PuzzleCrack

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PuzzleCrack is an annual tradition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is a puzzlehunt competition that combines problem-solving with computer hacking.

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[edit] History

The competition began in October 2002 sponsored by Microsoft and run by Microsoft employees (and UIUC alumni) Josh Michaels and Igor Kofman. Puzzlehack runs during the annual UIUC ACM's "Reflections | Projections" conference.

In October 2004, Don Schmidt and Dan Sledz took over as heads of Puzzlehack when Microsoft bowed out on short notice. Contention over rights to the puzzle contest led Microsoft to revoke the name "PuzzleHack". This year was simply known as "Puzzle 3".

In October 2005, the contest returned under a new name, PuzzleCrack and was run by past winner Bert Johnson (also UIUC alumni) of Avalon Business Systems. Google and ACM provided prizes. 2005's contest involved a record number of participants.

PuzzleCrack 2006 was run from October 16-20, 2006, again by Bert Johnson of Avalon Business Systems. Prizes were sponsored by Microsoft and once again, records were broken. Over 5000 people viewed the puzzles and hundreds of teams participated.

It has been announced that "The Big Enchilada" (see "Past Winners" below), will take over running the competition next year.

[edit] Related

PuzzleCrunch is a special puzzlehunt affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Engineering Open House weekend (EOH), also sponsored by Bert Johnson of Avalon Business Systems and Microsoft. It was last run on Saturday, March 11, 2006.

[edit] Past winners

  • Puzzlehack (October 2002): SIGMil (a UIUC hacking organization)
  • Puzzlehack 2.0 (October 2003): Dave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird
  • Puzzlehack 3 (October 2004): Dave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird, Peter Schlichting
  • PuzzleCrack 2005 (October 2005): 1st - Jeff Huang, Ludvig Strigeus, Wes Henderson, and Teresa Karr; 2nd - Matt Belcher, Kim Belcher, David Hwang, Erin Wolf, and Mike Treaster (Team Florida); 3rd - SIGMil
  • PuzzleCrack 2006 (October 2006): 1st - Kyle Harlow, Jason Monchino, Corinne Russell, Jared Russell, Jordan Timmermann, Derrick Wright ("The Big Enchilada"); 2nd - Jacob Beacham, Michael Almaraz (|4); 3rd - Kevin Berg, Derek Donahue, and Nick Wagers

[edit] External links

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