Fifteen year old genius Dennis Kim is a physics doctoral candidate who Gablehauser wants at the college at any cost. Dennis is much like Sheldon was at that age, with the ego and arrogance to match. As such, Sheldon doesn't like Dennis, especially after Dennis criticizes Sheldon's work on string theory, which is his primary research. But Sheldon realizes that one of the comments Dennis makes about his research is indeed true. For Sheldon, this realization means the end of his life as he knows it. Much to his genius friends' chagrin, Sheldon needs to find something academic to do, and who better to do it with than other geniuses (albeit less so than him). So Leonard, Howard and Raj decide that to get Sheldon back to the top of the heap status they need to take Dennis down a few notches by refocusing his fifteen year old mind on more pubescent pursuits.