Rubik: Northeastern's Got Your Move

Watch your back MIT, the nerds across the river are gaining ground. The Rubik's "Magic" Cube achieved instant classic status when it was introduced in 1980. There's probably one, unsolved, somewhere in your house right now. There are, of course, some people who have mastered the secret patterns of twists and turns that will solve the puzzle quickly – computer scientists at Northeastern have managed to create a method to put all sides to single colors in a maximum of 26 moves. That's a maximum from any jumbled up configuration.

According to Science News, Daniel Kunkle, a computer science student at Northeastern University along with his advisor Gene Cooperman have used their computers to do math on the cube and computed strategies to solve the puzzle in a new record 26 move maximum. Previously the record had been shaved to 27, Kunkle and Cooperman hope to get the max down to 25. From the article: "Even if they manage this feat, however, it will probably leave room for improvement. Most researchers believe that just 20 steps are enough to solve any Rubik's Cube, but no one has proved it yet." Seriously, with the number of hours we've logged just to get one side a solid color (forget about the rest of the sides) the PhD seems pretty unattainable given the super-low max these computer scientists have set as the bar. It's nice to report that this research came out of one of Boston proper's universities and not the MIT set who we're usually reporting on for developing wireless power technologies or flying cars.

Image of how Bostonist's Rubik's Cubes usually end up from Wikimedia commons user Curis