Patch Whiz Kid of the Week: Jesse Stern, 17
School: Somerville High School
Accomplishments: Stern was one of three first place winners at the Somerville High School Science Fair last week for a computer science project, heads the H.E.L.P. Peer Tutoring club and uses his free time for intellectual pursuits.
How he got there: For his senior year science project, Jesse Stern wrote a seven-page mathematical proof that explored what mathematical problems computers could and could not solve in the card game Spider Solitaire. He said the proof arose from months of studying computational complexity theory, a branch of computer science that seeks to determine the difficulty of mathematical problems.
After the judges awarded Stern first place, he went home to read a 50-page lecture on computational complexity given to him by an MIT associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
“I’m not the type of person to go home and watch eight hours of television,” he said. “I need to do something with my time.”
Stern studies computational complexity theory in his guidance counselor’s office during the free blocks he has carved out of his schedule. He said the school has allowed his independent study because he has passed all the graduation requirements.
Stern also spends his time running the high school’s H.E.L.P. Peer Tutoring Club. He created the now 74-member club after he offered to tutor a schoolmate in math and decided that the school needed a better way to connect tutors with students who needed their help.
Now Stern is turning the club into a nonprofit organization that would provide peer tutoring to all Somerville schools. Headmaster Anthony Ciccariello commended Stern’s enterprising nature. “It’s an ambitious project, “ he said. “But Jesse has the vision to make it happen.”
Stern adopted the model for the H.E.L.P. Foundation from the Junior Statesman Foundation, of whose club he is a member. He has participated in the political debate club for the past three years.
As for his college plans, Stern said he aspires to study computer science at Brown University or Carnegie Mellon and to go on to write and solve computer codes or study the limits of artificial intelligence.
