Julia Hardy
Arts, Entertainment & Technology
While New Canaan has its share of lacrosse stars and ivy-bound scholars, the role of the technology guru is less commonly found. Yet, freshman Trey Oehmler is more than able to fill this role. Among his many accomplishments, the website, complex.com named him one of the youngest tech prodigies in the nation for work he completed at age 12.
Being named a tech prodigy is no small feat, but Trey is humble about his recognition. “I couldn’t believe that a tech website picked up on the story and wrote an article about me,” he said.
At the time of the web article, Trey had only begun technology development a few years earlier, when he first wondered how software was made. “I wanted to know the basics of making software so I looked into how it worked with books, websites and videos,” he said. “I taught myself to understand the basic concepts and then continued from there.”
After gaining some basic knowledge, Trey tested his abilities by creating a game that
worked similarly to the 1970s video game Pong. He named his version iTennis and put it into the Apple app store. “I actually made the iTennis app as a science extra credit assignment,” he said. “I had just wanted to see if I could make something that could function, so I was surprised to find myself gaining recognition for it. I realized that people were interested in my app and interested in computer science.”
Besides app development, Trey has also worked with Kinect software. “I saw a commercial about Kinects and I wondered what I could do with it that could be used practically,” he said. “One thing I did was I took a bookshelf that was taking up space and scanned in the books so that I had a virtual library.”
Despite creating so much with Kinects, it isn’t his favorite work. “I like my website Facemash, the most, even though it got me into a little trouble,” he said. “It worked like the rating website that was in ‘The Social Network’ but it was for people in [the class of 2016]. It got a negative reception, but the intent was just to see how popular it would get.”
Trey has participated in multiple Tech Nights, but chooses not to become involved with school programs for the technology development. “I’m not part of the tech team or anything like that because I like working individually,” he said. “I want to focus on what interests me personally. I’ve also never had a mentor or adult that’s taught me all I know about technology.”
Nonetheless, Trey is considering having more school participation in the future. “I might take an engineering elective next year or the year after,” he said. “Or maybe even computer science. But as of now, technology development is more just a hobby than a career choice.”
