In Situ Microplastic Detection on a Bionic Turtle

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Evan Budz · Ontario, Canada
Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations ($50,000) · Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair · 2026

Abstract

An underwater holographic camera with on-board classification, carried by a self-propelled turtle-shaped robot, so that microplastic counts are taken in the water rather than from samples carried back to a laboratory.

What they found

The result, in the terms the project itself reported it.

Reported 94% accuracy identifying microplastic particles smaller than a red blood cell.

Why it worked

ResearchForge's reading of the public record — not the students' words, and not the judges' reasoning.

Measuring in place removes the step where the sample changes on the way to the bench. The robot is not decoration — it is what makes an in-situ measurement possible at all.

Key methods

Underwater digital holography
On-board image classification
Autonomous robotic platform
In-situ measurement rather than collected samples

What to take from this

ResearchForge's reading of the public record — not the students' words, and not the judges' reasoning. Borrow the habits and decisions, never the project itself.

Ask what your sampling step does to the thing you are measuring before you design around it
An accuracy figure needs the hard case attached: the size class here is what makes 94% mean something

Archive entries are summaries compiled for study. Read them for how a project was structured, argued, and defended — not as a template to reproduce. Copying someone else's project is the one thing that will end yours.

Compiled by ResearchForge from the Society for Science public award announcement linked on this record. Names, hometowns, project titles and reported results are as published. The "why it worked" and "what to take from this" notes are ResearchForge's editorial reading of that public record — they are not statements by the students and not the judges' rationale. All rights to the original projects remain with their authors; no project materials are rehosted here.