Youngest computer programmer plans to connect young minds

Kautilya Katariya is now studying A-level Maths after achieving the highest grade in his GCSE

A nine-year-old earning accolades for his maths and computer programming said he wants connect "young passionate minds".

Kautilya Katariya, from Northampton, got the highest grade in GCSE Maths at his school earlier this year.

At the age of six, he became a Guinness World Record holder for being the youngest qualified computer programmer.

"I don’t really have anyone to talk about maths with," he told BBC Radio Northampton.

The pupil at Wootton Park School in Northampton said he became interested in programming when his father, Ishwari, gave him a book on the subject.

"I liked it so much that I made my own simple program," he said.

Since then he has gone to develop his own search engine, a tic-tac-toe program, and has been accredited as an artificial intelligence expert for IBM.

Kautilya is now studying A-Level maths and said of the subject: "I love it so much.

"For two reasons - one, when you solve a problem you get very proud of your achievement, and two, you can apply maths to physics and you can apply physics to almost anything, the universe is literally coded with physics."

The youngster said he was "already planning on creating a portal so I can connect to lots of different young passionate minds [so] I can talk about maths and computing".

He said in the future he would develop "a new kind of AI [artificial intelligence]".

Away from maths and computing, Kautilya says he likes "origami, swimming [and] playing with my little brother".