On Sunday, April 9th, a 5-student team from TCNJ claimed 2nd place at the Google Games in New York City. The TCNJ team, named NP Too Easy, consisting of Ursula Widocki (Mathematics & Statistics), Darshan Kalola (Biology), Ethan Zeigler (Computer Science), Tomer Aberbach (Computer Science), Varun Taruvai (Biology) competed against 19 other teams from NJIT, NYIT, Manhattan College, Ramapo, Stevens, Vassar, Binghamton, and TCNJ in a challenging test of mental endurance. The Games featured 3 90-minute rounds where the team had to complete and unlock as many puzzles as possible to gain points. The puzzles were logic and coding challenges, which each had a twist to complete. Ula Widocki described it as “a puzzle within a puzzle… all creatively done and incorporated into the ‘Top Secret Mission’ theme. For example, in one of the challenges, they gave us only a crossword, but solving the crossword does not give you any points since each puzzle has a simple one-word answer. Through careful observation and thinking outside the box, I was able to figure out what the challenge actually entailed.”
Congratulations!