Byran Huang’s Senior Project Hits 800K Views
By AUDREY KIM, CHLOE LIND, KEVIN THANT, HANNA WEI
An anyon is a two-dimensional particle that is neither bosonic nor fermionic. Much like anyons, anyon_e is a compact and tightly integrated laptop, yet its individual components remain distinct, much like fermionic energy levels. This is the inspiration senior Byran Huang used to name his completely handmade, open-source laptop: anyon_e. As he states on his website, byran.ee, “anyon_e is a laptop for anyone. Using it feels sleek, polished, and like a flagship device from a major company. Meanwhile, there are no secrets under the hood. anyon_e is a mission in and of itself — to show that anyone can make a nice, solid laptop. The power is in your hands.”
On a bus ride to a squash game at Hopkins School, Huang found himself deep in conversation with his fellow teammate, senior Yash Shah. Their conversation took a turn when senior project ideas were discussed, and Shah encouraged Huang to build an eco-friendly laptop. “I was on the squash bus, and Yash and I were talking about what we were gonna do in our senior year, and he brought up the idea of building an eco-friendly laptop that ran off solar power or hydrogen power,” Huang recalled. “I thought that was a really interesting idea, and in particular, the laptop part really intrigued me and so I built on top of the idea. I was like, I want to build an open-source laptop. And so that’s what happened.”
To “wrap up his time at Exeter,” Huang started planning anyon_e immediately after his senior project proposal was accepted in the spring. He decided to power his laptop with Linux, an open-source operating system. When discussing his unconventional approach to engineering, he explained, “I’m more of a YOLO type person, so I don’t really plan or structure my projects. I go by the flow—a lot of people like structuring when they’re doing engineering and plan it out thoroughly.”
Huang is also immensely grateful for PEA’s support for his senior project. “The school has always been super supportive of me throughout my senior project. I blew my budget like two and a half times over, and in the end I spent a little under $5,000. I also had a lot of time to work on it, since I got it approved in the springtime, so I had the entire summer as well as my fall term to get it done.”
Needless to say, Huang faced countless struggles in building anyon_e. One of his main technical issues was getting the computer’s display to work, which he spent months debugging. “I’m most proud of the display,” Huang shared. “I really spent a lot of time perfecting the process and trying to figure out how to get it working.”
Despite how simple Huang made the project seem, he ran into many technical challenges along the way. “I spent two months debugging high-frequency signaling for the display. I ended up being one of the few people to have powered on a 4K AMOLED display. I spent about two months developing that. Just everything, the software, the hardware, buying the parts, and researching,” Huang described.
Huang’s resilience was necessary to accomplish this incredible achievement in a project with such a high difficulty threshold. Physics instructor Brad Robinson described him as “a brilliant engineer; his troubleshooting ability is phenomenal.” Robinson allowed Huang to use his classroom as a workspace for tasks such as micro-soldering, which requires a microscope. Robinson further shared, “His knowledge is expansive, and his tenacity is breathtaking. I frankly have never seen anyone overcome so many heartbreaking hurdles.”
Physics instructor Charles Mamolo recognized Huang’s dedication: “Byran can solve any problem he sets his mind to.”
“When I set my mind to a project, I don’t give up on it until it’s done.” Huang shared when asked about his perseverance. Instructor in Physics Tanya Waterman also recognized his immense work ethic and described Huang’s upper year when she saw him “working on his project every time I was in the building after hours or on weekends.”
Working on his senior project became part of Huang’s daily routine. Senior Altan Unver witnessed a lot of Huang’s milestones. He recollected, “Especially when he ordered parts for the laptop, I got to see the unboxing. For example, when he ordered the first version of the power boards, revisions of the main boards or the chassis, I got to be at the mailroom and I actually saw him open the packages. Especially when he unboxed the aluminum CNC case, it was very cool because I could see his vision coming together and day by day I could see him assemble it.”
Aside from his resilience, Huang’s engineering ability is beyond his years. Mamolo shared, “Byran could get out of high school and have a six-figure job as an engineer. Skillswise, he is at a graduate level.” Such a high level of skill is a given for someone to build a computer from scratch while not even in college. Robinson further highlighted, “His knowledge is expansive, and his tenacity is breathtaking.”
Unver speaks on Huang’s influence not only as an engineer but also as a leader, stating, “I think whether intentionally or not, Byran is a great teacher, and he fosters an environment on MUREX, where people learn. I think sometimes it can be tough, but people around him either do what they’re good at or they become good at what they do.”
Huang’s future is bright, without a doubt. When asked about her hopes for him in the future, Waterman shared, “Adding his tenacity and impeccable integrity to this mix, I am sure he will do something good for humanity, not just for himself. Something I can’t even imagine!”
“I think that whatever he does, he will make the world a better place,” Robinson added.
After hours in the science building, when most lights are off, Senior Byran Huang can be found tinkering with his laptop, troubleshooting the thousands of problems and difficulties that have arisen in his project. Although the task he accomplished may have never been done before, throughout engineering and daily life, he has a single motto to keep him going: “Attempt the Impossible,” and with anyon_e, he has achieved the impossible.
