Kyle Huang

Who am I?

If the universe doesn't give you a purpose, would you keep going anyway? This is one of the core ideas of absurdism, a philosophical theory and rabbit hole that I've fallen into recently. Developed by Albert Camus in the 20th century through books like The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel, it explores the absurd—the contradiction between the human desire for meaning and the inherent lack of it in the universe. Reading through his works gives me tools to approach more "relevant" questions, like "what is ethical?" as well as giving opportunities to question religion.

Outside of reading, I study competition mathematics. (Big ups to my man Nikhil T.) I've been mildly successful in these endeavors, earning an award for a national middle school math competition (AMC 8), and currently working towards a qualification to an invitational mathematics examination (AIME).

When I'm not at my desk, I'm often training in calisthenics or weights. I'm not outstandingly talented at this by any means, but I'm decently fit and I can just barely do a muscle up. In 8th grade, I really got into musical theatre after watching Chicago (2002) due to a recommendation by friend Nikhil T. Although technically the first actual "musical" I watched was probably Hamilton, Chicago is the one that really got me into the others, like Dear Evan Hansen , Heathers , The Book of Mormon , and many more.

Qualifications

After a year of class preparing for this competition, I was able to achieve a score of 20 out of 25, placing me in the 95th percentile.

Projects

Along with classmates Nikhil and Christopher, I designed and helped build the Chord Generator, a novelty invention similar to a music box.

• It works using gear ratios with a timing belt and a wooden hand crank that spins a DC motor at a high RPM.
• The voltage generated by the motor is led to a breadboard, which contains a capacitor used to smooth out the signal and a voltage regulator so that the power rail will carry clean 5V.
• This power is connected to the DF Player Mini, an MP3 module that can output an analog signal directly to a speaker.