First Prize for Codebreakers

15th March 2022
BY Mr Dominic Rowland, Head of Mathematics Outreach

A team of budding codebreakers has taken joint first prize in the Cipher Challenge competition, an annual event organised by the University of Southampton's School of Mathematical Sciences, now in its 20th year.

Three Wykehamists were joined by two others to form the team 'Byte Our Dust', and successfully saw off competition from 6,250 other school pupils to claim joint first prize. They were awarded one of the two team prizes of £1,000 in cash to share between them, theirs sponsored by IBM.

Congratulations to team captain Chris Brain, Oscar Mitcham, and Christopher Leung, who received Headmaster's Distinguished Achievement Awards for their performance. They will be attending a special Cipher Challenge prizegiving event at Bletchley Park next month, including a tour of the museum, and a demonstration of an Enigma machine.  

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