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 and UIUC alumnus Bert Johnson of Allbase, Inc. Google and ACM provided prizes. 2005's contest involved a record number of participants.
PuzzleCrack 2006 was run from October 16 to October 20, 2006, again by Bert Johnson of Allbase. Prizes were sponsored by Microsoft and once again, records were broken. More than 5,000 people viewed the puzzles and hundreds of teams participated.
PuzzleCrack 2007 was run from October 8 to October 12, 2007, run by "The Big Enchilada" (see "Past Winners" below). Prizes were sponsored by Amazon.com and Microsoft. Viewership and participation broke even the previous year's records.
PuzzleCrack 2008 will be run during October 2008, again by "The Big Enchilada".
[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 Allbase and Microsoft. It was last run on Saturday, April 26, 2008.
[edit] Past winners
| Event | Date | Winners | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Placement | Team Name | Team Members | ||
| Puzzlehack | October 2002 | 1st | SIGMil | |
| Puzzlehack 2.0 | October 2003 | 1st | Dave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird | |
| Puzzle |
October 2004 | 1st | 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 | Team Florida | Matt Belcher, Kim Belcher, David Hwang, Erin Wolf, and Mike Treaster | ||
| 3rd | SIGMil | |||
| PuzzleCrack 2006 | October 2006 | 1st | The Big Enchilada | Kyle Harlow, Jason Monchino, Corinne Russell, Jared Russell, Jordan Timmermann, Derrick Wright |
| 2nd | I4 | Jacob Beacham, Michael Almaraz | ||
| 3rd | Kevin Berg, Derek Donahue, and Nick Wagers | |||
| PuzzleCrack 2007 | October 2007 | 1st | Team Turtle | Bob Bregant, Jessica Bregant, and Hilary Wilson |
| 2nd | The SoftwARR Pirates | Kevin Berg, Richard Carlson, Marc Holden | ||
| 3rd | Team Spontoon | Greg Schechter, Stephen Kloder, Benjamin Juang, Marty Hanlon, Lauren Haynes, and Bo Zheng | ||
