What LaserWAN does
The idea is free-space optics: instead of laying cable, point a laser at a receiver and send the data through the air. Done well, it offers the bandwidth of an optical link without the civil engineering, which matters most in exactly the places broadband does not reach, rural valleys, islands and small towns where trenching fibre costs more than the population can justify.
Pagliarino comes from Castelnuovo Calcea, a small town in Piedmont, which is the kind of place the problem describes. The project was engineering rather than theory: a working system to be demonstrated, measured and judged.
The Intel award
The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is the largest pre-college science competition in the world, run by the Society for Science, with finalists arriving from dozens of countries after winning regional and national fairs. Its top prizes are among the most valuable available to a school-age scientist.
Pagliarino took an Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award, worth $50,000, at the 2017 fair, at 17. The Society for Science's published list of that year's top award winners is the record of it.
Europe first
The Intel award was not his first. In September 2016 the European Southern Observatory announced the winners of that year's European Union Contest for Young Scientists, and Pagliarino was among the first-prize winners, with a computing project.
The European contest gathers national science competition winners from across the continent, which means a first prize there already represents the top of an Italian field. Winning in Europe and then in the United States inside a year is the pattern of a project that kept developing rather than a single good week.
Where Valerio Pagliarino is now
The sources gathered here stop in 2017. Whether LaserWAN was developed further, commercialised or abandoned is not recorded, and neither is his university or career.
That is a substantial gap for a project of this kind, because free-space optical links are a live commercial field. Readers should treat the 2017 award as the documented end point of this record rather than as the end of the work. Most ISEF top-award winners go on to university within a year of the fair, and their subsequent work is published under their own names rather than through the competition, so the trail goes cold in the press long before it goes cold in the laboratory.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: the $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at Intel ISEF 2017, won at 17 for LaserWAN, a laser-based broadband system; a first prize at the 2016 European Union Contest for Young Scientists for a computing project, announced by the European Southern Observatory in September 2016; and his home town of Castelnuovo Calcea in Italy.
Not documented here: his date of birth, the technical specifications of LaserWAN, any patent or company, his studies and anything after 2017. The birth year on this page is derived from his reported age at the 2017 fair.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashton Cofer | United States | A heat treatment for used Styrofoam | Age 14 |
| Leanne Fan | United States | Finsen Headphones, detecting and treating middle ear infections | Age 14 |
| Valerio Pagliarino | Italy | LaserWAN, laser-based broadband internet links | Age 16 |
| Naisargik Lenka | India | Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2019, innovation category | Age 17 |
| Jeremiah Thoronka | Sierra Leone | Optim Energy, which turns road vibration into electricity | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Won a $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at Intel ISEF 2017 at 17
- The project, LaserWAN, used laser links to deliver broadband internet
- Won a first prize at the 2016 European Union Contest for Young Scientists
- From Castelnuovo Calcea, Italy
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Date of birth is not published; the birth year here is derived from his reported age
- No technical specification, patent or company for LaserWAN is documented
- Nothing after 2017 appears in these sources
Questions people ask about Valerio Pagliarino
What is LaserWAN?
A system that uses laser links to carry broadband internet through the air, avoiding the need to lay fibre.
What did Valerio Pagliarino win?
A $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award at Intel ISEF 2017, at the age of 17.
Had he won anything before?
Yes. He took a first prize at the 2016 European Union Contest for Young Scientists with a computing project.
Where is he from?
Castelnuovo Calcea, a town in Piedmont, Italy.
How old is Valerio Pagliarino?
He was 17 at the 2017 fair. No date of birth appears in these sources.
Is LaserWAN a company?
No company or patent is documented in the sources used here.
Where is Valerio Pagliarino now?
Nothing after 2017 is recorded in these sources.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Valerio’s story?
What does LaserWAN use to carry internet traffic?
How much was the Intel award worth?
Which contest did he win in 2016?
Sources
- Intel ISEF 2017 (top award winners) — Society for Science
- Winners of the 2016 European Union Contest for Young Scientists Announced — European Southern Observatory, 2016-09-29
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
Discover More Child Prodigies
50+ stories of contemporary young geniuses changing chess, music, science, and art.
Explore All Prodigies →Related Child Prodigy Profiles
Ashton Cofer🇺🇸 United States — The United States throws out two billion pounds of…
Leanne Fan🇺🇸 United States — Headphones that diagnose an ear infection and then treat…
Naisargik Lenka🇮🇳 India — At 16 he took India's national child award for work on…
Kenneth Shinozuka🇺🇸 United States — His grandfather wandered at night. He built a sensor that…
Jeremiah Thoronka🇸🇱 Sierra Leone — He grew up in a camp with no power. At 17 he was making…
Arunima Sen🇮🇳 India — A skyscraper that saves energy, a way to grow more barley…
