Alex Knapp, an undergraduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Cincinnati, was named a recipient of the 2026 Goldwater Scholarship for his work using artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve diagnostic imaging. The announcement was made on May 5.
The recognition from the Goldwater Foundation highlights Knapp’s contributions to health outcomes and medical discovery through technology. The scholarship supports undergraduates who show exceptional promise in science, engineering, or mathematics.
Knapp completed most of his cooperative education positions at the Artificial Intelligence Imaging Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He said, “Being able to work — from an experience point of view, a financial point of view — I think it absolutely makes sense. The experience of co-op is invaluable and also just incredibly enjoyable.”
His early research included working in the Biomedical Acoustics Laboratory led by T. Douglas Mast, where he used machine learning to track tongue positioning in speech therapy systems for children. Later projects involved developing methods to test and improve AI systems’ ability to identify unusual or complex patient cases in medical imaging without relying heavily on costly expert physician data.
Knapp is also helping develop techniques that use computer-generated tumors added to MRI scans to train AI models for detecting liver cancer in children—a rare disease with limited real patient data available.
He encourages other students interested in machine learning because “Machine learning can be applied to any field. Right now, I’m working in medical imaging, which is great, but since machine learning is a generalized technology that can be applied to information, you can work in any sector,” Knapp said.
While acknowledging concerns about misuse of AI technologies by bad actors, Knapp pointed out positive developments: “There was a group awarded the Nobel Prize last year for amazing work in protein folding. It’s being used for drug discovery and for medical imaging diagnosis,” he said. “There is a positive impact that technology like machine learning can have if used the right way. There is a lot of good that can come.”
Outside academics and research, Knapp participates actively in intramural sports at UC and values balancing physical activity with academic pursuits: “I think it’s critical for people to have some activity that gets them completely away from whatever they’re doing… Keeping active is important to keep your mind ready for everything else that you do.”
Knapp plans to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering and minor in computer science before pursuing doctoral studies focused on advancing AI applications within medical imaging.
