Mongolian teen perfects MIT course and heads to college at 17
TUESDAY, MAY 06, 2014 11:59 AM

Some students I.Q. test results are truly amazing, showing just how intelligent they are. Though 17-year-old Battushig Myanganbayar, who the media has touted as the "boy genius," hasn't shared his I.Q. with the world, he has gained international recognition. A Mongolia native, Battushig showed just how intelligent he was when he was only 15. Now he is attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and helping the school develop their Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) programs.

From Mongolia to MIT
At the age of 15, Battushig registered for MIT's first ever MOOC called Circuits and Electronics. The class was offered through edX, a collaborative MOOC effort created by several top universities, and is geared toward college sophomores who have a background in technology. Battushig was living in Mongolia with his family at the time, and was enrolled in a local high school. 

While Battushig is certainly a gifted student, he did have some help from his high school principal Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin. Zurgaanjin was the first Mongolian to graduate from MIT and now tries to bring technological innovation to his school. 

"My vision," Zurgaanjin told The New York Times, "is to have more skilled engineers to develop Mongolia. To do that, everything has to start from the beginning."

Zurgaanjin asked his students to watch the MIT MOOC at home, as it was not approved for in-class use by the ministry of education in Mongolia. Zurgaanjin also contacted a colleague from MIT, Tony Kim, who was working on his Ph.D. at Stanford University at the time. Kim flew out to Mongolia, bringing suitcases of tech equipment with him, and taught the students about circuits and electronics.

Between the guest lecture, the MOOC and his amazing intellect, Battushig was able to ace the class, a feat that only 340 of about 150,000 registered students pulled off.

The love of learning
Battushig is a truly focused student. He doesn't read literary novels, which he deems a distraction, and instead focuses his energy on creating. He once built a siren system in his family's apartment building that warned kids when cars were approaching. According to The New York Times, Battushig takes classes in electronics, chemistry and biology at MIT and lives in a dorm room. 

According to Slate, the boy genius has also devoted some time to helping MIT develop their MOOCs. For example, while taking the Circuits and Electronics class during high school, Myanganbayar created tutorials for other students to use. He'd find relevant videos online to teach himself, then paid it forward with his own content. MIT has adopted that idea by developing their own tutorials as a supplement for challenging MOOCs.