Everyone thinks that their child is a little genius.

As a childless person, I’ve often found myself listening, perplexed, to a parent go on about how intelligent their offspring is, usually while said offspring is off in the distance, eating mud or colliding with the coffee table for the hundredth time that day.

Having never raised a child, I have no frame of reference for what constitutes brilliance in a toddler. Maybe mud-eating is an early sign of advanced cognitive superiority.

I doubt it, but as I said, I’m no expert.

Then there’s Laurent Simons, whose parents had (and have) genuine bragging rights.

Laurent is about to become the youngest person to ever graduate with a degree in engineering.

Interesting Engineering has his story:

Nine-year-old Laurent is what we like to call a “prodigy”. Astonishingly, he started high school at the tender age of six, and he led a research project at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam because he was “bored” with how easy the school was. And, he was just seven years old when he got his high school diploma.

So he’s a real-life Young Sheldon. Got it. The kid continued to shine. In fact, he’s almost annoyingly smart.

He started Eindhoven University back in March 2019, and not more than nine months later, he is almost done with his final project. Upon his graduation as an Electrical Engineer, he will break the world record as the youngest university graduate.

He is extraordinary. Some of his stats:

Born in Belgium, he has an IQ of 145 and his interests range from mathematics to medicine. He recently became interested in the workings of computers. Also, he has a photographic memory which enables him to master subjects in a matter of days which would take ten weeks for other students

His parents say that their only concern is his happiness, and according to his father, if he wanted to “become a carpenter”, they’d be fine with that.

That’s an easy thing to say when your child has completed all of their schooling, including tertiary education, by the age of nine.

Most parents consider it a victory if they can get their nine-year-old to take an interest in eating vegetables. Wait, maybe that’s a sign of genius:

His genius brain doesn’t hold him back from pouting when the dinner is not to his liking. “He is just as stubborn as another nine-year-old child when he doesn’t like dinner. And that happens a lot!” his mother said.

Once Laurent has graduated he plans on solving the problem of the human lifespan, which he thinks is far too short.

I’ll be looking out for his progress.

[source:interestingengineering]