AI-powered cameras are now watching Rottenwood Creek in Cobb County for floating trash, part of a student-built system aimed at intercepting litter before it reaches the Chattahoochee River.

Saam Grami, a mechatronics engineering senior at Kennesaw State University and Roswell native, installed the cameras as part of KSU's eight-week Summer Undergraduate Research Program. The system analyzes live video, recognizes different types of litter, places a digital marker around each object, and follows it downstream in real time. Grami trains the software on water-current data so it can predict where debris will drift next.

The end goal: guide autonomous cleanup robots to intercept trash before it flows into larger waterways.

"When it's raining, that's when trash is coming down," Grami told KSU News in a profile published Thursday, July 30. "If we can't detect it in the rain, our robot is kind of useless because that's when most of the trash is in the water."

Rain poses the project's toughest engineering challenge. Storms flush the heaviest loads of debris into creeks and rivers, but downpours also blur camera feeds and confuse detection algorithms.

Rottenwood Creek, which runs through central Cobb County near Cobb Parkway, empties into the Chattahoochee. The nonprofit Chattahoochee Riverkeeper holds annual litter cleanups along the creek, including at the Alford Preserve site. Globally, an estimated 19 to 23 million metric tons of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Grami grew up in Roswell building Lego sets and said he was unsure of his career path before discovering mechatronics at KSU, a field that blends mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science. His faculty supervisor, Professor of Mechatronics Engineering Matt Marshall, said Grami has done "a great job identifying and dealing with the real-world hurdles that invariably show up between a concept and its implementation."

Grami is set to graduate in fall 2026 and plans to enroll in KSU's Master of Science in Intelligent Robotic Systems program. His next research target: developing sensors that detect objects beneath the water's surface, expanding what autonomous systems can find and remove from local waterways.

Chattahoochee Riverkeeper organizes regular cleanups along Rottenwood Creek and other tributaries feeding the river corridor through East Cobb. Residents can check the organization's event listings for upcoming volunteer opportunities.