Episode 9: Cracking the Code with John Toebes

John Toebes is the Science Olympiad National Event Leader for Codebusters and State level event leader for North Carolina. John joins The STEM Yard to discuss his background with Codebusters, tips for forming a well-rounded team, the importance of diversity and tricks for decoding faster. In the second half of the episode, John answers listener-submitted questions that cover a wide variety of event-specific topics, including the fractionated morse cipher, Patristocrat and Cryptarithm.

About Codebusters

In this event, teams decode encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques, or show skill with advanced ciphers by encrypting or decrypting a message.

Resources

About John Toebes

John has an unusual background with skills in a number of areas. He is an avid innovator with 114 issued US patents (and counting) and over 175 Issued patents world-wide. John’s 100th US Patent issued issued on June 23, 2015. In 2018, North Carolina State University Computer Science department inducted John into their Hall of Fame. John was awarded the Jason Painter Distinguished Service Award in 2021 by North Carolina Science Olympiad.