Tim was on track for TRAPPIST-1. He had a very important ExtraSuperUROP project to complete there, and he was running a little late. So when his spaceship started making a few concerning sounds, he shrugged it off: he could run some diagnostics after his project was done. He wasn’t prepared for how quickly the noises would get worse. Or for the steering to cut out -- right as a planet loomed up in front of him. No matter how hard he pulled the emergency brake, nothing happened. And the planet was getting closer and closer… He closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
Boom!
He opened his eyes to a wide brown sky. To his left was nothing but dust and dirt. To his right was his spaceship. Or what used to be his spaceship; now it was more like a pile of parts. And behind him--
“Ahhh!”
Behind him were five creatures. Five aliens! One of them opened its mouth and said... “brrbflx”?
“Hi, uh, sorry, I don’t know what that means. Who are you? Can you help me fix my spaceship?”
“Brrbflx!”
Tim had a feeling it was going to be a looooooong time before he saw MIT again.
About the First-Year Puzzle Hunt
“Where in the galaxy is Tim the Beaver?” is a multi-round puzzle hunt where teams of first-year students compete to identify the location of Tim the Beaver after his communications with mission control break down during space travel to TRAPPIST-1. The puzzle hunt is designed to be an interactive experience for first-year students to connect with peers and HASS faculty while engaging in fun low-stakes intellectual activities. The hunt will consist of puzzles based on HASS content, optional ties to HASS curricular activities that build communication skills, and a team-based Rube Goldberg challenge that showcases the exciting intersections of engineering and HASS. Using standalone thematic rounds, the hunt will allow students to work with up to six different teams over the course of the semester, connecting them with a broad range of classmates and allowing them to easily opt-in or out of specific rounds based on interest and availability. The hunt will be designed and implemented by a team of student puzzle-writers, staff in the Office of the Vice Chancellor, and faculty members in SHASS.
Disclaimers
This puzzle hunt can only expose you to a fraction of the many fascinating topics MIT HASS has to offer. You can learn more about the HASS requirement and the many possibilities for HASS concentrations here.
The hunt itself is a work of fiction, but the puzzles are based on facts. It is highly unlikely that beavers and aliens could speak English. Historical, linguistic, social science, and other claims have been fact-checked by mostly accurate humans. Currently, there is no such thing as an ExtraSuperUROP nor has any UROP sent students (or beavers) to space. However, there is a SuperUROP program and sometimes student work gets to go to space.
We hope that this hunt will help you make friends, but all we can do is assign you to groups and give you something fun to work on. Only you can put yourself out there. Not as far out as TRAPPIST-1, just one small step into the Zoomiverse.
Tips for Solving Puzzles with a Team
Keep everyone’s time zones and availability in mind when forming puzzle-solving teams.
Some puzzles will take longer than others. Most puzzles were designed to take a few hours to complete. If you hit a block, don’t stress out! Remember to take breaks.
Within your assigned groups, you may want to split up within the teams so that only 2-4 people are collaborating on a puzzle at once.
The website answer checkers are for verifying your answer only, but completed answers for all the puzzles in the round must be sent to fypuzzleplanning@mit.edu for your team to win the round.
All teams that submit their answers before the next round comes out have won the round. Being first doesn’t matter, at least for the intro rounds.
Have fun!