“Malaysia’s Young Sheldon” 12YO Izz Imil Is Universiti Malaya’s Youngest Undergrad Since 1962
12-year-old Izz Imil will be be undertaking the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Universiti Malaya.
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Universiti Malaya (UM) has confirmed the admission of its youngest undergraduate ever into the science faculty since its establishment in 1962.
UM admitted 12-year-old Izz Imil Shahrom into its Bachelor of Science in Mathematics programme after he passed the interviews conducted by a special committee and was approved by the university senate.
While it’s exciting to see a young genius being supported, the university urges everyone to give the child the space and privacy to focus on his studies and get used to the university environment.
This also ensures young Izz has a conducive physiological development while pursuing his studies.
Get to know about Izz Imil a little more
News of Izz’s savantism excited many people online with some dubbing him Malaysia’s very own Sheldon Cooper, a fictional genius character from the show Big Bang Theory.
Izz has mild autism and hyperlexia, an ability to read at levels way beyond expected for his age or without prior training in learning to read.
Izz’s mother, Ilyah Abdul Aziz, said he had difficulty speaking but had exhibited a strong interest in numbers since he was three.
She added that he completed Form 4-level studies in mathematics and chemistry when he was just five years old.
Izz entered Form 1 when he was six under the Permata Pintar programme. The programme to hone prodigies was pioneered by Rosmah Mansor in April 2009 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Rosmah congratulated Izz for making Malaysian history and expressed pride when she got the news that he was admitted to UM at such a young age. She shared that she was impressed with his brilliance when they met years ago.
Iz, and a few others who attended Permata Pintar, were the reason why we set up the centre, carefully crafted to meet individual needs and having seen how centres like these in other parts of the world operate.
Rosmah Mansor
He has also earned additional certificates from the John Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth. He went on to accomplish his O-Levels and A-Levels at age 8 and 11 respectively.
Izz allegedly has dreams of becoming the nation’s scientist.
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