A supreme example of "thinking outside the box".  I posted about this boy back in 2011 and said that we were all going to be amazed at the things he comes up with; and I still believe it.  

Jacob Barnett is a mathematician and child prodigy. At 8 years old, he began sneaking into the back of college lectures at IUPUI. After being diagnosed with autism at the age of two and placed in his school's "special ed" program, Jacob's teachers and doctors were astonished to learn that he was able to teach calculus to college students.

At age nine, while playing with shapes, Jacob built a series of mathematical models that expanded on Einstein's theory of relativity. A professor at Princeton reviewed his work and confirmed that it was groundbreaking and might someday result in a Nobel Prize. At age 10, Jacob was formally accepted to the University as a full-time college student and went straight into a paid research position in the field of condensed matter physics. For his original work in this field, Jacob set a record, becoming the world's youngest astrophysics researcher. His paper was subsequently accepted for publication by Physical Review A, a scientific journal shared on sites such as NASA, the Smithsonian, and Harvard's webpages. 

Jacob is also the CEO and founder of Wheel LLC, a business he started in his mom's garage, and is in the process of writing a book to help end "math phobia" in his generation.  His favorite pastime is playing basketball with the kids at his charity, Jacob's Place. It is a place where kids with autism are inspired every day to be their true authentic selves...just like him.

Autistic boy, age 12, with a higher IQ than Einstein develops his o...