Yi Cao wins the prize

The contest is over, the queue is clear, and the results are in. Our heartiest congratulations go to contest veteran Yi Cao for his winning entry Buy a ticket. We’ll be sending him his Solitaire game board and some other assorted MATLAB goodies.

Yi has a highly decorated career as a MATLAB Programming Contest participant (see his multiple Hall of Fame entries) but this is his first Grand Prize. If you’re wondering what it takes to win a contest these days, be sure and read the fascinating discussion in the contest newsgroup thread. As the contest has evolved, winning strategies have gotten more subtle, to the point that they now include active surveillance of the competition, tracking and identifying people working under assumed names, and simultaneous combinations of code from multiple entries. Well done!

We’d love to hear about your favorite strategies, either in comments here or on the newsgroup. We especially enjoy hearing “war stories” about your how your entries were developed and the unexpected twists you encountered as you played the contest.

Thanks to everyone for playing, or just visiting and watching. We had a great time hosting the contest. See you in six months!