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CLIPS: Continual Learning Infrastructure for Plastics Sorting

  • Shivm Mehta
  • , Vaishali Maheshkar
  • , Charuvahan Adhivarahan
  • , Karthik Dantu
  • Williamsville East High School
  • SUNY Buffalo

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Plastics detection using mobile apps can greatly assist in plastics sorting at the source and allow great improvements in the percentage of plastics that are recycled. Previous work such as DeepWaste and MWaste has tackled general waste classification, including plastics, but few efforts focus on real-time plastic type identification on mobile devices. CLIPS addresses this gap by developing a mobile app in combination with a cloud service that enables plastic-material classification. Further, CLIPS utilizes a continual learning architecture to adapt the model to the local stream of plastics, allowing for greater detection accuracy over time. We demonstrate that our approach can improve performance by 37% through continual learning compared to a pre-trained model. We also demonstrate a positive backward transfer of +27% and a forward transfer of +19.63% with continual learning over time.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2025 24th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, ICMLA 2025
EditorsM. Arif Wani, Taghi M. Khoshgoftaar, Huanjing Wang, Kehan Gao, Safak Kayikci
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1197-1204
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9798331559809
DOIs
StatePublished - 2025
Event24th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, ICMLA 2025 - Boca Raton, United States
Duration: Dec 3 2025Dec 5 2025

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2025 24th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, ICMLA 2025

Conference

Conference24th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications, ICMLA 2025
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBoca Raton
Period12/3/2512/5/25

Keywords

  • Continual learning
  • MobileNet
  • deep learning
  • mobile applications
  • plastic classification
  • recycling
  • sustainability

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