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Liu Jichen, founder and CEO of [Clear Plate](http://www. clearplate. com/)®, designed a mini-program that recognizes empty plates and rewards users with points. These points can be exchanged for gifts like books and cellphones, or better yet, they can be used to purchase charity meals donated to poor children in rural areas of China.

In 2016, Liu, a then student of Tsinghua University, noticed a popular campaign called "Leftover Party", where people broughttheir leftovers to eat together, intending to raise awareness of food waste. Liu and his classmatesorganized one such event, which was attended by hundreds of people. The successencouraged him to spread the concept of reducing food waste to a wider audience.

The idea of a mini-programstruck him at a dinner in 2017 when Liu dined at a restaurant, which rewarded diners who finished off their food. Liu found that the restaurant would give these diners a card every time and offer them small gifts when they collected a certain number of cards."Everyone who values food can enjoy a sense of gain at a lower cost," Liu said, noting that such an idea could be realized online.

He formed a team to work on the project. Yet it was quite a challenge for the AI system to identify the uploaded photos. Liu and his team, assisted by more than 1,000 others, spent half a year collecting over 100,000 samples across the country to train the digital brain.

"There were so many uncertainties in research and development. For our teammembers, the biggest challenge was whether we were confident enough to complete it," Liu said. They not only achieved their goal, but now, the mini-program has more than five million registered users. "We hope to inspire everyone to take action against food waste and to contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to global food security challenges," he added.