Virginia students use AI to find new ways to detect Alzheimer’s

ASHBURN, Va. - Three Virginia high school friends are using artificial intelligence to search for new ways to detect Alzheimer’s and their work is already drawing international attention.

The teens, Siddharth Nara, Ajay Vinjamuri and Achyut Kumar, are balancing college applications, acceptance letters and everyday pressures of being students while also making their make into medical research. 

Nara is an incoming senior, Kumar is a junior and Vinjamuri is preparing to attend Stanford University.

What we know:

Instead of spending their summer on typical teen activities, they built Synaptical, a research website that uses artificial intelligence to explore new approaches to detecting and potentially treating dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. 

For Vinjamuri, the project is personal. He lost his grandfather to Alzheimer’s in 2020. Nara and Kumar brought their own interest in computer science, AI and medical research to the effort.

Their work has already reached a global audience. Nara recently presented their research at a United Nations conference, putting their project on an international stage.

The three are part of a growing generation of young researchers exploring how artificial intelligence could reshape the future of medicine before finishing high school. 

For now, they remain students focused on learning, building and pursuing their goals, but they say their mission goes beyond college admissions or recognition.

They want to keep researching, keep innovating and, most importantly, keep doing it together.