Jessica Fridrich

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Jessica Fridrich speedsolving a cube. The first step of the two-part last-layer solution has been completed, with all of the last layer cubies oriented properly, but not permuted. (She is solving with the last layer on top.)

Jessica Fridrich (born Jiri Fridrich) is the inventor of the most commonly used method for speed-solving the Rubik's Cube, better known as speedcubing. This method describes solving the cube in a layer-by-layer fashion. First a so-called "cross" is made on the first layer, consisting of the center piece and four edges. The first layer corners and edges of the second layer are put into their correct positions simultaneously (four pairs). The last layer is solved by first orienting and then permuting the last layer cubies using a large number of algorithms.

Fascinated by puzzles and complex geometry, Fridrich has Rubik's Cube inventor Ernő Rubik's signature in her notebook, which he signed at the Rubik's Cube World Championship in Budapest in 1982, where she finished tenth. In the second Rubik's Cube World Championship in Toronto, Canada, she finished second, right after Dan Knights.

In the speedcubing community she is considered one of the pioneers of speedcubing, next to Lars Petrus. Nearly all of the fastest speedcubers have based their methods on Fridrich's, usually referred to as CFOP (Cross, First 2 Layers, Orient Last Layer, Permute Last Layer).

[edit] Professional life

Jessica Fridrich works as a research professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering a the University of Binghamton, New York, and specializes in digital watermarking and encryption.