South African AI Pioneer Storm Rhoda Transforms Waste Sector After Success in Medical Machine Learning

From medical algorithms to Recycling Champions, entrepreneur Storm Rhoda is using AI and machine learning to drive social change in South Africa.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 2, 2026, 8:14 AM EDT

Source: The information in this article was sourced from MyBroadband

The Evolution of a Teenage Prodigy

Storm Rhoda first gained the attention of the global scientific community while still a student at Camps Bay High School. In Grade 11, he developed a neural network designed to identify pneumonia in chest x-rays and CT scans with a high degree of accuracy. The project, which won gold and silver medals at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, demonstrated that machine learning could be used as a critical diagnostic tool in the medical field. By 2019, Rhoda was presenting his findings at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, where his adult diagnosis model achieved a 90.3% accuracy rate.

Bridging the Gap in South African Recycling

Following his early success in medical AI, Rhoda shifted his focus toward solving structural inefficiencies in South Africa’s recycling sector. Through his startup, African Intelligent Machines, he launched Recycling Champions to support buy back centers that often operate without digital infrastructure. According to Rhoda, the goal is to use AI as a socio economic equaliser that empowers marginalised communities. The current system addresses the lack of enforcement in municipal recycling bylaws by providing a private, technology driven framework that rewards waste pickers for their contributions to the environment.

Empowering Waste Pickers Through Real Time Data

The core of the Recycling Champions innovation is an integrated hardware and software platform that allows micro enterprises to quantify recyclables with precision. By providing accurate weights and categorisation, the system ensures that waste pickers receive fair market value based on real time pricing from off takers. This level of transparency is transformative for the informal sector, as it replaces estimated payments with verifiable data. Furthermore, the system generates data logs that small businesses can use to apply for financial grants, effectively creating a formal paper trail for previously unbanked activities.