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On Tuesday, 17-year-old Thomas Sohmers unveiled a new super fast computer server that uses a fraction of the electricity that a normal computer does.He's showing it off at the Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit happening this week in San Francisco.This computer is the first product from Sohmers' startup, REX Computing, created with 52-year-old co-founder and CTO Kurt Keville.
本周二，年僅17歲的Thomas Sohmers推出了一個全新的高速計算機服務器，該計算機功耗極低，該計算機使用了低能耗的ARM處理器，而其所需電量僅為一臺普通電腦一小部分。在本周在舊金山舉行的Open Compute Project (OCP)大會上，Sohmers展示了這臺服務器。這個產品是Sohmers所創辦的企業REX所推出的第一個產品，REX的另一位創始人為52歲的Kurt Keville，目前Keville擔任公司的CTO。
The computer is a very powerful machine built with ARM processors, the kind low-power processors that run smartphones and tablets. These servers allow more computing power o be packed into a smaller space. And that has big implications for building green-but-powerful data centers."I think of myself as an entrepreneur besides just being an electrical engineer. I believe what I'm doing can have a major effective on the world," Sohmers said.He dropped out of high school to join Peter Thiel's controversial startup accelerator, the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship. Thiel, the former PayPal CEO and famous Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for his early investment in Facebook, is a libertarian who has often spoken out about the absurd cost of college these days.So in 2011, he started a program that encourages kids to start companies instead of going to college. It gives them $100,000 in seed money and access to some of the Valley's greatest technologists as mentors.Sohmers is an electrical engineering prodigy who at age 13 started working at the research lab at MIT. That's where he met his co-founder and CTO, Keville, he said.
Sohmers所推出的這個產品，可謂將高速運算能力和低能耗集為一體。Sohmers表示：“除了電子工程師外，我認為我還是一位創業者。我相信，我所作的工作，將會對整個世界產生重要的影響。”Sohmers在幾年前從高中輟學，加入了Peter Thiel創立的創業加速器20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship。2011年，在其他同齡人都在準備考大學的時候，Sohmers開始學習編程。他獲得了10萬美元的種子資金，并且跟隨硅谷中一些著名的技術人才進行學習。Sohmers曾在麻省理工學院研究實驗室進行工作和學習，研究從增強現實眼鏡到激光通信系統的任何東西。也是在那里，他見到了REX的另一位聯合創始人Kurt Keville。但是在他正式進入麻省理工學院研究室之前，他的父母似乎并不太支持他放棄學業。
With his technical genius and startup launched, he's not planning on going back and finishing high school, either."This is my third time applying for the Fellowship. I first applied when I was 14," he said. "I told my parents when I first applied and they weren’t really supportive. But then they kind of saw what I was doing in high school, I wasn’t spending my time as effectively as I could. I started spending more of my time at MIT and they understood. When I did receive the fellowship, they were supportive."Fortunately for Sohmers, he's in good hands. He's part of class No. 3 and Thiel fellows have a promising track record so far: it's launched 67 companies that have created 135 full-time jobs and raised $55.4 million in angel and venture funding, the Wall Street Journal's Lora Kolodny reports.At 17, Sohmers is unconcerned that being a high-school dropout will affect his career in any way."If I don’t end up changing the world with this I can find something else," he said. "People think that there’s a big thought war between these two sides [education versus entrepreneurship]. But when it comes to the researchers, they care less about the degrees that you have, and more about what you can actually do."
Sohmers表示：“我曾經先后三次申請加入麻省理工學院研究室。我第一次申請的時候是14歲，那時我的父母并不太支持我。但是后來他們發現我在高中里學習并不快樂。于是他們開始慢慢理解了我的想法。現在他們對我的工作非常支持。”在加入麻省理工學院研究室之后，Sohmers終于找到了屬于自己的天地。如今已經17歲的Sohmers表示，自己并不后悔放棄學業，進行創業。他表示：“即使我無法改變世界，也會收獲一些其他的東西。人們在討論上學和創業的時候，總是顧慮太多。但是企業是在研究者眼中，你的學歷高低并不重要，重要的是你的能力。”
