SALISBURY — Most teenagers spend their time thinking about playing video games or how to ask someone to prom.

Not Salisbury’s Mike Wimmer. Or should we say, Dr. Mike Wimmer. Last weekend, Wimmer, who is only 16, addressed a crowded Two Cities Church Auditorium, after earning his Ph.D. in innovation.

“I am honored to stand here, caps and gowns adorned, celebrating not just a milestone but the audacity to dream big and the perseverance to make it real,” Wimmer said at the ceremony. “Today, we stand at the precipice of possibility, ready to leap into a world begging for our brilliance. This is our launch, and I’m thrilled to share it with you.”

According to Carolina University, the program “integrates theories and methodologies from business, technology, social sciences and engineering to explore the dynamics of innovation in organizations and society and develops advanced capabilities in innovation processes across a diverse array of contexts.”

Wimmer has spent most of his life innovating, pushing boundaries and envelopes in pursuit of knowledge and personal growth.

A bright child, Wimmer skipped kindergarten. He spent his secondary education years at Concord Academy, which he credits for allowing him to conquer concepts at his expedited pace. He graduated from high school as the valedictorian at age 12, while simultaneously completing coursework to obtain an associate’s degree from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

Next came Carolina University, where he completed a bachelor’s degree program in computer science, a master’s degree program in data science as well as an MBA before turning his attention to the Ph.D.

“It was amazing,” Wimmer said. “I did some online classes, but I did go in for Ph.D. residency with all the other students.”

As one might expect, being so much younger than his contemporaries posed challenges throughout his life.

“The biggest challenge throughout my entire education journey has been my age and getting people to accept that,” Wimmer said. “There have been a lot of doors slammed in my face.”

However, Wimmer said that instead of a closed door, Carolina University offered him an open one and embraced him with wide arms.

“It has always been a great experience,” Wimmer said. “Even though they were older than me they were very accepting of me.”

For Wimmer, it was always about finding “the right people that wanted to see (him) succeed and reach (his) full potential,” which he said he did at Carolina University.

When choosing coursework, Wimmer followed his passions.

“Computer science and technology are things I have always been learning,” he said. “When I was bored in school, I would come home and teach myself programming. Technology was an outlet to learn something new and technology is always endless. It was an affinity that I had.”

Wimmer’s pursuits have not stopped in the classroom. He started Next Era Innovations when he was 7.

“It was designed to build robotic applications,” Wimmer said.

He also created Instagrade, an application that used artificial intelligence to evaluate the worth of Pokemon cards.

“I have always wanted to think about things outside of the box in different ways,” Wimmer said. “I had to teach myself a lot of things so finding solutions to problems in innovative ways is something I always really like to do.”

As his progress with A.I. developed, so did Wimmer’s reputation, and before long he turned his attention to the sea through work with Atlantic Lion Share in Bermuda.

“My passion for solving global challenges through innovation led to a milestone I am unveiling today,” Wimmer said at the ceremony last weekend. “As I earn my Ph.D., focused on the lionfish crisis threatening our oceans, I am revealing the world’s first glimpse of what I have forged in silence.”

Wimmer unveiled the ReefSweeper, an underwater remote-operated vehicle engineered to destroy invasive lionfish with “AI precision.”

“This is not just a breakthrough,” he said. “It’s a commercially viable platform to safeguard coral reefs and coastal communities, launching a new era in underwater technology.”

Wimmer said that the oceans present a new frontier for innovation.

“The underwater industry has not had a lot of innovation over the last 30 years,” he said. “I am trying to bring that to the 21st century.”

Wimmer is determined to forge a path through those uncharted waters into a brighter future, pointing to history’s greatest inventors for their inspiration.

“Every ‘you can’t,’ every slammed door, every ‘that’s impossible’ became fuel,” he told the auditorium. “Consider history’s game-changers: the Wright brothers, mocked for defying physics; Steve Jobs, laughed at for envisioning a computer in every home; Elon Musk, ridiculed for aiming at Mars.”

Inspiring historical figures aside, Wimmer said he had his parents to thank the most.

“Your support and encouragement have allowed me to chase my dreams and achieve my goals,” Wimmer said. “You helped mold me and allowed me to grow into the successful person that stands before you today. I am forever grateful for your commitment to me and the sacrifices you have made. There has never been a moment when I did not know that I had someone in my corner, no matter what I was doing. I was blessed with the best of both of you and am proud to be your son.”

In addition to his parents, Wimmer thanked Concord Academy at Jeff LaCroix.

“You saw the potential in a seven-year-old kid who had a passion for learning,” Wimmer said. “You did everything you could to help foster my growth and helped me explore my interests in all things STEM-related.”

He also made sure to thank the professors and faculty at Carolina University for the opportunity to expand his own horizon and for pushing him to understand the true meaning of innovation.

“Innovation does not always mean inventing the next iPhone or landing on Mars — though maybe one of us will,” he said. “It’s seeing a problem and refusing to accept it as ‘just the way things are.’ It’s asking, ‘Why not?’ when others say, ‘That’s impossible.’ Innovation can be as small as a bold choice and as vast as a revolution.

“But innovation is no easy task. It’s failing a hundred times and getting up a hundred and one. It’s hearing ‘no’ and interpreting it as ‘not yet.’ Every breakthrough was born from someone who refused to quit. So, let’s not quit. Let’s iterate, adapt and keep going.”