By John Day, IEEE Director of Member Products & Programs
Cognitive health directly impacts seniors’ quality of life. Numerous studies have shown that those with preserved cognitive function can continue to engage in meaningful activities, maintain social connections, and pursue hobbies and interests. Brain fitness exercises support cognitive abilities and contribute to emotional well-being, confidence, and overall life satisfaction. Whether it’s health-related interests, the desire to connect with others, curiosity, or simply fun, IEEE’s Life Members have discovered the IEEE Puzzlers.
IEEE Puzzlers is a recreational math community that develops, solves, and disseminates brain teasers and puzzles related to mathematics and areas of interest to IEEE. IEEE Puzzlers offers a fun, engaging virtual experience for those who enjoy solving brain teasers such as missing numbers and logic games at varying levels of difficulty. The community has over 6,500 followers on IEEE Collabratec, IEEE’s official networking and collaboration platform. Community participants can tackle more than 500 brain-teasers developed by IEEE Volunteers, earn achievement badges for the number of puzzles solved, and periodically receive recognition on leaderboards.
As of May 2024, over 600 Life Members belong to the IEEE Puzzlers community, about 10% of the community’s total followers. Geographically, the IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section leads the representation of Life Members, with 25 belonging to the community, followed by the IEEE Boston and Chicago Sections.
Life Members are also decorated achievers. Ten percent of the Life Members in the Puzzlers community have gone to earn badges recognizing their solving prowess. It takes solving seven brain teasers to earn the Bronze-level badge – and from there, higher-level badges can be earned by solving more brain teasers. Two Life Members – Steve Hemphill being one – have earned the highest-level badge presently available, Ruby, for successfully completing 400 of the brainteasers.
Participating in the Puzzlers has many rewards. According to James Mercier, “the most rewarding aspect is actually solving the puzzles. Some are easy, but some are a real struggle for me, and a few have never been solved by me.” Noting the additional benefits, James explains “the puzzles are a way to keep our brains from atrophying. We may be gliding through our lives at this point, but the puzzles offer sharper, more focused exercises to push back the fog a bit.” Sharing his experience, Steve recounts, “It was challenging to try to attain the highest badge level, and I must admit that is what kept me going on the Puzzlers site.” Steve highly recommends the IEEE Puzzlers and thanks the organizing team “for giving us the challenge of doing what all engineers like to do, that is to solve problems!”
> Join the IEEE Puzzlers community: https://ieee-collabratec.ieee.org/app/community/1343/activities
> Contact: [email protected].
