- PuzzleCrack
PuzzleCrack is an annual tradition at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . It is a weeklongpuzzlehunt competition that combinesproblem-solving with computer hacking.This year's competition will take place from
October 20 toOctober 24 ,2008 . For the second year in a row, it will be run by "The Big Enchilada" (see "Past Winners" below), withAmazon.com andMicrosoft providing prizes as co-sponsors.History
The competition began in October
2002 under the name Puzzlehack. It took place during the annual UIUC ACM's "Reflections | Projections" conference, was sponsored by Microsoft, and was run by Microsoft employees and UIUC alumni Josh Michaels and Igor Kofman.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", so the year's contest was simply known as "Puzzle 3".In
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 toOctober 20 ,2006 , again by Bert Johnson of Allbase. Prizes were sponsored byMicrosoft , and, once again, records were broken. More than 5,000 people viewed the puzzles and hundreds of teams participated.PuzzleCrack 2007 took place from
October 8 toOctober 12 ,2007 and was run by "The Big Enchilada". Prizes were provided by Amazon.com and Microsoft, and both viewership and participation broke the previous year's records.Related
PuzzleCrunch is a similar, one-day puzzlehunt which has been run twice during the Spring. The competition was first run by Bert Johnson with Microsoft as a sponsor in 2006. It was last run by "The Big Enchilada" onApril 26 ,2008 , with Amazon.com and Microsoft providing prizes.Past winners
External links
* [http://www.puzzlehack.org Puzzlehack Home]
* [http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/puzzlehack/ph1/ Puzzlehack 1 Home]
* [http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/puzzlehack/ph2/ Puzzlehack 2 Home]
* [http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/puzzle/ Puzzlehack3 Home]
* [http://www.puzzlecrack.org/rp2005 PuzzleCrack 2005 Home]
* [http://www.puzzlecrack.org/eoh2006 PuzzleCrunch Home]
* [http://www.puzzlecrack.org/rp2006 PuzzleCrack 2006 Home]
* [http://www.puzzlecrack.org/rp2007 PuzzleCrack 2007 Home]
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