DARPA has announce another research-relevant competition: the $50,000 Shredder Challenge which invites teams to try to reconstruct virtual shredded documents.
"Today’s troops often confiscate the remnants of destroyed documents in war zones, but reconstructing them is a daunting task. DARPA’s Shredder Challenge calls upon computer scientists, puzzle enthusiasts and anyone else who likes solving complex problems to compete for up to $50,000 by piecing together a series of shredded documents.
The goal is to identify and assess potential capabilities that could be used by our warfighters operating in war zones, but might also create vulnerabilities to sensitive information that is protected through our own shredding practices throughout the U.S. national security community. …
The Shredder Challenge is comprised of five separate puzzles in which the number of documents, the document subject matter and the method of shredding will be varied to present challenges of increasing difficulty. To complete each problem, participants must provide the answer to a puzzle embedded in the content of the reconstructed document."
You can download the puzzles, register a team and submit solutions online as well as view the current top teams. The prizewinner and prize awarded will depend on the number and difficulty of the problems solved. DARPA will a winner in the week of December 5, 2011 once final results are calculated.