By finishing his bachelor's degree in computer science at the age of 16, Marian Kogler has become Austria's youngest graduate, the Vienna University of Technology announced Tuesday.

When Kogler entered university at the age of 13, he received "consistently surprised and positive reactions" from fellow students, he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Over time, one gets used to being the youngest," he said.

The teenager received his degree in late November and will have his formal graduation ceremony in February, but he has already embarked on his master's programme in computational intelligence, which he hopes to finish by early 2010.

After that, he plans to do scientific research.

Kogler's parents noticed their son's gifts early on, as he was able to read already as a 2-year-old.

He finished high school in parallel to his university studies by taking exams covering one school year of each subject. "Two days of preparation were enough for a passing mark," Kogler said.