about the environment, and bringing awareness to local issues, the environment will receive greater raised awareness. Similar to existing citizen science projects, CleanMe! will allow everyone to access the data collected by the product, highlighting issues faced by specific areas. CleanMe! hopes to foster environmentalism and aims to promote environmental sustainability.

Currently, during our pilot data for 4 countries (China, India, Pakistan, and the United States), we have had a total of 12,000 environmental scans scattered throughout the world from a total of close to 200 users (each user had the option to submit 10-50 photos for our pilot testing data trial). Hopefully, with funding from MIT SOLV[ED], we can officially launch our application and advertise to the general public. Next year, we will be able to meaningfully impact over 1,000 people living in 7 states with new connections from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Switzerland; through affiliate programs from local universities, we will also begin a mass push for North Carolinians to use CleanMe! daily.

Financial barriers include: the inability to roll out the application due to database storage and insufficient funding for the expansion and maintenance of CleanMe! and its affiliated prototype for free.

Legal barriers include: introducing a foreign app in countries with strict foreign policies, litigations in application inaccuracies, and problems in pressuring local government representatives to tackle issues using data from CleanMe!

Market barriers include: introducing a relatively new app to an unknown market with no previous usage of environmental apps, the possibility of disinterest in the environment, and the chance of an unappealing applicaiton without incentives in place.

CAROLINA Biologics: providing resources and software access to designing artificial recognition in CleanMe!'s model 

North Carolina Biogen: Guiding the business aspect of CleanMe!; providing public databases of environmentally unfriendly locations for machine training of CleanMe!

Duke University: Providing foundry space for fabrication and computer-aided design for CleanMe!

North Carolina State University: Providing computer science mentorship on scientific computing in CleanMe!

We have established that CleanMe!'s business model will follow a nonprofit-based structure; key populations include communities affected by environmental inequality, passionate environmental activists, and ordinary citizens wanting change in how current environmental measures are government today. Beneficiaries include the community living in an environmentally-unfit area and government agencies (e.g., EPA, NIH-DEE) to pinpoint the root of environmental pollution using CleanMe!'s gradient feature. 

CleanMe! products and applications are open-sourced and publicly available for the potential that CleanMe! can be coded more efficiently, built more durable, and assessed more accurately. CleanMe!'s revenue stream comes from advertisements, environment-centered grants, and environment-friendly consumer donations --- mainly relying on donations from the general public. CleanMe! is a simple and accessible device to aid in identifying, warning, and alerting people in both individual communities and beauracratic offices of potential environmental hazards. 

Furthermore, CleanMe! is dedicated to educating the young generation of future inventors.  Educational sessions through CleanMe!'s affiliate nonprofit, STEMable (www.stemable.net), will be held to educate the young generation on STEM education and innovation --- for them to create devices like CleanMe! for future problems needed to be tackled.  

CleanMe! will be primarily funded through governmental and non-governmental donations. While CleanMe! will not be selling any services, we hope to remain self-sustainable through advertisements and partnerships with philanthropic organizations.

Through TacoBell's Ambition Accelerator, CleanMe! has raised over $2,000 in seed funding for developing the physical prototype and the application. Through partnerships with CAROLINA Biologics and North Carolina BioGen, CleanMe! have access to thousands of different environmental databases and previous envionrmental studies conducted in North Carolina. CleanMe! hopes to partner with more organizations in the future to cover expected expenses with creating improvements to the current prototype and application launch.