Congratulations?

Carnegie Mellon University graduate student Gabriel Parent, whose "research focus is human-computer interaction through spoken dialog systems," can add "PhD Challenge"-winner to his list of accolades. And, according to Don Troop at The Chronicle of Higher Education's Tweed blog, his academic adviser apparently can, too. The online contest challenged grad students to plant the words "I smoke crack rocks" — not necessarily in succession — in the final version of a peer-reviewed paper. Indeed, Parent surreptitiously snuck the phrase into a paper, which was published in Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology this month, among a few additional last-minute edits that his co-author was unaware of. Along with a certificate, Parent will receive "a box of chicken-flavored Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup" and "a pack of leather elbow patches" from the PhD Challenge organizers. Troop hopes that Parent's co-author — who is also his academic adviser — "is as passionate about" winning this competition as her trainee says he was.