alumni

Stanford Engineering Puzzle

October 2008

Presidential politics can be polarizing in the moment of a campaign, but given enough historical distance it can be easier to celebrate areas of commonality. All Stanford Engineering alumni have something in common with former U.S. President Herbert Hoover because he was a fellow alum (his brother, Theodore, was the school's first dean).

At the risk of evoking unintended comparisons between the economic climate of Hoover's times and our current situation, we've chosen a quote from the former president/engineer as the quote to decipher in this month's puzzle. Presidential Proclamation

The puzzle below, whose format was suggested by alumnus Mark Perkins (PhD1985 OR), invites you to decipher a scrambled quote of Herbert in which he described what inspired him about the engineering profession. The quote has nothing to do with politics or the presidency, by the way. You'll quickly notice that some of the key words in this rather lengthy quote have been filled in for you. In solving the puzzle, it will be helpful to keep two things in mind:1) The most common two-letter word is "of." There are five of them.2) Five of the seven three-letter words are "the."Your last hint is that Hoover clearly believed that the value of engineering was in its ability to help people. Anyway, to show that you have successfully completed the puzzle, make sure to e-mail Marge Kastner the first sentence of the quote. Have fun!

October Hoover Quote

"Winning" entries

The Special Engineering Elegance in Functional Analysis Award goes to Adrian Au Yeung, Barton Evans and Jason Fang. We'd elaborate but then it might spoil the fun of those still trying to solve this puzzle.

Another hint that some engineering alumni have caught on to: the puzzle goes up on the Web sometime the first Monday of each month so that we're sure it will be in good shape for the Tuesday eNews.

  • 1) Edward Wilson
  • 2) Florian Gicquel
  • 3) Rick Doherty
  • 4) Michael Connors
  • 5) Javier Lozano
  • 6) Jason Wolfe
  • 7) Richard Thill
  • 8) Timothy Phillips
  • 9) John Pigott
  • 10) Paul Swenson
  • 20) Laurent Lessard
  • 30) Edward Conklin
  • 40) Danny Hsu
  • 50) Lynda Leidiger
  • 60) Carol Paymer
  • 70) Patrick Toolis
  • 80) Guillermo Alvarez
  • 90) Connie Lin
  • 100) Gary Herman
  • 110) Nico Martinez-de-Hoz

Do you want to try your hand at past puzzles? Go to our Archive page.