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doors for dent

The technology wiz is headed to NASA for a summer internship. By Dani Davies· Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

When his family moved from California to F1orida 13 years ago, Chris Cook's mother didn't both­er with games or books to engage her 5-year-old son on the long ride.

Instead, she packed a televi­sion. Not for watching, but for

dismantling. That's how

Cook began his 13-year jaunt toward aca­demic stardom - taking apart TVs like his grandfather taught him.

'Then I re­L...-__.:1--......,.a.L.1 alized I could Cook do more if I put

things back to­gether," Cook said.

F1ash forward to present-day Cook - an 18-year-old Martin County High senior who will graduate next week and go to NASA for a summer internship­and you'll still see a young man motivated and occupied by his own curiosity.

He placed third in physics at the International Science Fair in May and won a Pathfinder award in science this month. He has a list of awards too long to name, and he runs a computer business out of his bedroom in his parents' Palm City home.

His parents, Cathy and Bill, who own a Hawaiian shirt busi­ness, say he didn't get his know­how from them.

''We wonder where he came from," said Cathy Cook.

"I don't even know how to tum the computer on," Bill Cook said as his son tried to explain his sci-

6 MSL THE PALM BEACH POST MONDAY, MAY 31, 1999 3B

Student connects PCs for supercomputer COOK From lB

ence project. Chris Cook said it deals with

"methods to detect and prove the existence of gravitational waves as theorized by Einstein."

Oh, and he used "laser inter­ferometers" on the five-year project.

"He has a lot of in-depth sci­entific knowledge," said Greg Maxwell, a friend who works as a computer network specialist for Martin County. "He may or may not be smarter, but if anything, he's using his intelligence far more than other people his age."

For his science project, Cook went on the Internet to find and consult with professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech­nology and at Cal Tech who were working on similar projects to his.

When he wasn't able to use the National Center for Super­computing Applications for part of his project, he figured out how to build his own supercomputer

by hooking about 16 PCs togeth­er.

Now he'd like to market his method to small businesses that wouldn't otherwise be able to af­ford supercomputers.

Cook's computer expertise is self-taught. He spent most of his time in middle school in front of a monitor in his room before de­ciding to have some fun in high school.

Between science fairs, he maintains about a 3.0 grade point average. There's also a girlfriend and a car, a 3000 GT that he adores.

So what does a teenage sci­ence wiz with a knack for com­puters do to a car? He plans to replace its radio with a computer that would allow him to download about 10,000 tunes at a time.

But Cook doesn't consider himself a genius, a wiz kid or even different from classmates.

'The way I see it is that I just have different interests," he said. "I've just taken the opportunity to know more."