When nearly 80 neurodivergent middle and high school students at PS Academy Arizona began rebuilding ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, they knew they were taking on something big. The project would take six months, require more than 22,000 precision-cut cardboard components, and rely on original blueprints of a machine that helped change the course of computing. What they did not know was just how far their work would eventually take them.
The project began in a classroom in Gilbert, Arizona, but it soon attracted attention far beyond the school. PCMag, CBS News, IEEE Spectrum and The Register all covered the students’ work. Then came an invitation that brought the project full circle. Fifteen-year-old student Cameron Coleman and technology instructor Tom Burick were invited to present the ENIAC replica at the Vintage Computer Festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
For students who had spent months carefully putting the replica together, having their work recognized in Silicon Valley was a remarkable accomplishment. Cameron and Burick presented before computer historians, engineers, museum professionals, collectors and people who have spent their careers studying and preserving computing history. The students were no longer simply learning about an important moment in technology. Their own work had become part of the conversation.
Learning History by Building It
ENIAC was completed in the 1940s and became one of the most important machines in the development of electronic computing. It contained more than 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed approximately 30 tons and occupied roughly 1,800 square feet with its support systems. For ENIAC’s 80th anniversary, Burick wanted his students to understand what the machine represented, but he wanted them to experience that history rather than simply read about it.
The students spent six months creating a full-scale replica that spanned approximately 500 square feet. Thousands of individual pieces had to come together correctly, which meant students had to work together, solve problems and stay committed to something that could not be completed in a day, a week or even a month. Every student could see how his or her contribution affected the finished project.
That kind of experience can be especially meaningful for students who have not always felt successful in traditional classrooms. PS Academy serves neurodivergent students, including young people with autism and other learning differences. Many of these students learn best when they can see something, build something, work with their hands or understand how their individual task connects to a larger goal.
The ENIAC project gave them that opportunity. Instead of focusing on what might be difficult for a student, the project gave students something difficult to accomplish and allowed them to discover what they could do.
Taking Their Work to Silicon Valley
For Cameron, presenting the project at the Computer History Museum was an experience few high school students will ever have. He was not there simply to tour the museum. He was there to represent his classmates and talk about something they had spent months creating together.
The presentation was titled “Impossible Until It Isn’t: How Neurodivergent Students Rebuilt ENIAC and What It Teaches Us About Human Potential.” Cameron and Burick shared the story of the build, showed photos and video from the project and talked about what happened as students became more confident in their ability to complete it.
That confidence matters. Young people can be told repeatedly that they are capable, but there is a difference between hearing those words and having an experience that proves it to them. Completing a project that initially seemed overwhelming gives students something concrete they can point to and say, “I helped do that.”
For Cameron, there was another layer to the experience. He went from working on the project with his classmates in Gilbert to standing in Silicon Valley explaining that work to people deeply familiar with computing history. Experiences like that can change the way a teenager thinks about his own future and the places where he might belong.
Looking at Neurodivergent Students Differently
There is still a tendency to talk about neurodivergent students in terms of what they struggle with. Schools understandably spend considerable time determining what support a student needs, but that can sometimes overshadow another important question: What is this student exceptionally good at?
A traditional classroom does not always provide the answer. A student who has difficulty sitting through a lecture may have remarkable patience when building something. Another may struggle with a written assignment but excel at understanding how individual components fit into a larger system. Someone who is hesitant to participate in one setting may become a leader when working alongside classmates on a project that genuinely interests them.
Hands on STEM projects create more opportunities for those strengths to surface. They also allow students to experience the realities of engineering, where problems rarely have perfectly packaged answers and progress often comes through trial, error and collaboration.
The ENIAC replica showed what can happen when students are given both support and responsibility. Nearly 80 young people contributed to something that eventually received national media attention and earned an invitation to one of the most recognized centers of computing history in the country. That recognition mattered, but the experience of getting there may have mattered even more.
What They Build Next
The ENIAC project is finished and the Silicon Valley presentation has taken place, but the students will carry what they learned into whatever comes next. They now know what it feels like to start with thousands of pieces and an intimidating set of plans and slowly watch something extraordinary take shape.
Eighty years ago, ENIAC helped introduce the world to a new era of computing. The technologies being developed eighty years from now will be created by students who are sitting in classrooms today. Some of them will learn differently, think differently and solve problems differently from the people around them.
Giving those students the chance to attempt difficult things matters. The goal should not simply be to tell neurodivergent young people that they have potential. Whenever possible, we should give them opportunities to discover that potential for themselves.
For the students at PS Academy Arizona, 22,000 pieces of cardboard became one of those opportunities. Their project took them from a classroom in Gilbert to Silicon Valley. What matters now is where the confidence they built along the way takes them next.
