A clock transplanter is more likely. The kid didn’t solder the circuit boards. He took the parts from a manufactured clock. It looks like he was building a timer for a bomb from some terrorist web site.
As a DIY electronics project, it's not particularly impressive. The kid showed it to his Engineering class instructor, who didn't seem to think it was particularly noteworthy, and advised him not to show it to anyone else. He obviously knew it wasn't a bomb, but also knew that other people might jump to that conclusion. The kid then set it up so that it would trigger the alarm and cause a disturbance during class, insuring that other people would see it.