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Vidya Bommanapally wins 2026 Nebraska Tech Award
The PhD candidate has been recognized for applied AI innovation across healthcare, education, and scientific research.
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Anushka Pathak - Wed, 25, Mar 2026
- 16:38 EDT
- 30
Vidya Bommanapally / Courtesy: LinkedIn
Indian-origin PhD candidate Vidya Bommanapally has been named the 2026 Tech Innovator of the Year by the Nebraska Tech Collaborative.
The award was presented at the 2nd Annual Nebraska Women in Tech Awards during the 2026 Nebraska Women in Tech Summit held at Kiewit La Vista in Omaha on March 6.
Bommanapally was recognized for her work applying artificial intelligence across healthcare, education, and scientific research.
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“Vidya Bommanapally was honored as Innovator of the Year for her ability to translate complex technical challenges into forward-looking solutions. Her work reflects the critical role research and innovation play in advancing Nebraska’s technology ecosystem and preparing the next generation of technical talent,” the organization’s award citation read.
As part of her research, she has developed artificial intelligence methods to improve retinal disease screening by automatically identifying the foveal center in retinal images, reducing manual interpretation and improving diagnostic accuracy. The work earned her a University of Nebraska Medical Center Innovation Award for its clinical relevance.
Her research also explores adaptive learning systems that tailor educational content and feedback to individual users, earning a Best Paper and Innovation Award from CISSE, an international conference focused on cybersecurity and information systems education.
In addition, her work extends to materials science and quantum education workforce initiatives, where machine learning is applied to support scientific research and workforce development in emerging technology fields.
“Being nominated itself felt like a very humbling experience; it also reinforces the fact that the work that I'm doing is impactful. But none of this would have been possible without support from my advisers and the co-workers I had the privilege to work with,” Bommanapally said in a video statement released by the organization
“It's important for women also to take part into this and get out there and get exposed to these exciting innovations that are going on. Just go out there and do what you do best,” she added.
The 2026 Nebraska Women in Tech Awards were supported by the Aksarben Foundation, along with partners including Kiewit and Google.
Bommanapally is currently a PhD candidate in information technology (artificial intelligence) at the College of Information Science & Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
She holds a master of science in computer science from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She completed her Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in computer science from Kakatiya University in Telangana, India.
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