Eight-year-old tests chips for Actel, owns an oscilloscope

Sure, you had a paper route when you were a kid; heck, we bet you were even good at it. Well listen up buddy, your fond memories of childhood success are about to be completely disintegrated by Carson Page, an eight-year-old from Austin, Texas who really works for a living... evaluating chips for Actel. The boy, who's been working with the company since he was seven, apparently has a knack for the technical side of things, so much so that the chipmaker has been using him on a regular basis to suss out bugs, test software, and generally act like a super-genius at the drop of a hat. Apparently, the interest in technology comes from his father, a tinkerer who owns an electronic design company. Mark Nagel, a field applications engineer for Actel says about the kid's work, "We would ask what he liked and didn't like about it and he could explain it on a very high-end level," adding, "It's amazing; when you talk to him it's like you're talking to a regular guy doing design." A regular guy, indeed. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Via CNET]

[soviet_vexxer @ Oct 6th 2007 4:28AM]

Too bad everyone isn't born this smart.

[Paul @ Oct 6th 2007 4:50AM]

Most people have the potential to be that smart. You can blame your parents for any other outcome.

[suv4x4 @ Oct 6th 2007 6:23AM]

@Paul, yup, but keep in mind the capacity of most people is still limited.

You can teach your kid to be a chip designer at 7 but that comes at expense in other areas. The future is in specialization however, so I suspect we'll see that more and more.

A little 1-2 year old kid is a plasticine you can mold in any shape. Whatever he was in touch with, he'd form brand new structures in his brain to understand it, and the most common patterns associated with it.

In the common case, we learn less interesting and more generic stuff as kids, and build our "hardware base" upon that. Then we need to adapt our more generic knowledge to learn other concepts later in life.

It's like learning a second language. You may think you know it so well, your brain can't tell apart the two. But in fact your first language uses completely different part of your part than the ones you learned later in life.

School education in fact usually butchers the capacity of kids to learn something worth it while they still can, by feeding them useless garbage they forget later on.

[jptech @ Oct 6th 2007 4:59AM]

completely agreed Paul.

Everyone could be smart if it weren't for their extremely dumb parents.

My wife is an elementary teacher and the parents literally don't do anything.

They think it's the teacher's job to teach their child everything.

What a waste.

With my first child almost here, I can tell you this, he's going to be doing algebra before he's 8.

[felahughes @ Oct 6th 2007 5:13AM]

Is this such a great thing? The kid might turn out to be really smart. Rich even. Popular- maybe not. Happy probably not. Jeez- what chance will this kid have in the playground, at the prom or even with his own kids? There'snothing wrong with climbing trees and kicking a football.

[TEM @ Oct 6th 2007 5:23AM]

While I do agree that the quality of parenting is certainly important, you do have to agree that even that is more luck than anything else.

Nobody gets to choose their parents, as even if one possess the potential to be intelligent, without the proper parental support it is, as you said, a waste.

[Macindows @ Oct 6th 2007 5:40AM]

I agree with you, but why are the parents dumb? ;-)

[suv4x4 @ Oct 6th 2007 6:26AM]

"The kid might turn out to be really smart. Rich even. Popular- maybe not. Happy probably not. Jeez- what chance will this kid have in the playground, at the prom or even with his own kids? There's nothing wrong with climbing trees and kicking a football."

You're overestimating the world's needs for kids that can kick football.

There's nothing wrong in some kids growing up with different talents, and they can even be happy with it, and contribute to a better world.

Kids kicking football 24/7 had their chance, time to try some new things.

[suv4x4 @ Oct 6th 2007 6:33AM]

@felahughes

I thought I'd skip commenting on that, but. I noticed you seem to be buying a very often used cliche in movies where all people with superior intelligence or skills are "not happy".

Keep in mind those series are made to entertain the average folk, and the average folk are entertained by the fact that it in fact sucks to be super smart, and it's better to be simple folk, but "happy".

It's however, a myth. Smart kids can be just as happy and have a far more fulfilling life than a kid which grew up playing games and climbing trees all the time.

When you grow up, you learn a profession and spend your life utilizing it one way or the other. What better thing than having grown up to understand and love this profession better than most people out there, and be able to "think natively" in this field, and truly enjoy working in it.

Good thing generation change, since the previous generation will always try to "normalize" things, while new generation are not having such cumbersome burdens, and brave to try new things.

[apstewart @ Oct 6th 2007 1:18PM]

Agreed. My mother was a highschool math teacher in a city where a Ford assembly plant is the biggest employer. Of course, you don't need college to work there. Very few people even cared enough how their kids were doing.

[mushrooshi @ Oct 6th 2007 1:47PM]

I did algebra when I was 6...

[m16 @ Oct 6th 2007 5:05AM]

I was like that with my Radio Shack breadboard, designing circuits as a kid. Then girls happened and I discovered beer and slipped into mediocrity.

[bossmsx @ Oct 6th 2007 5:16AM]

Wow....and I thought I amazed my family when I 'fixed' my aunt's TV, at age 7, by simply re-adjusting the "brightness" control to where it was supposed to be. Now I feel so stupid.

[Dave Graham @ Oct 6th 2007 5:25AM]

Hahaha, I used to be considered a genius when I was 3-6 then public school (or whatever) made me the a-bit-above-average guy I'm today... Damn, I hope I can be considered an almost genius someday...

[Paris @ Oct 6th 2007 5:31AM]

Aren't there legislations against child labour?

[Mumblix Grumph @ Oct 6th 2007 6:01AM]

Somehow, I don't think the kid is slaving away in a cubicle for 40 hours a week.

He probably "plays" with the chips and then reports what he finds wrong.

To him it's probably a game.

[suv4x4 @ Oct 6th 2007 7:04AM]

"Aren't there legislations against child labour?"

You can't really accept this is right. The child must be abused, or unhappy, maybe his father beats him until he learns chip design.

I mean, that kid can't be smarter than me and not be punished for it, or be illegal, god damn it, I don't want to read about people superior to me!!!

I want to read being me is the best thing that can happen to anyone. I'll pay to hear it even.

[Richard @ Oct 6th 2007 5:45AM]

I too welcome our new 8 year old Super Genius overlords.

[Xavier Gill @ Oct 6th 2007 7:32AM]

If this was some Korean kid I wouldn't be that surprised but an American? Way to go!

[capagotks @ Oct 9th 2007 9:06AM]

i was thinking the same thing! rotflol.....why do they leave their own country, arent they smart enough there so they leave and outsmart everyone else and steal my spot at uni!

[bignumone @ Oct 6th 2007 9:13AM]

How cool! This is kind of how Richard Feynman got started. Don't knock it because this kid might be having fun and could end up telling us much about our world.
As for "you sacrifice in other areas", what a crock! That is not necessarily true, and if it is the case here, what areas are you talking about? He won't play football? Like the comment by m16, he should discover girls and beer? Uh huh, because alcoholic divorcees are happy, adjusted people.
I was/am above average, not a genius but excelled in school. I played soccer, basketball, football and dated more than most. I was/am very happy, and have lots of fun to this day...continue to learn new things and play soccer.
I also agree with suv4x4, in the movies and TV, scientists and people who have intellectual pursuits are portrayed as either evil, nutty, or both, but always generally unhappy. Rarely are they happy and well adjusted images of a person. This view is myopic and dead wrong. They are real people enjoying life and have added so much to society, what do the artists add? More lawsuits by the RIAA? Those that enjoy intellectual endevours just enjoy something different than the hollywood actor types do. To continually show these images of intelligent people demonstrates a jealous and bitter sort. How about this? All of the "artists" I see out there are screwed up, unhappy, druggies that add nothing to society.

[Heather @ Oct 6th 2007 10:30AM]

Hey:

@bignumone

When I was small, I was doing stuff like this gifted child is doing, but actually on a slightly higher scale - because in addition to my electronics skills, I also knew Latin and French, could play several musical instruments, and wrote my first novel at his age. I was speaking at 10 months and reading kindergarten level books at 18 months. My parents took me to Mensa and had me submitted to tests. At age 13, I scored an IQ of 197. According to Mensa at the time, 197 was "supragenius".

I now work as the executive producer of several original television series in Hollywood. Please don't categorize our entire industry and all of us who work in it. Generalizations are by their nature inaccurate.

[charlie @ Oct 6th 2007 3:18PM]

You should be getting a bit more than that then, since 192 would qualify you as the highest recorded IQ in the world, beating the current holder Nikos Ligeros (Also according to MENSA)

[Heather @ Oct 14th 2007 12:23AM]

I refuse to believe 192 is the world's record so far. I don't consider myself that unusual, or even that bright. I'm "unusually gifted" at a very wide array of creative things and can pick up a new language or musical instrument instantly, but that doesn't make me "smart". To this day, I consider myself fairly slow when it comes to interpersonal relationships, and I am completely clueless and detached when it comes to the social and dating rituals most people find very easy. At 39, and considered attractive, I have men coming on to me all the time but cannot sort out for the life of me what exactly men, dating, marriage and babies are for. The rest of the world has got this figured out and seems to by age 17.

I'm a complete dummy at those things, and I think Guinness needs to record so-called geniuses with greater scrutiny, because at 197 I hardly consider myself the top of the game. There are millions brighter than I.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 6th 2007 11:45AM]

Was there any mention of Llamas?

[john @ Oct 6th 2007 11:59AM]

Oh please... every kid is a "genius" at that age. Why can't parents just be honest about their little brats?

[Ducatisti @ Oct 6th 2007 1:03PM]

Kids are not blank disks - ready to be burned with whatever personality you choose for them.

Even a 2 year old child will tell you in many ways what they like and dislike.

Whether it's food or quantum physics - they're only going to pursue what interests them.

Kids can be harmed by over-bearing overzealous parents just as much as they can by ignorant do-nothing simpletons.

Happy kids that have enough time and encouragement to pursue the things that make them happiest are the ones who have the best chance of excelling in the adult world.

Of course, happiness doesn't have a darned thing to do with intellect. There are dumb happy people, and smart happy people.

[jmattick @ Oct 6th 2007 1:34PM]

How does this kid make time for picking his nose and going down the slide?

And don't get me started on the cooties factor. I just hope he's had his shot. He's gonna need it WHEN THE GIRLS WON'T COME ANYWHERE NEAR HIM DUE TO THE SIZE OF HIS... intellect. ;)

[jbcaro @ Oct 6th 2007 2:01PM]

Well, since he won't be able to get any girls,

I for one will welcome the future 18 year old uber-genius overlord's fully automated sexbots

[hussein E Rawat @ Oct 7th 2007 2:11AM]

firstly you have got to be pretty dumb if you believe everything you see on the television. being intelligent is a gift and if you can find your chosen path in life than at least life does not become a wasted life. As for being unhappy just because of being clever, i am sure there are a lot more people who would choose given the chance again to improve their level of education if there was a genie who would let them. See, for me the thing is that when people say it is better to be simple and happy than to be educated and unhappy, that is a load of nonsense. yes, unhappiness can be caused by many things not just your level of education. But there is one thing education gives you and that is knowing that you wil have used you precious grey matter wisely. oh and by the way i failed miserably in school and came out with no qualifications so for me i admire people who are gifted in this way.

[cswallow01 @ Oct 6th 2007 2:58PM]

I believe with this kind of advancement, there's always somehow a downside to it.

The kid could have some form of high functioning autism, but seem normal. Or, if somewhat normal, might not develop his social skills as well as they should be.

The kid may be doing this for fun, right now, but I would venture to say that there may be a down-side or two by doing this at his age, in the future. There's always emotional/psychological issues/needs that have to be dealt with, when you advance so quickly. They need time to develop and grow. The human mind is not a 24x7 grinder. It just couldn't handle the stress, be it a game or otherwise. Every part of the human mind needs time to explore, grow and mature.

But maybe he's outright lucky!!! I don't know... Career-wise he may succeed, but socially and emotionally he may run into an issue or two...

[ariane @ Oct 6th 2007 3:29PM]

a friend of mine did all kinds of things when she was younger, she played about 7 different instruments, all on a very high level, played all kinds of sports and did alot of other things besides that. but whenever i would ask her "hey, can i come over to your place today?" she would say, no because today i have tennis, swimming and piano class. maybe you can come next week friday? this was when she was in primary school.
now we are both young adults, she quit every single thing she used to do when she was little and almost flunked out of school on top of that.

what you do at young age really has little to do with what you will end up doing as a grown up in my opinion.

[jimmyfinch @ Oct 6th 2007 4:35PM]

I know this kid.

He is actually a 36 year old, from 2035 who was surprised to wake up one morning, back in his 5 year old body.

He is only working until he has enough money to invest in the up-and-coming Korean super corporations that will form when the north and south finally unify, and dominate the next generation of Internets technology, led by Kim Jong-il.

[shadow @ Oct 7th 2007 2:18AM]

i somehow managed to get on that webpage without a subscribtion but then when i tried to enlarge the first picture of him(the one of him on a computer) then it asked me to sign in and then i went back to engadget and re clicked the read link and it still asked me to sign in weird.. anywho to prove i got there there are three pics one of him on a computer one of his mom grooming him and one just of his face.

[Dan @ Oct 6th 2007 5:26PM]

Hmm, why does this article smell Bogus? Because it is! Wake up people. Yeah, little poindexter's been given his very own little desk and everything. He's being asked his opinion on things. Come on, folks. Slow day in gadget news, eh? I'm not saying it's not completely so. I'm saying that Daddy's little boy can do, have, be most anything daddy wants him to. Give us a break, please.

[james @ Oct 6th 2007 7:29PM]

that kid must be the biggest douche in the world hes probally all self confident cause hes eight and everyone pays attention to him

[Awesom-o @ Oct 6th 2007 10:51PM]

Yeah, I had math tutors and everything when I was younger, yet still had an extremely hard time passing any math class.

I also played piano, classically trained, when I was young, for many years.

I don't play piano anymore and I still suck at math.

[rtpage @ Oct 7th 2007 4:02AM]

For the most part this thread is pretty entertaining, but a few comments are downright cruel.

A number of you got it right. Carson is NOT an uber-genius. He is simply infatuated with how things work---especially if it has buttons on it, and he has access to the information and tools needed to indulge himself. He got his own computer at 2 because I couldn't keep him off of mine! His PC even helped him learn to read by the time he was 4. Not because of some Reader Rabbit game, it was due to the fact that he "HAD" to know what his computer was trying to tell him when one those typical "Something Important Has To Be Done" windows would pop up with the option to press YES, NO, CANCEL, etc. After about the umpteen-thousandth trip to his room to "decode the message " for him, I finally told him to figure it out himself---and he did. How did he get good at computers so quickly? Well, I didn't slap his hand every time he wanted to change something on (experiment with) his computer. Instead, I simply told him that he would have to fix any problem he caused. Sure, I helped him reinstall '98 the first couple of times, but he would have to get REALLY stuck before I'd go help him. He didn't like waiting for my help anyway, so he figured out how to fix it himself. Sometimes we parents are so worried about our kids breaking something that we unknowingly place a barrier in front of them. I have to constantly remind myself that my binoculars are just a thing that can be replaced (with some moaning, of course).

I don't think there is a magic formula, but I do think a few basic things contribute to (or facilitate) his learning curve. For one, both of his parents are "stay at home parents", except that I practically live in my home office. I'm there now at near 3:00AM. Never the less, he has access to us when he has questions. He happens to be interested in an area that I know something about and most of my tools have buttons on them. You see where this is going?

Kind of like the computer thing, I (oops, Santa) had to set a bench up for him so my stuff wouldn't get lost, broken or otherwise. Although I will say that I really enjoy it when Carson helps me debug boards. When he's helping, I can stay at my computer, make FW changes, compile it, and say "do it". At the bench, Carson will load the new binary and program the board. We both love it. He's done this since he was 3.

Actel didn't "hire" him to do the "work" that he did. The FAE that visits me sees Carson on a fairly regular basis due to the fact that it is unlawful to tie kids up with duct tape when visitors are present. It was serendipity. Actel was about to introduce a new design-entry interface module to their development suite, and the FAE knew that Carson was already playing around with their FPGA development board. He figured that Carson might be the perfect tester as the new interface is designed to make the learning curve for FPGA design less steep.

He asked Carson if he would like to test it and give some feedback. So, I took my belt out, snapped it a few times..... Yeah, like I had to pressure him to do it! To Carson this was like being asked if he would drive a Formula-1 car as a favor!

All I asked of Carson is to do his best. If he couldn't, or wouldn't do his best then he should decline. I think I spent a total of 15 minutes helping Carson throughout the project. He did everything on his own, including the conference calls. It was an unexpected gift when Actel gave Carson a $250 Fry's gift card for his effort.

The writers/reporters only have so many words allocated to write their articles about Carson, so everyone only gets a sense of the sensational, instead of the full picture. Believe it or not, Carson's best asset is his social skills. I think an earlier poster had concerns about this. Carson likes to communicate with others, and he actually listens. He has many friends, although he still thinks girls are yucky. He doesn't walk into a room and say "look at me, I'm on the cover of EETimes". He is humble, and considers the feelings of others.

Is he one-dimensional? You decide. He takes karate lessons and is a Cub Scout. He knows he can quit those at anytime. Is he only interested in technical books? Well, he read the Cub Scouts "Bear" book (about 100 pages) from cover to cover the first night he got it. He reads various books ranging from kid-friendly novels like "The Hardy Boys" to EAA "Sport Aviation" magazines to encyclopedias every night in his bed for about an hour. Some of you may know of Doug Adams' work, like "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Restaurant at the End of the Universe", etc. I picked up a book at a thrift store that contained five of Doug's novels thinking Carson might like it. He read two of them in one night. I know this because I heard laughter coming from his room at around 11PM on a school night. He was cracking up on something that the manic-depressed robot said to a vending machine (or something like that). I think his all-time favorite book is called something like "Henry the Farting Dog".

He used to want to be in the infantry, but then he decided that he'll be a fighter pilot instead, because he likes to fly. He likes basketball and has a goal in the backyard. He played soccer for three years, but got frustrated, because he can't run real fast, as he has flat feet (little or no arch).

Most of all Carson is a very happy kid. Carson deserves full credit for what he has accomplished. He made all of this happen. All we did as parents was to be there for him when he needed help or resources.

I personally believe that nearly any kid, if given the opportunity to pursue his/her interests and dreams will appear to be a "genius" to others. It's because they are high-performance learning machines that just need some fuel. I wish I had 1/5 the learning capacity of a typical 4-year-old.

In case my six-year-old daughter ever reads this, Kelly is amazing in her own right, she just isn't into technology. She simply wants to know what technology has done for her lately. Her thing is art, music, and writing. She has her own computer, an art table, and a Casio piano in her room. I am equally impressed with her accomplishments. But, it's not as sexy to the rest of the world, so no articles get written about her. I should mention that Kelly also takes karate lessons and she is a Brownie.

Thank you for your interest,

Ray Page

[Simon @ Oct 7th 2007 11:48PM]

I feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[Steve @ Oct 8th 2007 6:45AM]

i concur: warm and fuzzy for me too.

Ray, thank you for posting that, and good luck to you and all your family - altho you dont seem to need it ;)

[Jon @ Oct 10th 2007 2:41PM]

Thank You