Harvard Duck Heist
| Location: | 26-100 |
|---|---|
| Date: | December 5, 2022 |
What, on any other day, would have been just an ordinary 6.100B (aka 6.0002) lecture, turned out to have a rather unexpected guest lecturer: DuckDeBugger, from the school up the river!
Harvard and Yale have their own version of the intro to computer science and coding class, called CS50. This class has an iconic mascot, the DDB, or DuckDeBugger, and their lectures are often accompanied by the 9ft tall inflatable duck.
Hackers decided that the Harvard Duck should come to guest lecture 6.100A/B. According to the pamphlets distributed all over 26-100 by the perpetrators, the Duck was stolen during the CS50 annual Hackathon, just a few days before it unexpectedly appeared at 26-100 in the last lecture of the day. The Duck had 6.100A/B written on its chest and was dressed in a hoodie that mimicked a beaver head.
In addition to the Duck and the pamphlets, the blackboards were decorated with This is CS50 and This is 6.100A/B, to make a reference to the way CS50 lectures start with a dramatic slide saying: This is CS50, written white on black. There was also an Instagram ID, where the duck itself got to post about its visit to MIT.
The CS50 Professor David J. Malan put on their Instagram stories one of the Duck posts.
In the pamphlets, in addition to the story of the heist, there was a coding question about DDB being stollen themed to the Hack Heist, in reference to a coding problem that CS50 students solve that covers the scenario of a Duck Heist.
A few days after the hack, Prof. John Guttag unveiled a gift sent by the CS50 staff to the 6.100A/B staff. The box contained a Harvard Flag and many mini CS50 DDBs.
Harvard and Yale have their own version of the intro to computer science and coding class, called CS50. This class has an iconic mascot, the DDB, or DuckDeBugger, and their lectures are often accompanied by the 9ft tall inflatable duck.
Hackers decided that the Harvard Duck should come to guest lecture 6.100A/B. According to the pamphlets distributed all over 26-100 by the perpetrators, the Duck was stolen during the CS50 annual Hackathon, just a few days before it unexpectedly appeared at 26-100 in the last lecture of the day. The Duck had 6.100A/B written on its chest and was dressed in a hoodie that mimicked a beaver head.
In addition to the Duck and the pamphlets, the blackboards were decorated with This is CS50 and This is 6.100A/B, to make a reference to the way CS50 lectures start with a dramatic slide saying: This is CS50, written white on black. There was also an Instagram ID, where the duck itself got to post about its visit to MIT.
The CS50 Professor David J. Malan put on their Instagram stories one of the Duck posts.
In the pamphlets, in addition to the story of the heist, there was a coding question about DDB being stollen themed to the Hack Heist, in reference to a coding problem that CS50 students solve that covers the scenario of a Duck Heist.
A few days after the hack, Prof. John Guttag unveiled a gift sent by the CS50 staff to the 6.100A/B staff. The box contained a Harvard Flag and many mini CS50 DDBs.
