WHIZZ-KID HAS WORLD AT HIS WEBBED-FEAT

Sunday Mirror, Jan 12, 2003 by ANDREW BUSHE

A 16-YEAR-OLD computer whizz-kid was on top of the world last night as hi-tech companies queued to snap up rights to his revolutionary Internet browser.

Adnan Osmani's souped up browser - that took top prize at the Young Scientists exhibition in Dublin - at least quadruples surfing speeds on the Net.

Adnan, a sixth-year student at St Finian's College in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, spent 18 months writing 780,000 lines of computer code to develop his browser.

Known as 'XWEBS', the software system works with an ordinary Internet connection using a 56K modem on a normal telephone line.

Adnan only patented his invention - to protect it - on Thursday.

"Five or six companies have approached me about it. I am keeping a lid on it for the time being.

"I am just waiting until after the exhibition and then I will try to get it all organised," Adnan said.

He is still in a state of shock as he had not expected to win and had only told three of his teachers last week about his invention.

"The software was tested by scientists at UCD last week and they found it boosted surfing speeds by between 100 and 500 percent depending on the basic dial-up connection rate"

Adnan says a six-fold increase in connection rate is about the maximum practical boost.

He said he had to explain at length how his browser works to 12 judges who examined his project.

"There are 48 judges altogether and this is the first ever that a project has been unanimously judged the winner by every single judge," he said.

Other special aspects of his browser are the fact that 120 Internet search engines and music and DVD players are built in as sidebars.

The son of a medical consultant at Mullingar Hospital, Adnan has attended St Finian's since 1998.

College principal Fr Paul Connell said his prize pupil had done the development work on the browser himself.

"We gave him good training in maths and other disciplines but we can't take credit for the actual project because he did it entirely on his own," Fr Connell said.

Adnan said he wants to study computer engin- eering at Harvard University and eventually set up his own Internet or computer company.