Wei-Hwa Huang (born August 4, 1975 in Eugene, Oregon) is an American

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

r, member of the US Team for the

World Puzzle Championship The World Puzzle Championship (commonly abbreviated as WPC) is an annual international puzzle competition run by the World Puzzle Federation. All the puzzles in the competition are pure-logic problems based on simple principles, designed to be pla ...

, and

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

. Huang was a member of the United States

International Math Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for Student competition, pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical comp ...

team in 1992 and 1993, where he was awarded a Silver Medal both years. He was a

Putnam Fellow The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

in 1993. Huang has won the annual

on four occasions: 1995 and 1997–1999. He also won the 2008 Sudoku National Championship. With team Left Out, he won the 2019

MIT Mystery Hunt The MIT Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzle hunt competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the oldest and most complex puzzle hunts in the world and attracts roughly 120 teams and 3,000 contesta ...

. With Tom Lehmann, Huang designed the board game Roll for the Galaxy released in 2014 by

Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games. History In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for Mayfair Games. At that time, ...

. Roll for the Galaxy is a

dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

-based adaption of the award-winning card game

Race for the Galaxy ''Race for the Galaxy'' (''RftG''), or simply ''Race'', is a card game designed by Thomas Lehmann. It was released in 2007 by Rio Grande Games. Its theme is to build galactic civilizations via game cards that represent worlds or technical and ...

with

deck-building A deck-building game is a card game or board game where construction of a deck of cards is a main element of gameplay. Deck-building games are similar to collectible card games (CCGs) in that each player has their own deck. However, unlike CCGs, t ...

mechanics. Huang and Lehmann also designed Roll for the Galaxy: Ambition, an expansion released in 2015. Roll for the Galaxy was nominated for three

Golden Geek Awards Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

and an

International Gamers Award The International Gamers Awards (IGAs) is an award for strategy board games and historical simulation games. The IGAs "were created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly i ...

. Huang graduated from

Montgomery Blair High School Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a State school, public Secondary school, high school in the Four Corners, Maryland, Four Corners neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. It is operated by Montgomery County Public Schools (M ...

and the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

and was an employee at

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

until July 2008. One of his most famous projects was the ''Da Vinci Code Quest'' on Google, which was a set of 24 puzzles launched on April 17, 2006, in cooperation with

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. Huang submitted a crossword puzzle to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' newspaper which was published on Tuesday, September 10, 2002. In 2012, Huang co-authored a book with

Will Shortz William F. Shortz (born August 26, 1952) is an American puzzle creator and editor who is the crossword editor for ''The New York Times''. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting h ...

, the editor of ''The New York Times'' crossword puzzle. Huang is an investor and co-producer of the Broadway musical

The Lightning Thief ''The Lightning Thief'' is a 2005 American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology, the first children's novel by Rick Riordan. The opening installment in the series ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'', the book was recognized among the ...

References

External links

Wei-Hwa Huang's puzzle gadget page at Google
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Wei-Hwa 1975 births California Institute of Technology alumni Google employees Living people American people of Taiwanese descent American game designers Artists from California Puzzle designers People from Silver Spring, Maryland Place of birth missing (living people) American people of Chinese descent International Mathematical Olympiad participants Putnam Fellows