Huntley High student lauded for tech prowess

Where others see numbers and coding, Kyle Ockerlund sees hope for changing the world one program at a time.

The Huntley High School senior was among 10 Illinois high school students to receive the 2015 Fifty for the Future Award from the Illinois Technology Foundation earlier this year. The program, in its ninth year, recognized the top 60 Illinois technology students, including 50 college students and 10 high school students statewide.

Ockerlund has written two books on computer programming - "Jumpstart Ti Basic" and "Jumpstart Z80 Machine Code," both how-to guides for using programming languages with Texas Instruments graphing calculators - available through Amazon. He gained national attention for research the Experimental Science Society - which he helped found - completed on the effect school bell tone has on student concentration.

His research found a 10 percent decrease in concentration during tests among students exposed to the school's new higher-pitched bell sound compared to students exposed to the previous lower-pitched bell. After presenting his research to administrators, the bell tone was changed back to the low-pitch ring.

Since then, Ockerlund has been involved in other research studies, including a memory lab project examining how students memorize and retain information, more specifically languages.

"The goal is just to get a better understanding of how these things work so the whole process could be optimized for students learning languages," said Ockerlund, 17, of Lake in the Hills.

For two years, Ockerlund has undertaken an independent study in data science where he creates his own curriculum and teaches it to himself using online resources under the guidance of Huntley High computer science teacher Michelle Zietlow, who nominated him for the technology award.

"Last year, I built programs and trained an artificial neural network," he said. "It learned how to play tic-tac-toe all on its own."

Another project involves creating a routing program being used on a trial basis by the Cook County sheriff's office.

"It takes in addresses and creates a travel plan. That program is being used right now in order for them serving various papers and court orders," he said. "The plan is to eventually release it to the county and maybe other counties."

Zietlow said she is amazed by Ockerlund's creativity and motivation to learn about technology, which sets him apart from his peers.

"His understanding of machine learning is way beyond what I understand," she said. "He is just so ambitious and he picks up the material so quickly."

After graduating in May, Ockerlund aims to study data science, data mining and processing, and statistics.

"I could see myself working for a bank to make predictions on loan stability ... working for a hospital identifying cancerous cells in x-ray images," he said.