Aarav Rao

What they built

Aarav Rao built SmartBin — an AI-powered physical waste-sorting bin that uses a Raspberry Pi and Gemini Vision AI to automatically classify and route waste into four compartments (recyclables, non-recyclables, organic, and e-waste) in real time, eliminating the need for manual sorting. He was inspired after watching his grandparents in India struggle with recycling guidelines, then observed the same confusion as a volunteer at the Plano International Festival. He also developed RecyclAI, a companion web application that uses AI and geolocation to tell users what specific items are recyclable in their city and where to dispose of them — solving the problem that recycling rules vary by municipality. His earlier prototype was built from an old trash can and his mother's food steamer; he iterated for years into a device scalable for schools and apartment complexes.

Verified track record

• [PictureURL Finder] High-priority page likely contains photos but no stable direct image link extracted from automated extraction: (attempted: og:image, twitter:image, img src, srcset; extracted text did not include image URLs). Texas Standard / Texas Public Radio feature (April 21, 2026): https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/aarav-rao-recycling-recyclai-smartbin-texas/ (source)
• YouTube — SmartBin at GIFT2025 (Global Innovation Field Trip) (source)
• 1st Place, DFW Youth Climate Conference & Entrepreneurship Competition 2025 (UT Dallas)
• Top Innovator Award, 2025 National Innovator Challenge (Hewitt Learning) — qualified to represent USA at Invent Future Global Innovator Challenge (IFGiC) NOTE (2026-04-25): High-priority sources checked (Texas Standard + STEM for Others profile page). Could not extract a stable direct image URL (no og:image/img src returned via automated extraction). Leaving PictureURL unchanged per source-priority rule.