Cornell students did very well in the recent Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge. This is a puzzle-solving competition which took place Nov 11th, at nine schools across the US and Canada, namely: Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Stanford, UIUC, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto and University of Washington. The contest is open to all students, undergraduate and graduate.
Cornell had four teams in the top 20 (out of more than 200 teams total).
The best Cornell team placed second overall, and was one of only two teams to solve all the puzzles including the meta-puzzle. That team was the Ph.Demons, consisting of 4 CS Ph.D students: David Martin, Jonathan Moon, Ian Kash and Lucja Kot.