[Media representatives are welcome to cover the Aug. 3 scavenger hunt. Contact Jim Patterson at jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu or Amy Wolf at amy.wolf@vanderbilt.edu for more information.]
A summer course in codes and code-breaking at ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ University will culminate on Aug. 3 with students fanning out across the campus to solve a series of mysteries.
The course, Cryptography, is part of the ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ’s , a part-time graduate degree program designed for working professionals.
“Sometimes this feels like a course in higher math and sometimes it feels like a history course about spies and skullduggery,” said , a senior lecturer in the and assistant director of ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ’s Center for Teaching.
“It’s really both, along with philosophy, military history and ethics,” he said.
Students in the course have debated issues such as The Zimmerman Telegram, a coded message from Germany to Mexico urging the latter country to attack the United States. Determining the legitimacy of the message affected the timing of the entry of the United States into World War I.
Students will end the course on Aug. 3 with a final class that will gather in 206 Buttrick Hall on the ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ campus, split into teams and compete to win a scavenger hunt put together by , a Richmond, Va., company. The clues will mostly be codes for the students to decipher.
Media Contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu