It’s been quite the whirlwind in the past few years for Bishop Ireton High School graduate David De Costa.
De Costa had been named a 2026 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program nominee for Virginia. Locally, the 18-year-old was the high school winner of the George Washington Legacy Foundation Essay Contest, earning a chance to participate in Alexandria’s George Washington Birthday Parade on Feb. 14 and the Friendship Firehouse Annual Breakfast on Feb. 16.
In 2025, De Costa was one of 75 students worldwide participating in the Four-Star Leadership Program with General Tommy Franks, and won his second Naval Horizons Essay Contest and Virginia Outstanding Gifted Student award from the Virginia Association for the Gifted. Other accolades include making the finals of the National STEM Festival and being named the grand prize winner of the 2024 NOVA Fab Lab Design Challenge.
Now, he is majoring in aerospace engineering at George Mason University while continuing his STEM research.
De Costa comes from a family with a researcher mother, architect father and engineer uncle who got him STEM-related gifts growing up. He first developed an interest for STEM at 7 years old when his mother introduced him to the Scratch coding platform.
“I became fascinated by the idea that I could use technology to create something of my own,” De Costa told ALXnow. “I started making games on Scratch and later Roblox, eventually reaching about 10,000 monthly active players, which was a huge accomplishment for me at the time.”
As he got older, De Costa’s interests shifted to CAD and engineering design.
“I realized that what I enjoyed most was not just programming, but the process of taking an idea and turning it into something I could actually design and build,” he said. “That realization ultimately inspired me to pursue engineering.”
At Bishop Ireton High School, De Costa founded the Innovation Club and was founder and president of the school’s National STEM Honor Society chapter. Students created a project celebrating the Artemis II launch, earning praise from Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman.
“That was an especially memorable moment for me because I had the chance to share something I had helped create with someone who led a mission to the Moon,” De Costa said.
Another highlight was creating a research project in collaboration with a researcher from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Quanta Group. De Costa developed a Python-based quantum key distribution simulation using classical and quantum channels, and the project was featured at MIT’s largest annual teaching and learning event in November 2025. It is also being considered for addition to MIT’s Quantum Physics I course.
Outside of academics, De Costa said his most gratifying moment was completing a game development project during his senior year. He compiled a team of seven to complete the project and ran a YouTube channel to share it with an online audience. Through that experience, he learned more than just the technical skills of game development.
“I’m most proud of this accomplishment because it taught me that leadership is about more than simply having an idea or giving directions,” De Costa said. “It is about bringing different people together, understanding how they work, overcoming challenges, and helping a team turn an idea into something real.”
Amid his studies and research, De Costa said he plans to continue developing his passion for design and technology. If his high school accomplishments are any indication, that could mean big things for the future.
“I hope to combine my creativity and passion for design with my interest in technology to develop innovative solutions that can make a positive impact on society,” De Costa said. “Ultimately, I want to keep learning, creating, and using engineering to turn ideas into something that can make a difference.”
