World's Youngest IT Expert is a 5-year-old from Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

5-year-old British Pakistani Ayan Qureshi is now the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in he world, according to the BBC. Ayan takes the title of world's youngest techie from Shafay Thobani of Karachi who was the youngest known Pakistani  to have become Microsoft Certified Professional at age 8 in 2012.

Ayan Qureshi in Home Computer Lab

Ayan was born in Lahore, but the family, including his mother, a doctor moved to London in 2009. His younger brother was born the UK in 2011. Ayan has set up his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.

Ayan's father who is an IT consultant introduced his son to computers when he was only three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards. "I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he told the BBC.

Pakistani children have been making their mark in the information technology arena since 2005 when Arfa Karim made international headlines as the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at age 9. Unfortunately she passed away at the tender age of just 16. Born in 1995, she achieved celebrity status after becoming the world's youngest computer expert at the age of 9, passing a tough series of Microsoft tests designed for software professionals. Her success brought her an invitation to Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, where she met its chairman, Bill Gates, and discussed her idea for a self-navigating car in 2005.

Arfa Karim died very young but she has inspired a whole new generation of Pakistani children to choose information technology and excel in the growing field. As a result, Pakistan has achieved the distinction of being the third most popular online IT outsourcing destination in the world. It augurs well for Pakistan's young but rapidly growing multi-billion dollar information technology industry.

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