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John Doucette was an active participant in the CS Society. (Danny Abriel Photo)

While most kids were still figuring out high school, John Doucette got his first taste of Dalhousie computer science. Home-schooled, he had completed his classwork at the age of 15 and was planning to work for a couple of years before starting university. But his mom had other ideas.

鈥淪he gave me the course calendar for Dal and said 鈥榩ick one,鈥欌�� he recalls. 鈥淚 chose a CS class and was hooked.鈥�

Mr. Doucette, from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, started full-time studies at 17 and quickly became a familiar face in the Goldberg Computer Science Building. He鈥檚 served in six different roles on the CS Society executive 鈥� including president 鈥� and this past year was the Faculty鈥檚 representative on DSU council.

His contributions were recognized with the FCS Root Award for outstanding, prolonged leadership and contributions to the CS community 鈥� he鈥檚 only the third student to ever receive the honour.

He鈥檚 also a stellar honours student, with three NSERC undergraduate student research awards to his name. His thesis work concerns computational evolution 鈥� computer programs that make new computer programs better over time 鈥� and finding solutions that people wouldn鈥檛 necessarily come up with.

鈥淕enerally, you set up these systems so that the best programs get to reproduce,鈥� he explains. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 studying is novelty, where instead of rewarding the fittest, you reward the most different. It鈥檚 useful for figuring out when the criteria you鈥檙e using to assess your programs is actually wrong.鈥�

His work has taken him to conferences in Montreal, Naples and Istanbul, and will next lead him to the University of Waterloo where he鈥檒l be doing his master鈥檚 degree in computer science.