Star Quality

This 13-year-old likes to play video games and ride his bike. He’s also earning an aerospace engineering degree.

By Rina Diane Caballar

Caleb Anderson is no ordinary college student. At just 13 years old, he’s the youngest person ever to be accepted to Georgia Tech. He started his first year as an aerospace engineering major in fall 2021.

“It was overwhelming but also fun,” Anderson says. “It’s a very challenging school.”

When he was nine months old, Anderson was already communicating with sign language, which he learned from his mother. He started reading at the age of one; a year later, he was doing fractions. Anderson qualified for Mensa, an international high-IQ society, when he was only three years old. At 12, he took courses at Chattahoochee Technical College in his hometown of Marietta, Georgia, before being admitted to Georgia Tech.

Anderson has long gravitated toward space and science. “When I was younger, I wanted to be an astronaut,” he says. “I have always been interested in jets and planes. I was also interested in things like astrophysics, string theory, black holes, wormholes—most of the subjects Einstein studied and that Neil deGrasse Tyson is studying.”

But Anderson wanted to experience more of the field than the lab, so he changed his career path to opt for engineering. “Being a scientist and staying in the lab, you’re studying and theorizing. But being an engineer, you actually get to go out, make stuff, build stuff—and that’s something I really want to do.” He knew there were a lot of engineers working on the International Space Station, so becoming an aerospace engineer was the next natural choice for him.

During his initial semester at Georgia Tech, Anderson’s schedule included an introduction to aerospace engineering class for his major. “It was different from anything else I’ve taken,” he says. “Most of my previous subjects were conceptual, but introduction to aerospace engineering was more applied—and that was really cool.”

His first foray into hands-on engineering came when his class was tasked to build a rocket that would reach a target height of 120 feet. “We had to make everything from scratch,” he says. “We had to choose our motors and parachute, change weights, change the shape of the nose cone. We had this altimeter made of a peanut and we had to make sure it [wouldn’t] get burned.”

Anderson enjoyed the problem-solving process. “I found it fun agonizing over the little details—adding and subtracting weights, putting [in] a little bit of Play-Doh clay or a penny,” he says. And in working with his project team, Anderson was treated as an equal. “Most people have seen me either as an inspiration or as a little brother. But with my team, I was treated like one of them,” he explains. “I was respected and my opinions were respected.”

Now in the second semester of his first year, Anderson is taking chemistry and calculus and is working hard to pass his tests. He has yet to join any clubs at Georgia Tech, but he became the youngest member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 2021.

While Anderson spends most of his week studying, he sets aside Saturdays for himself. “Usually on those days, I play video games. Sometimes, I hang out with my friends and we have sleepovers. I do go outside and ride my bike, and I enjoy going to the park. I’ve been trying to learn basketball, and I used to fence as well,” he says.

The 13-year-old has already mapped out a big and bold course for his future. After graduating, he plans to pursue his master’s degree at Georgia Tech and his doctorate at MIT or an Ivy League school. Then, he wants to gain industry experience at a leading aerospace company, citing the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic.

“After that, I want to start an aerospace company of my own that could hopefully compete with the big companies,” Anderson says. “My goal is to hire people like me who don’t have the same opportunities, and give them the opportunity to be great.”

 

Rina Diane Caballar is a freelance writer covering technology and its intersections with science, society, and the environment.
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