South Elgin math whiz brings success to MIT

When Elgin Community College math professor Chalyce Deterding had to get a substitute in October 2008, the sub turned out to be woefully unprepared to teach Calculus II.

High school senior — yes, high school senior — Drew Dennison ended up teaching the class that day.

“He has a great questioning mind, always sitting in the front row, completely attentive,” Deterding said of Dennison, who had a scholarship to take classes at ECC. “He is probably the best student I've ever had, as far as his diligence in his work.”

Now a 20-year-old sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the South Elgin native was part of a team of four MIT students who in April won the OnStar Student Developer Challenge among more than 20 submissions from several colleges.

Dennison's team developed an in-vehicle, voice-based application called Eaton, which OnStar subscribers can use to find restaurants and make reservations based on their food preference and GPS location. The grand prize was $10,000 worth of electronic equipment.

“We spent a lot of time on this; we made sure we had a very polished presentation,” Dennison said. “It was amazing to win. There were so many strong teams.”

Teammate Isaac Evans, who grew up in Rockford, said Dennison took on a leadership role by organizing meetings and making sure the team was staying on track.

“Drew is very conscientious, and an extremely hard worker,” said Evans, who described Dennison as a friendly guy with an infectiously happy attitude about life.

MIT engineering professor Blade Kotelly said Dennison is among a group of 120 or so sophomores and juniors admitted into the school's selective Gordon Engineering Leadership Program.

“I wish all my students were like Drew,” Kotelly said, explaining that Dennison is not only smart and studious, but always focused on immediately applying everything he learns.

“Other students are a ticking bomb of intelligence that they amass, and then start to use it,” he said. “Drew has a very heightened level of quick engagement.”

Dennison doesn't have specific goals for how he'd like to apply his talents, but he does have a mind for business. He said he would like to work for a large company first and perhaps later start a business of his own and become its chief technical officer.

“I am interested in computer security, so I could see myself doing a startup in that field, but technology changes so fast that it's hard to know what opportunities will arise,” he said.

He loves learning, so working hard comes, well, easy, he said.

“My earlier memories are of going to the library and checking out as many books as I could about topics that I was interested in, like submarines,” he said.

Dennison was home-schooled by his mother, Stella, who took the reins of his academic education, and his father, chiropractor Kurt Dennison, who focused on practical stuff like automotive and carpentry skills.

From an early age, it was clear Drew was into math and all things mechanical, his parents said.

At 3, he was counting up to 1,000 during camping trips to Wisconsin.

At 5, he took apart the family's old washing machine with his dad's tools.

At 7 or 8, he was tinkering with electronic lab kits for middle-schoolers and answering questions like “What is 6 times 4?” in ways like “8 plus 4 minus 6 times 3 plus 8 all divided by 2 plus 11.”

In junior high, he finished nine Sudoku puzzles before his dad could even get through one.

At age 16, he did the computer-aided designs for the permits needed to remodel the second floor of the house. Then, he surprised his father by doing all the electrical wiring by himself. “It passed through inspection with no problems,” his dad said.

And his senior year, Drew scored a perfect 800 on the Math SAT II, and a 33 on the ACT — on his first try.

Stella Dennison said she worked hard at researching how to best home-school Drew and his younger brother, Joel. Both took some high school classes at Heritage Home School co-op in Elgin. This fall, Joel will attend Northern Illinois University with the hope of eventually going to medical school.

Just getting into MIT is no small feat. It is ranked seventh among the nation's top schools and has the best engineering school, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings for 2011.

Dennison started his freshman year at MIT with a bang by pointing out to his professor a mistake in his physics textbook. The professor's response? Suggesting Dennison take a more advanced class.

But Dennison makes it a point of saying in college he has met people with math skills far superior to his. It's typical of Dennison to downplay himself, his friend Isaac said.

“Drew is very, very bright, but he doesn't let it affect him too much,” he said. “He still has that humility, which makes it easy to work with him.”

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