North Texas Teen Creates AI Cancer Detection App, Flies to Tokyo to Present It
Jul 11, 2025
by David Seeley. Jun 25, 2025
Little Elm’s Sachchit Balamurugan, an incoming senior at TOPS, flew to Japan Friday to present his ACC cancer detection app at the International Young Researchers’ Conference. He’s also won first place at a BPA national mobile app competition, won an award at the NASA Space App Challenge, started a nonprofit called Youth Opportunities in Tech Innovation—and done lots, lots more.
When you were in high school, did you make mostly B’s and have nothing under your yearbook photo but your name? If so, get ready to meet your opposite—because Sachchit Balamurugan has already racked up several lifetimes of achievement. And he’s not even a senior yet.
Sachchit, an incoming Little Elm senior at Texas Online Preparatory School (TOPS), a tuition-free online public school that serves students in grades K-12 across Texas, is in the middle of a trip across the world thanks to his latest achievement.
Last Friday, he flew from DFW Airport to Tokyo, Japan, to present an AI-powered early cancer detection tool at the prestigious International Young Researchers’ Conference at the University of Tokyo. He’ll be presenting the AI tool and his related research at the conference this Saturday.
The AI model he developed combines MRI imaging, transcriptomic data, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and interpretable AI to enhance diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC).
Think that’s impressive enough for one teen? Just wait—there’s lots more.