SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — A Springfield High School freshman has been named one of the top 300 junior innovators in the nation for a project that uses machine learning models to diagnose pneumonia in chest X-rays.
Veer Garg started the project in eighth grade for a science fair, combining his interest in coding with science.
“I was really interested in Python, and I knew I would like to do a school science project relating to Python,” Garg said. “And once I learned about how widespread pneumonia was, affecting over 500 million people annually, I knew this was the perfect project for me.”
Garg trained machine learning models on 2,400 images of chest X-rays with or without pneumonia. The models are computer programs that learn to recognize patterns and classify information.
“For example, if the models were shown an image of a cardinal, it would be able to identify specific features of the cardinal, such as its distinctive red color, its beak shape and size, and its body shape and size,” Garg said. “I applied that exact same technique here when analyzing chest X-rays.”
Garg’s model was more than 90% accurate at diagnosing pneumonia. He said doctors are 75% accurate.
His goal is to bring the technology to areas where doctors are not readily available.
“I’m creating an app that will be available to health care specialists all over the world,” Garg said. “And I’m also planning to expand my model’s ability to multi-class classification, allowing you to distinguish between multiple lung diseases, such as tuberculosis and lung cancer, not just pneumonia.”
Garg presented his project at the state science fair, where 700 projects from across Illinois were showcased. The top 10% of performers at the state fair were invited to participate in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge, a program run by the Society for Science.
About 70 projects from Illinois and about 2,000 from across the nation were selected for the challenge, which Garg said began with roughly 60,000 projects at local science fairs nationwide.
Garg was selected as one of the top 300 junior innovators in the nation, one of nine from Illinois and the only one from central Illinois.
The recognition has fueled Garg to keep working on research and thinking about the future.
“I want to be a doctor because I would like to help as many people as I can and would like to make a positive impact on the world,” Garg said. “And so I feel like that would be a good career for me, as I’m really interested in science and health.”
Garg has already started his next project, which aims to reduce the progression of myopia, also known as nearsightedness.
