DARPA has announce another research-relevant competition: the $50,000 Shredder Challenge which invites teams to try to reconstruct virtual shredded documents.

"Today’s troops often confiscate the remnants of destroyed documents in war zones, but reconstructing them is a daunting task. DARPA’s Shredder Challenge calls upon computer scientists, puzzle enthusiasts and anyone else who likes solving complex problems to compete for up to $50,000 by piecing together a series of shredded documents.

The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community. …

The Shredder Challenge is comprised of five separate puzzles in which the number of documents, the document subject matter and the method of shredding will be varied to present challenges of increasing difficulty. To complete each problem, participants must provide the answer to a puzzle embedded in the content of the reconstructed document."

You can download the puzzles, register a team and submit solutions online as well as view the current top teams. The prizewinner and prize awarded will depend on the number and difficulty of the problems solved. DARPA will a winner in the week of December 5, 2011 once final results are calculated.

DARPA has announce another research-relevant competition: the $50,000 Shredder Challenge which invites teams to try to reconstruct virtual shredded documents.

"Today’s troops often confiscate the remnants of destroyed documents in war zones, but reconstructing them is a daunting task. DARPA’s Shredder Challenge calls upon computer scientists, puzzle enthusiasts and anyone else who likes solving complex problems to compete for up to $50,000 by piecing together a series of shredded documents.

The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community. …

The Shredder Challenge is comprised of five separate puzzles in which the number of documents, the document subject matter and the method of shredding will be varied to present challenges of increasing difficulty. To complete each problem, participants must provide the answer to a puzzle embedded in the content of the reconstructed document."

You can download the puzzles, register a team and submit solutions online as well as view the current top teams. The prizewinner and prize awarded will depend on the number and difficulty of the problems solved. DARPA will a winner in the week of December 5, 2011 once final results are calculated.

There's an official UMBC Platoon for all UMBC Battlefield 3 Players! To join, search for UMBC Battlefield3 Team on Battlelog under "Platoons"

The Platoon is an easy way for UMBC players to stay connected and compare eachother's statistics. If we get enough players to join the Platoon, we'll look into pooling together some money to own our own UMBC official Battlefield 3 server to play on!

The link to the Platoon can be found under "Website" below. You need to be logged on to BattleLog in order to access the link.

Photo courtesy of NPR.

Forget the boogeyman and things that go bump in the night- the scariest thing this Halloween may be the number 7 billion.

That’s how many people the UN estimates are alive on Earth today (give or take 56 million, of course).

The number has many scared the growing population will place a strain on already limited resources- ranging from expected ones, like water, oil, and natural gas to the less well- known but equally important ones, like phosphorus and rare earth elements.

Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University points to a more hopeful outlook, however,

“In fact, the world is physically capable of feeding, sheltering and enriching many more people in the short term…the world’s population is growing at 1.1 percent per year, half the peak rate in the 1960s.”

With population growth projected to hit 9.3 billion by 2050, it seems we need to make sure the newest members of the plethora of people on the planet have a healthy planet to live on.

This semester, UMBC students interested in the medieval and Renaissance eras were offered a fresh avenue for study: a new Medieval and Early Modern Studies minor (MEMS).

“Our students find the eras fascinating, whether they are studying Renaissance art, French linguistics, medieval visionary writing, comic and subversive outlaw narratives, Shakespeare, or early modern marriage practices,” said Kathryn McKinley, associate professor of English and the minor’s program director. Students have the opportunity to explore the literature, history, religion, culture and arts of the era that spans late antiquity through approximately 1700.

The 6-course, 18 credit minor currently draws on courses from the English, History, and Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communications departments, and other disciplines have expressed interest in offering courses that fit the program. Students can also request the director’s approval to include any 300- or 400- level class focusing on the medieval or early modern period.

“Many universities, nationally and internationally, offer concentrations in the medieval and early modern periods, and students see much common ground among such MEMS courses,” said McKinley. She pointed out that the courses included in the minor, such as “Images of Joan of Arc” (ENGL 345) and “Art and Society in the Renaissance” (HIST 358), are already popular offerings from the departments. The minor provides a valuable background for students entering graduate school or teaching, and is compatible with many of UMBC’s study abroad opportunities.

The first students with the minor will graduate in Spring 2012.  For more information on the minor or to register, contact Kathryn McKinley at kmckinle@umbc.edu.

Spotlight image credit:

Cleveland Museum of Art, William H. Marlatt Fund 1945.16.
Leaf from Jehan de Courcy's "Chronique Universelle": King Priam Meets Helen and Paris outside the Gates of Troy.
Northeastern France, c. 1470.

 www.clevelandart.org

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