2014 Alan Turing Cryptography Competition
24 Jan 2014
Registration is now open for the 2014 Alan Turing Cryptography Competition which starts on Monday, 27 January 2014.
Now in its third year, and organised by the School of Mathematics, this successful competition is open to secondary school children up to Year 11 (England and Wales), S4 (Scotland) and Year 12 (Northern Ireland). It is a great way for children to make use of their mathematical and problem-solving skills whilst having fun. In addition, there is the opportunity to win some great prizes, which have been sponsored by the flight search company, Skyscanner. Skyscanner was set up by two former computer scientists from the University of Manchester, two people who directly benefitted from Turing's contributions to Manchester and computing. People outside the age range can also take part, but they won't be eligible for any prizes!
The competition follows the story of two young cipher sleuths, Mike and Ellie, as they get caught up in an adventure to discover the Lovell Legacy. Every week or two weeks a new chapter of the story is released, each with a cryptographic puzzle to solve. There are six chapters in total (plus an epilogue and just-for-fun code to conclude the story). Points can be earned by cracking each code and submitting the answer. The leaderboard enables the teams to keep track of how well they are doing.
New for this year is the Alan Turing Cryptography Day, to be held in the School of Mathematics on Wednesday, 30th April 2014. We anticipate plenty of code-breaking action, a live cryptography mini-challenge and a prize ceremony for the competition winners. It's not to be missed!
To register
Further information and registration details can be found at: