Tyrone Iras Marhguy, a former Achimota School student and current undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), has achieved a remarkable feat: building a computer from scratch in his dorm room.
In a LinkedIn post on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, Marhguy shared that the project, which took over 250 hours, involved designing a verified 8-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) transistor by transistor, using 3,488 MOSFETs.
“Six months ago, I had a 3AM thought: If I woke up in the medieval era, could I build the first computer from scratch, given MOSFETs? Every computer has a brain: the CPU. And the CPU’s heart is the ALU. That felt like the right place to begin,” he wrote.
Marhguy described the painstaking process of designing, testing, and verifying his ALU, which supports 19 operations, a 5-bit control signal, and an 8-bit datapath, with 1.245 million test vectors passed.
“Modern CPUs are beautiful black boxes with billions of ‘mysterious’ switches. Industry starts at higher abstractions: RTL, FPGA, logic synthesis. I wanted a fun start with no shadows — immersion into every gate down to the electrons!”
He also shared a personal anecdote about designing a circuit buffer for his XOR outputs, which he humorously dubbed a “correction valve”, only to later discover it had a formal name — a buffer.
Phase one of his project is now complete, with the next steps including optimisation and error checks, ordering PCBs and components, and assembly and debugging, which he calls his favorite part.
Marhguy first gained national attention in Ghana in 2021 when Achimota School initially denied him admission for wearing dreadlocks, which he said were part of his Rastafarian faith. The decision sparked widespread debate and a legal challenge led by his father.
In a landmark ruling, the High Court in Accra found the school’s action violated Marhguy’s constitutional rights to education, dignity, and religious freedom. Marhguy later enrolled at Achimota, excelled academically, earning eight A1s in the 2023 WASSCE, and distinguished himself in international competitions in mathematics and science.
His academic excellence earned him multiple full scholarship offers from U.S. universities valued at over US$1 million, before he chose UPenn to study computer engineering.
Marhguy’s dorm-room ALU project reflects a continuation of the curiosity, determination, and problem-solving skills that have defined his academic journey. Beyond the technical accomplishment, the project highlights his emerging interest in computer architecture and hardware design, and positions him as one of Ghana’s promising young innovators on the global stage.
“Just built a computer from scratch in my dorm with 3,488 transistors and 250+ hours! Phase 1/3 done!” he proudly wrote, sharing a glimpse of the dedication behind his achievement.
As he continues with the next phases of the project, Marhguy’s story serves as a powerful reminder of resilience, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge against all odds.
