The newest employee at Elon Musk’s SpaceX is just 14 years old. Kairan Quazi, who graduated with an engineering degree from Santa Clara University last week, will soon begin working for the space and exploration company.
Born to Bangladeshi parents in California, Quazi grew up in the area his entire life. Even from a young age, his exceptional intelligence could not be ignored. According to The Los Angeles Times, Quazi reportedly had an IQ above the 99.9th percentile when he was 9 years old.
He and his family agreed that skipping the rest of elementary school after the third grade and enrolling in community college would allow Quazi to learn more from work that matched his level. He then transferred to Santa Clara University at age 11 and graduated last Saturday on June 17, CBS News reports.
A month ago, Quazi was offered a software engineering position from SpaceX, according to his post on Instagram.
CNN News18 reports that Quazi shared this big news on LinkedIn, before his account was deleted due to the strict age limit of 16 and over. He expressed his excitement about joining “the coolest company on the planet” because he believes that they are working on “problems that matter.”
Santa Clara University also congratulated Quazi on his accomplishments, wishing him good luck.
“At just 14, Kairan Quazi will be the youngest graduate in Santa Clara’s 172-year history. What’s next for him? Heading to Washington state with his mom, Julia, to become SpaceX’s youngest software engineer,” Santa Clara University wrote.
At SpaceX, Quazi will be assigned to the engineering team at Starlink, the company’s satellite broadband internet service. The Starlink system is designed to deliver high-speed internet to customers anywhere on Earth using thousands of broadband relay stations in multiple low-altitude orbits.
Quazi expresses his gratitude towards Space X saying they were “one of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability,” according to The National News.
According to CBS News, SpaceX will not be violating child labor laws by employing Quazi, as he meets the minimum legal age to work under federal and Washington state law.
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