Dennis Chen’s Website

Hey there! I’m Dennis, and I’ll be studying computer science at CMU starting Fall ’23.

People mostly know me for my work in math contests, particularly with Math Advance, which I am the director of. Right now us prefrosh students are changing the direction of Math Advance to focus less on contests and more on general outreach, exposition, and teaching.

My interests change pretty frequently, but some things I like to do as of now:

• Math
• Computers
  • Rust
  • Functional programming
  • Linux
  • LaTeX
  • System administration
  • Networking protocols (e.g. HTTP)
  • HTML/CSS and web design
• Writing

I also did design work before. The first draft of the MAT logo was by me. William changed it to a purple color scheme, which is currently on the final logo. I also have amateurish book, handout, and CV designs, the last two of which have been used semi-often by other people.

Parents, please have your student email me

I feel like I need to post this in big bold letters. If you are a parent and want to find a tutor for your kid, please do not email me. Have your student email me instead.

Nothing productive has ever come out of a parent email. I stopped trying more than a year ago for a reason. I also work best with students who demonstrate significant initiative of their own, and the first step to developing that is to email me directly if you have questions.

Hobbies

• Variant Sudoku puzzles follow typical sudoku rules, but typically with a twist. Sometimes you may have to “color” cells that you know are the same but don’t know the value of yet, and sometimes you will even have to construct the regions of the puzzle yourself. I have some beginner recommendations.
• Hanabi is a cooperative card game where you see everyone’s cards except your own. You give clues (color, number) to your teammates so they learn the identity of their cards, and they give you clues so you learn your cards. The goal is to play stacks of cards like in solitaire — the default is 5 stacks of 5 different colors, but this can change.