Teen hired by SpaceX after graduating from Santa Clara University
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Kairan Quazi, 14, just made history as Santa Clara University's youngest-ever graduate. The Bay Area's wonder kid earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and engineering, and completed graduate-level courses in machine learning, a branch of Artificial Intelligence.
So what's next for Quazi? "Next stop...SpaceX!!! I accepted a position as Software Engineer at one of the coolest companies on the planet! Thank you everyone for continuing to follow my crazy journey!" Quazi wrote in a post to his Instagram page, which included screenshots of his SpaceX job offer.
This summer, he will be moving with his biggest supporter, his mother Julia, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Washington to join SpaceX’s Starlink team, according to The Mercury News. SpaceX was "one of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability," Quazi wrote. He said that his dream is to "have a career tackling challenging issues and effecting radical innovation in service of the common good."
On top of being exceptionally brilliant, Quazi had an impressive resume to show during his SpaceX job interview. He interned for Intel Labs' Human AI Lab, working on advancing open-source predictive speech generation platforms. He's also fluent in multiple programming languages. Outside of academics, the Pleasanton-born prodigy said he enjoys practicing martial arts.
When he was 10, Quazi appeared on NEWS10's San Fancisco sister station to talk about going to college at such a young age. "He can code in 12 languages. I don't think I'm even smart enough to ask you a question," KRON news anchor Darya Folsom said. "I'm a little intimidated. How did you get into college when you were just nine years old?"
Quazi explained that he had to take a series of assessment tests before he was admitted into Las Positas Community College in the East Bay. At the time, he was still going to his regular 4th-grade elementary school classes during the day, and taking college classes at night. His much-older classmates couldn't help but snap photos of Quazi in class because they thought he was cute, Quazi said.
He was able to make friends in college and adjusted well, but his parents were not able to help him with his homework, he laughed. Despite his prodigy status, the teenager said he actually considers himself to be a "pretty normal person," Santa Clara University officials wrote.