Young IT prodigies
Today computers are everywhere and the Internet has established itself in everyday life. This has led to a new generation that is growing up with computers and the Internet as a completely natural part of their lives. The future of the IT industry belongs to them.
We looked around and found a few astonishing kids who really seem to have a bright future ahead of them in the IT field, all of them doing wonders before turning 15 years old. One thing we noticed is that there seems to be a race going on with several claiming to be the youngest MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional), although the article sources may be from different years.
So here we present a list of kids less than half our age and probably a lot smarter than we are:
Arfa Karim Randhawa
Born in 1996, this girl from Pakistan became a Microsoft Certified Professional in C# programming at the tender age of nine (and eight months). She was introduced to computers at age 6 and it took her four months to prepare for the certification examination.
Babar Iqbal
Babar comes from Pakistan and broke the world record by becoming the youngest Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) ever at age nine. He was already a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Certified Internet Web Professional Associate (CIW-A).
Scott Goodson
Scott Goodson grew up reading thick computer manuals for fun. At age 11 he started his own computer-repair business. With the school board’s permission, he entered college at age 13 and plans to major in electrical engineering and computer science.
Seth Mridul
At age four, Seth was already modifying computer games and from there it went on. By age 11 he was a Microsoft Certified Professional and had qualified for the CISCO Certificate Network Associate (CCNA) and knew several programming languages such as Java and C++. By now he will also have completed a three-year advanced 3D animation course at Cambridge University (which apparently took him three months).
Mohammed Eisa
Egyptian Mohammed Eisa holds an ITE certificate from Cisco and is hoping to also add CCNA and CCNP. He is 12 years old.
More information (Last paragraph in the article)
S. Chandra Sekar
He started programming at the age of eight and was a Microsoft Certified Professional at age nine. When he was ten years old he became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and the year after he got the Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate.
Bhupika Yashpal Gautam
In 1999, at age five years and eleven months, Bhupika passed an examination which included practicals and theory in C, Unix, Foxpro, Lotus and Wordstar and also questions about hardware, architecture and system analysis. The exam is usually reserved for people over 18, but Bhupika passed everything.
Ajay Puri
At age three he became the youngest software kid/web designer in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He started using the computer when he was a year old and surprised his parents by sending his grandfather an email when he was 18 months old.
More information (Article also mentions several other computer whiz kids)
Afsah Shafqat
She has the following certifications, all taken before turning 15 years old: Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP), Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD), IBM Certified Object-Oriented Analyst and Designer, IBM Certified XML Developer, Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) and IBM Certified J2EE Developer.
It’s quite amazing what an early start these kids have. If they have reached those levels at such a young age, what will they be able to accomplish when they turn 20? Or 30? The mind boggles.
We also noticed a certain lack of Western kids in when we searched around for “whiz kids”. Are our kids spending too much time playing video games? 
There’s no denying that 
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The New England Patriots held what seemed to be a commanding lead (17-15) with five minutes left of Super Bowl XLVI last night. But the New York Giants came back and managed to win with 21-17.
Brian H
June 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am
While laudable for their efforts, becoming certified by some corporation does not a genius make.
Gexla
June 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The reason you don’t see as many western kids is because people outside of the U.S. put a higher value on silly alphabet soup certificates and pretend that makes them special. Certificates are not what kids are passionate about. Adults looking for a raise are passionate about certificates, that means these kids are being pushed by their parents to do these things. These kids would be better off playing video games and getting into trouble with their friends.
Mike
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 am
Don’t forget about Dmitri Gaskin. As one of the core developers for the Drupal Project http://www.drupal.org, he also maintains several contributed modules and themes for the open source content management system. At the age of 12, Dmitri was too young to participate in Google’s Summer of Code program (for college students), or Google’s Highly Open Participation program (for high school students). So what did he do? He mentored projects instead.
John
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:09 am
@Glexa – it’s idiots like you who give America a bad name.I think America has some good young prodigies too. Every country does. Your statement: “The reason you don’t see as many western kids is because people outside of the U.S. put a higher value on silly alphabet soup certificates and pretend that makes them special.” just reflects on how you are an a human being, short-sighted, self-centric, egoistical, misinformed and just a plain moronic ass. I pity your kids, if any.