- FIRST TO COMPLETE IN INDIA.
- FIRST SPEED ASSEMBLY IN THE WORLD (NON-STOP FOR 108 HOURS and 43 MINUTES)
- FIRST GROUP TO COMPLETE FIVE RELATED PUZZLES BY ROYCE McCLURE
(1k/2k/3k/4k & 24K piece puzzles)
6 October, 2008
18 Jigsaw Enthusiasts - all employees at Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd. in
Noida, India.
Assembled between
October 1st 2008 (7:22 PM) and October 6th 2008 (8:05 AM) - 108 hours and
43 minutes non-stop!
I'm Aditya Nagpal writing in on behalf of the Jigsaw Enthusiasts from
Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd. in Noida, India.
I'm pleased to inform you
that I and my team (18 members total, all employees of Adobe Systems India
Pvt. Ltd.) have successfully solved the 24000pc Life puzzle for the first
time in India. Not only that, we have done it non-stop for the first time
in the world in a clock time of 108 hrs 43 mins. We practised a lot for
this event, and during the course of practice, we solved the 1000pc
miniature Sea of Life, 2000pc Sea of Life, 3000pc Life and 4000pc Slice of
Life puzzles as well. All these puzzles are of Royce's artwork.
I'll briefly mention our story here: (Click images below to enlarge.)
As Educa puzzles are not available in India, we purchased the puzzles
online and had them shipped to Adobe's US address, from where four
colleagues carried them back to India. To acquaint ourselves with the
artwork of the big puzzle, we held a non-stop practice session starting 8
PM on 26th Sep. in which we targeted the 3000pc and 4000pc puzzles. There
were 17 of us, so 7 of us worked on the 3000pc puzzle and 10 of us took on
the 4000pc puzzle. The 3000pc puzzle turned out to be very easy due to the
high amount of detail per piece and got finished in 12 hrs. (60 man-hours)
flat. But the 4000pc Slice of Life was in a league of its own. It turned
out to be as complex as a 6000pc section of the Life puzzle and took 38
hrs. (230 man-hours) to finish. However, finishing these puzzles within a
weekend gave our collective confidence a big boost and readied us for the
big day.
For the 24000pc Life puzzle, we were 18 in all. We began at 7:22 PM on 1st
Oct. starting with Section 1. After sorting, there were primarily 4 areas
to target: Balloons, Animals, Sea water and Clownfish. The clownfish were
the toughest of the lot. As it neared completion, we directed a majority
of our resources on to Section 2, which we opened at 8:30 PM on Oct 2. We
completed Section 1 at 11:30 AM on Oct 3 i.e. 40 hrs.
In Section 2, again there were prominent areas: Sea Water, Rainbow, House,
Balloons, Coral, Celestial Bodies, Water Splash, Tiger, Eagle, Jumping
Dolphin, Spiky Fish. Due to exhaustive sorting and the high morale from
the success of Section 1, we wrapped up this section in 35 hrs. by 7:30 AM
on Oct 4. Like before, we had opened Section 3 the previous night itself,
at 10:30 PM on Oct 3.
In Section 3, there were Boats, Sea Water, Underwater, Pink Sky, Black
Sky, Supernova, Birds and Coral Reef. Due to the large water content and
relatively thin attendance, this turned out to be the most time-consuming
section. The whole team felt that Section 4 was the toughest therefore we
set aside almost all resources for Section 4, leaving just 2-3 folks on
the remaining area of Section 3. This also contributed to Section 3's long
duration. In deference to the Lost City in Section 4, we opened it at 1:30
AM on Oct 5 and put maximal resources on it. Section 3 eventually finished
in 41 hrs. at 3:30 PM on Oct 5.
 Section 4 comprised of Pink Sky, Black Sky, Boats, Sea Water,
Underwater+Lost City, Planets & Celestial Bodies. We did extensive 2nd
level sorting of the Underwater+Lost City pieces on the basis of shape
into no less than 46 categories! As we were building on top of another
section, shape was a big guide for us. Additional sorting by shape only
accelerated the placement. We split up into 3 groups, each targeting the
sky, boats and lost city respectively. Sea water content was high (10+
rows) so once the sky was finished, those folks moved over to the water
area. The extra effort, preparedness, caution and of course enthusiasm
paid off -- we wrapped up Section 4 at 8 AM on Oct 6 i.e. in 31 hrs.
Ironically, this turned out to be the quickest section.
We started at 7:22 PM on 1st Oct. and finished at 8:05 AM on Oct. 6 for a
total clock time of 108 hrs. 43 mins. This included all breaks but work
never stopped on the puzzle. At times we were down to 2-3 folks but the
hall never emptied.
Overall, there were several techniques that helped us to solve this
puzzle. I'm mentioning some prominent ones here: 1) Exhaustive sorting -
 This is a must and saves a lot of time later on. We did not spend a lot of
time sorting Section 1, but soon realized our folly and spent much more
time in the initial sorting when doing the other sections. Individual
objects were identified and their pieces were separated upfront so that
some people could get to work right away on those pieces. 2) Repeating
pattern - As Scott Slater observes on his website, each piece repeats
every 37 pieces horizontally and every 27 pieces vertically. This helped
us a lot in difficult areas like sea water, pink sky and lost city. 3)
Section repeat - Complete sections are cut in the same way. So we were
able to build Section 2 on top of Section 1 and Section 3 rotated 180
degrees on top of Section 2 and so on. This helped tremendously
throughout. 4) Piece shapes - Some pieces have pointed grooves, either
incoming or outgoing or both. Such pieces are far fewer in number than
their "regular" counterparts and once placed correctly, aid a lot in
reducing the piece count as well as sometimes joining crucial "floating"
groups.
All said and done, it was a highly enjoyable and memorable experience. As
brought up during our correspondence, Royce has a long association with
Adobe Photoshop so it is only apt that a team from Adobe has taken up the
challenge and completed the loop. Our collective thanks to Royce for
creating such a masterpiece and to Educa for bringing it to the masses.
Best regards,
Jigsaw Enthusiasts @ Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd.
I-1A Sector 25A, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301,
India.
The Jigsaw Enthusiasts are:
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- Aditya Nagpal
- Akash Agrawal
- Akulaa Jain
- Amit Vats
- Ankit Bal
- Ankur Seth
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- Anurag Sharma
- Atul Agarwal
- Chaya Joshi
- Kapil Mohan
- Mayank Gupta
- Namrata Pande
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- Poonam Ohri
- R Sai Venkatesh
- Raghavendra Kumar Pandey
- Rahul Anand
- Sankalp Agarwal
- Siddharth Chadha
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IN THE NEWS:
NOIDA PLUS: A record put together
DAINIK JAGRAN: सबसे कम समय में हल की सबसे बड़ी पजल
INDIAN EXPRESS: Adobe employees assemble 24000-piece puzzle, set record
MAIL TODAY: Engineers crack a jigsaw in a jiffy
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Update 14 October, 2008
We're going to be featured as a top story on the company's
(Adobe) intranet.
To date almost 25 different news channels and newspapers have
featured us.
Relatives of various team members have called them
from far and near to congratulate them. We feel like
mini-celebrities ;-)
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Update January 2009
The completed puzzle is now framed and hanging on the wall in the reception area of Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd in Noida, New Delhi, India.
Here are some pics of the team posing with the mounted puzzle. A few of us
couldn't make it, so there are 14 in the pics instead of 18. (Click to enlarge images:)
 
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