Vincent Sheu
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Vincent Sheu (born October 1, 1990) is an American
speedcuber Speedcubing (also known as speedsolving, or cubing) is a competitive sport involving solving a variety of combination puzzles, the most famous being the 3x3x3 puzzle or Rubik's Cube, as quickly as possible. An individual who practices solving tw ...
or
Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a Three-dimensional space, 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarians, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik t ...
solver from Saratoga, California known for organizing World Cube Association competitions and setting world records in both the Fewest Moves event and the 2x2x2 single solve. He currently serves as a Director and Delegate for the World Cube Association (WCA) and has been an organizer of every annual US Nationals Cubing Competition since 2010 (in addition to the World Cube Competition of 2015). Sheu previously served as the first Chair of the WCA's Regulations Committee with Lucas Garron from 2012 to 2015, directing a complete redrafting of the official competition regulations and guidelines during his tenure. He has received media attention as the subject of several
viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
images and
video clips Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely to ...
at various college sporting events.


Speedcubing

Vincent Sheu has been an active speedcuber since 2006. He typically uses the
CFOP method The CFOP method (Cross – F2L – OLL – PLL), sometimes known as the Fridrich method, is one of the most commonly used methods in speedsolving a 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube. This method was first developed in the early 1980s combining innovations by a ...
, a layer-by-layer system popularized by
Jessica Fridrich Jessica Fridrich is a professor at Binghamton University, who specializes in data hiding applications in digital imagery. She is also known for documenting and popularizing the CFOP method (sometimes referred to as the "Fridrich method"), one o ...
in 1997. In 2011, Sheu tied the existing world record for a 2x2x2 single solve with a time of 0.96 seconds at the
Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...
Winter Cube Competition. During the 2014 US Nationals Competition, Sheu tied the existing world record for the Fewest Moves Competition (FMC), an event that requires participants to solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in the fewest moves possible, with an average solve of 25 moves among three different solves. At the same competition, he also set the North American Record for a single solve in an FMC event with a solve of 22 moves. As a result, Sheu became the 2014 National Champion in the FMC category.


Media appearances

In February 2014, Vincent Sheu was filmed at a
Haas Pavilion The Walter A. Haas Jr. Pavilion is an indoor arena in the western United States, on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California. It is the home venue of the Golden Bears men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, a ...
men's college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
game between rivals
California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...
and the
Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...
as he performed an impromptu Rubik's cube-solve behind sportscasters Bill Walton ( color commentator) and
Dave Pasch Dave Pasch (born August 11, 1972) is an ESPN announcer, covering the NBA, college football, and college basketball. He is also the radio play-by-play voice of the Arizona Cardinals. Personal life Pasch grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, to parents ...
( play-by-play announcer), who were commentating at the game. Given his placement at the front of the California student section directly between and behind the announcers, Sheu's cube-solve was immediately visible to audiences watching the game on ESPN2. A film clip of the solve went viral as a YouTube video on the internet shortly thereafter. After the high popularity of his cube solve, Sheu was subsequently placed by ESPN2 producers to solve additional cubes and puzzles behind sportscasters during live broadcasts of California basketball games against the Utah Utes,
Utah Valley Wolverines The Utah Valley Wolverines represent Utah Valley University in NCAA DI collegiate athletics and sponsor 16 sporting programs. The Wolverines participate in the Western Athletic Conference. The school mascot is the Wolverine, and the colors are gr ...
, and Arkansas Razorbacks. He was also featured by Bill Walton in a short ESPN2 segment about his participation at Rubik's Cube competitions and the Berkeley college experience during the
California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...
Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...
game three weeks later. Following these events, Sheu was featured in a promotional video on student life by the University of California, Berkeley that aired on
Pac-12 Networks The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquarter ...
. Vincent Sheu was one of several speedcubers to appear in "Will We Become God?," Episode 8,
Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
of ''
Through the Wormhole ''Through the Wormhole'' is an American science documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science Channel in the United States on June 9, 2010. The series concluded its run on May 16 ...
'', an American science documentary television series by actor
Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
. The episode aired on July 9, 2014. During a college basketball game between the Stanford Cardinal and University of California – Los Angeles Bruins on February 5, 2014, Sheu was again the subject of internet and media attention. As Bill Walton commented the
Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
game on ESPN2, Sheu was filmed with a fellow student wearing "Stanford Law School"
apparel Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
and studying during the first half of the game as they sat in the student section with binders, textbooks, and casebooks. Although the film clip was later determined to have been spliced in shortly before the game actually began, the image proceeded to go viral and reached "
meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...
" status on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and AboveTheLaw.com, prompting humorous discussion about the difficult academic workload of first year law students. Vincent Sheu was one of several speed cubers to make a cameo in Netflix's documentary, ''The Speed Cubers'', which was released on Netflix on July 29, 2020.


Background

Vincent Sheu completed a joint degree at Stanford University. He received a J.D. from Stanford Law School and
M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
in Computer Science from the
Stanford School of Engineering Stanford University School of Engineering is one of the schools of Stanford University. The current dean is Jennifer Widom, the former senior associate dean of faculty affairs and computer science chair. She is the school's 10th dean. List of de ...
in June 2018. He previously graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in
Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
and Molecular & Cell Biology (’12) and an
M.Eng. A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, M.E. or M.Eng.) is either an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research de ...
in
Bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...
(’14). At Berkeley, he served as the President of th
Berkeley Cube Club
As part of the University of California'
Decal
program, he taught the popular courses “Learn To Solve the Rubik’s Cube” (Math 98) and “Speedsolving” (Math 198). Vincent is a retired avid sports blogger with California Golden Blogs.


See also

*
Tyson Mao Tyson Mao (born May 8, 1984, in San Francisco, California) is an American Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He is a co-founder and a former board member of the World Cube Association, an organization that holds competitive events for the Rubik's Cube. I ...
*
Anthony Michael Brooks Anthony Michael Brooks is an American speed cubing champion. He specializes in the 2x2 cube and classic 3x3 cube, and has been officially ranked in the top five in the world in both categories as recognized by the World Cube Association. Since ...
* Eric Limeback *
Macky Makisumi Shotaro Makisumi ( ja, Makisumi Shōtarō; commonly known as "Macky", born March 21, 1990, in Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan) is best known for setting several world records for speedcubing, or quickly solving the Rubik's Cube. Macky lived in Arcadia ...
* Lars Petrus * Feliks Zemdegs *
Mats Valk Mats Valk (born 4 May 1996) is a Dutch Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He broke the Rubik's cube single solve world record twice with times of 5.55 seconds in 2013 and 4.74 seconds in 2016. He won the Rubik's Cube European Championship in 2018 and ...
*
Rowe Hessler Rowe Hessler (born on February 27, 1991 on Long Island, New York) is a two-time former speedcubing Speedcubing (also known as speedsolving, or cubing) is a competitive sport involving solving a variety of combination puzzles, the most famous be ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheu, Vincent Living people 1990 births People from Saratoga, California American speedcubers