Engineering is one of the most preferred professional degrees sought after among degree aspiring students. Engineering reaches the top of the list because it offers a wide variety of job opportunities. But did you know some fantastic youngsters became engineers before the age of your typical college-aged student?
Engineers can help solve problems that are important in today’s society. An engineer could control and prevent pollution, create advancements in technology, explore new worlds, or even develop a new medicine. Engineers will work with a large pool of talented people in small cities, big cities, rural areas, and remote wilderness. With engineering, the possibilities are almost limitless.
In this article, we’re going to talk about some of the youngest engineers in the world. We feel this is important information to share because it’s never too early to get your youngest interested in engineering, even if that’s not a degree-seeking option they’d like to pursue.
Tanishq Abraham
Tanishq Abraham, an Indian-American student, became an engineer at the age of 15. He is one of the world’s youngest engineering graduates.
Abraham graduated high school at the age of 10 with a 4.0 GPA. At the age of 11, he obtained 3 associates degrees in math and physical sciences, general science, and language studies - also with a 4.0 GPA.
In 2018, when Abraham was just 14, he earned his degree in the field of biomedical engineering from the University of California, Davis. Abraham graduated with the highest honors of summa cum laude. At the age of 15, he joined the college's Ph.D. program.
Abraham created a device that reduces the complications when measuring a burn patient’s heartbeat without any physical contact with the skin, which could cause the patient more pain and discomfort.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Abraham is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering while being a teaching assistant.
Nirbhay Thacker
Nirbhay Thacker, Gujarat, is another young graduate of engineering. At the age of 16, Thacker completed his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Gujarat Technological University.
Thacker completed this 4-year college degree in just one year. He has earned the Young Achiever Award from the World Education Congress. Thacker told DNA that he would like to complete all 5 branches of engineering - electrical, mechanical, computer, instrumentation, and chemical.
According to his LinkedIn, Thacker is currently a student at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.
Samhitha Kasibhatta
Samhitha Kasibhatta, Telangana, obtained a Bachelor’s in Engineering in Electrical and Electronics at 16. She is the youngest female ever to have passed Engineering in the standard 10+2+4 pattern of education.
Kasibhatta secured a cumulative 8.85 GPA for her bachelor’s degree from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad.
At the age of 17, Kasibhatta was the youngest to reach the 95.95 percentile of the Common Admission Test and later joined IIM Calcutta.
According to her LinkedIn, Kasibhatta is now a Doctoral student at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.
Saad Nasser
Saad Nasser, Bengaluru, has an entirely different story than Abraham, Thacker, or Kasibhatta in that Nassar does not hold a college degree.
At the age of 1, Nasser was not playing with toys like most children his age, instead, he was looking inside them. At age 2, Nasser was taking all of his toys apart to satisfy his own curiosities. By age 5, Nasser was reading books from his father’s library on Java programming.
At age 7, Nasser completed a book on C++ programming. In 2013 Nasser had completed Stanford's online classes on databases and cryptography. In 2014 Nasser completed courses in computational neurosciences, circuits and electronics, and statistics from Udacity, MIT, and the University of Washington.
By 2017, at the age of 14, Nasser founded an autonomous vehicle startup company called Ati Motors, based in Bengaluru. Nasser left schooling after Class-4 and is entirely self-taught and homeschooled beyond that.
Michael Kearney
While he’s not a graduate in the engineering field, Michael Kearney does hold the record of the world’s youngest college graduate in the Guinness World Book of Records. Kearney was just a mere 10-years old in 1994 when he graduated from the University of South Alabama with a degree in Anthropology.
This record was thought to have been broken by a young Belgium boy, Lauret Simons, who was 9-years old at the time. In 2020 his parents had pulled him out of the program due to differences in opinion on how quickly he could graduate and complete his studies before his 10th birthday.
Engineering is Everywhere!
Why become an engineer? Because you get to do some really cool stuff. As an engineer, you’ll get to be the first to try out new technology or be the one to develop something fun and cool - like designing an under-the-sea house. If you love amusement parks, you can create your own. If you like plants, you can take an adventure and maybe discover one that’s never been discovered and published before. The possibilities are endless with engineering.
Engineers are involved in making all the wonders of the future world a reality. That’s a fantastic thing to be a part of.
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