Limpopo teen wins silver in Bali at global science olympiad

LIMPOPO – Khanyisa Education Centre’s Dzunisa Chauke never imagined that his desire to stop people from being scammed would one day take him to Bali.

Chauke represented South Africa at the World Innovative Science Project Olympiad held in Bali, where he won a silver medal for his invention.

His project is a machine learning–based system designed to distinguish between AI-generated speech and real human voices by analysing features extracted from audio.

He said the idea was inspired by an article he read about individuals and a company that had been scammed after receiving phone calls that sounded exactly like trusted people, when in fact the voices were fake.

“I felt an urgency to work on a solution that could help reduce such risks and protect people from voice-based fraud,” Chauke said. “There is a growing concern that AI-generated voices are becoming almost indistinguishable from human voices, which creates serious risks in terms of cybersecurity and public safety.”

The project began at the school level during the Eskom Science Expo competition and progressed through district and regional stages before reaching the international platform.

Chauke said he still needs to conduct further testing to ensure the system is fully reliable before publishing it on various digital platforms.

The 17-year-old, who hopes to study computer science after school, said being selected to compete in Bali was an honour.

“Bali was an amazing experience, with very unique projects, a friendly and supportive environment, and exposure to different cultures. Coming back with a silver medal validated the hard work and discipline put into the project. It was also an honour to represent my country,” he said.

He said that he made valuable connections with students from Taiwan who competed in the same category. Chauke thanked his physical sciences teacher, Mathildah Musingarini, and Nico Swart, who mentored him throughout the project.