When it comes to high school science projects, most people did something like making a clock potato or classifying insects.

17-year-old Cesare Mencarini, however, did something a little more elaborate for an Extended Project Qualification.

He built a nuclear fusion reactor.

He learned a lot about how to do this from YouTube and the Internet, taught himself how to code, and how to work with electrical systems.

From there, he got to work building a custom-made reactor that was controlled and hosted from a Raspberry Pi system.

He discussed his work in a statement where he said:

The college was initially concerned that this project, which I have also used for my EPQ, was dangerous. However we did full risk assessments and the staff have been so supportive.”

He also talked about how he had to pay for the work and other details:

“I had to adapt the design to fit in with the budget and my aim is to encourage other young people to develop ideas and think about how we can improve our world and be innovative. The purpose of the reactor is to produce the necessary conditions for fusion to take place. However, as we cannot get the same pressure achieved by the Sun’s own gravity here, we have to use a high voltage to get the atoms hot enough.”

His work was very impressive, and was even offered placement at the University of Bristol where he can work on larger scale reactors.

You can see a time lapse video of him making the reactor here.

Mencarini is going to work in Bristol and pursue a degree in engineering.

That is perhaps the most impressive science project I’ve ever seen.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a quantum computer simulation that has “reversed time” and physics may never be the same.