Melbourne year eight student Justin Mitchell has created an instrument designed to fit in the pocket of a hoodie.

Tired of carting around a keyboard? Want to hear your own music through your headphones instead of someone else’s? A 14-year-old student at St Kevin’s College in Melbourne has taken out the top prize in the Engineering category of the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards for his Synth-etic, a keyboard that can fit in the pocket of a hoodie.

The year eight student, who sings with the Australian Boys Choir and plays piano and oboe, built and programmed the tiny piano he describes as a “hood-wind instrument,” which allows the user to compose and play electronic music that only they can hear.

Justin Mitchell – BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards 2017 from CSIRO on Vimeo.

The keyboard consists of eight keys – four for each hand – to allow for an eight-note scale, which can be modulated up and down. The device has 127 instrumental settings.

“It means you can play whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you are,” said Mitchell – who loves maths and coding – in an interview...