Connoisseur of chaos
Russ TedrakePhoto: Dominick Reuter As a high school student in a Detroit suburb in the 1990s, Russ Tedrake did not fit the standard profile of a future computer science professor. Although he had a talent for math — “I won some of the little math competitions,” he says — he spent his spare time playing football or soccer with friends rather than hacking code or even playing video games; in fact, he didn’t get his first computer until he was a senior. He got good grades, but he didn’t find the work very demanding. The only calculus class offered at his school was geared to the easier of the two Advanced Placement tests offered by the College Board — although, against the advice of his teachers, Tedrake took the harder test anyway and did well on it. “I just sort of coasted through,” he says.Tedrake’s father, who is from England, had...