Byran Huang ’25 is happy to share

What started as “betcha can’t” between friends on a team bus to an away squash match turned into a year-long passion project for Byran Huang ’25. Challenged by a teammate to build a computer from scratch, Huang estimates he spent “a couple thousand” hours over the following months meticulously planning, building and testing nearly every element of his custom laptop.

“I thought about all the projects I’d done the past, building circuit boards, power systems and data systems and this kind of felt like a capstone to all that, a magnum opus,” he says.  

Huang parlayed his pursuit into a sanctioned senior project, receiving funding and support from the Academy.

“I’m super grateful for all Exeter has done to help me develop this project. The Design Lab, I used extensively. I used the back of Mr. Robinson classroom where I had all my stuff scattered around. I’ve also received amazing funding, I blew my budget two and a half times over and nobody batted an eye. The school is constantly there to support me.”

Not only was it important to Huang that his laptop, dubbed “anyon_e”, be fully functional, but also that he record and publish a video detailing every step of the process for others to replicate.

“This is a time when technology is innovating so fast, but people don’t get access to how to create things openly, so I wanted to go on this journey to publish everything I had made for the world to share.”

Huang’s video “How I Made a Laptop from Scratch” has garnered nearly one million views on YouTube. Among the those who saw the video was an engineering lead at Neuralink who recruited Huang to intern with the Robot Surgery Electrical Engineering team this summer.

Like any good scientist, Huang is taking what he learned from his experience and hoping to refine the process.

“I’m really looking forward building a second version of this laptop with a lot more support from the engineering community,” he says. “My ultimate goal is to build a laptop that’s affordable, something you can build in your house from scratch.”

Huang is quick to credit the Academy as an inspiration for his achievement.

“Exeter has always been this place that I’ve felt has magical powers to push yourself and discover more you didn’t know you were capable of doing.”