Age doesn't matter. This was proved once again when a 14-year-old boy was recently hired at Elon Musk`s SpaceX. His name is Kairan Quazi. The 14-year-old boy is all set to work as a new software engineer. Quazi was offered a job after he passed the company's 'technically challenging' and 'fun' interview process. Quazi is the youngest person to ever be hired by SpaceX. But who is Kairan Quazi?
San Francisco-based Quazi is a graduate of Santa Clara University`s (SCU) School of Engineering. In a post on Linkedin, Quazi said that he is going to work in SpaceX`s Starlink team. At just nine years old, Quazi enrolled at Las Positas Community College. Quazi has earned a degree in Associate of Science (Mathematics) with highest distinction. `When I first started (at Santa Clara University), people were really intrigued,` he said. `But after a few days, I think the novelty wore off and I think a lot of them realised that I`m a pretty normal person.`
`I will be joining the coolest company on the planet as a Software Engineer on the Starlink engineering team. One of the rare companies that did not use my age as an arbitrary and outdated proxy for maturity and ability,` he added.
According to his LinkedIn bio, the whiz kid has hands-on experience of `Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) through a multi-year co-op at a Fortune 100 technology company and a summer internship at a VC-backed cyber intelligence start-up`.
At Las Positas, Quazi was also a STEM tutor, and was `one of the most sought-after members of the tutoring staff`. `I went from being a third grade mutineer to really feeling validated intellectually,` Quazi said.
Quazi said working on generative AI with Lama Nachman, Director of Intelligent Systems Research Lab at Intel Labs, changed his `career trajectory`. Quazi thanked his mentors, including from SCU and Intel, who gave him opportunities to see beyond his age. `I am forever grateful that you recognised my value, trusted my abilities, and invested in my growth. I am excited to carry these cultural lessons into my career,` Quazi said.
(With inputs from IANS)
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