Over 7,500 pupils from 800 schools across the UK have taken part in this year’s National Cipher Challenge, nearly doubling last year’s numbers.
Designed and run by Mathematical Sciences at the University, the competition challenges secondary school and college pupils to break a range of difficult ciphers using their cunning and computing skills.
Professor Graham Niblo, Director of the competition, said:
The demand for mathematicians across industry and finance is growing every year and the competition is designed to attract more young people in to the field. The talent shown by the thousands taking part this year gives me huge confidence that the future is bright for the subject.
Following a GCHQ-sponsored relaunch of the competition to mark its 15th anniversary, the winners of this year’s challenge have now been announced.
Gold and silver medallists won prizes sponsored by the University of Southampton, University of Cambridge, IBM and GCHQ. A further 89 team members from the top 10 teams won bronze medals.
The Gold Medal winner and recipient of the GCHQ Prize for Best Individual Code Breaker was Alex Barter of the Cotswold School in Gloucestershire, who received £1,000. Alex has taken part in the competition for the last four years and has fallen in love with cryptography. He has applied to study mathematics at university and runs his own website on breaking codes.
To find out more about the National Cipher Challenge visit www.cipherchallenge.org
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