[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”4″ display=”basic_slideshow”]Face #1: Solving the puzzle

The quiet clicks and movements of the Rubik’s cube echo through his classes.  As Jordan Mosakowski ‘21 passes through the hallways onto his next class, students stop talking in their groups and are mesmerized by him and the cube. They see how quickly he can solve it in under a minute and is completely impressed. 

In the spring of his fifth grade year, Jordan Mosakowki ‘21 started playing with solving the colorful puzzle on a Rubik’s Cube that had been sitting in his basement for years. 

Mosakowski was determined to make it happen. He used online computer guides to give him a head start.

“I was able to solve it by following the guide in two hours,” Mosakowski said. “I spent the next three weeks learning all of the algorithms so that I could do it from memory.”

Mosakowski can always be caught with a Rubik’s Cube on hand, and will never fail to impress with his speedy skills. 

Aside from solving the cubes for fun, Mosakowski also participates in competitions, and even went to CubingUSA Nationals 2019. “There is a computer program that will generate a series of moves that will scramble the puzzle thoroughly. From there, the competitors will do five solves. Then, they can use the speed of those five solves to calculate an average time,” he said. 

Mosakowski has some expert tips that he uses to help others solve a Rubik’s Cube. “You want to build up the cube in layers, so instead of thinking of it as six individual faces, you kind of want to think of it as three individual layers,” Mosakowski said. 

Face #2: Decoding the coder

Jordan Mosakowski ‘21 walked into summer camp before fourth grade excited to learn what was in store. 

It immediately sparked his love of coding. 

“I just had this kind of drive to learn how to build a website, and so I spent the rest of my summer working on building a website,” he said. Mosakowski’s current plan is to continue pursuing coding in the future, while studying computer science in college and taking an interest in economics.

Mosakowski has designed the apps that Monarch students us everyday such as the Monarch Bell Schedule App. 

The Monarch Bell Schedule app allows Monarch students to input their classes and personalize it to fit their own schedule. The app changes according to schedule changes such as a delayed start or finals schedule. 

Jordan’s 3-Step App-Making Process:

1. Open up a Google Doc and make a long list of everything you want the app to include.
2. Grab some paper and start throwing different designs down. Doodle until you’re satisfied with the layout and design.
3. Once you have the initial idea of how you want the interface to look, it’s pretty easy to transfer that over into an actual app for people to use. 

How to solve a Rubik’s Cube

1. “So basically the idea is that you want to build up the cube in layers so instead of thinking of it as six individual faces you kind of want to think of it as three individual layers so you basically start by solving all of the edge pieces and the center on the bottom face so that you can create a plus shape.”
2. “Fill in all of the pieces around that so you have one layer complete, then from there you can solve the middle layer, then once you solve the middle layer there is 5 different algorithms that you can use that will align all of the pieces on the top.”

Face #3: Learning the robot language

 From Lego League to BEST Robotics, Mosakowski’s love for robotics has sparked a bright future in coding for one of America’s most successful companies. 

At age 9, while the other kids were learning how to swing from bar to bar on the playground, Jordan Mosakowski ‘21 was learning how to code, opening the doors of his future wide open. 

“I became motivated to start learning programming. I didn’t know what it was, I just had this drive to learn,” said Mosakowski. 

He started competing in middle school at the Lego Leagues: an international competition that challenges teams from around the world on real world scientific topics. “I did the first Lego League competitions when I was in sixth and eighth grade,” Mosakowski said. 

When Jordan left Eldorado K-8, he finally got rid of his training wheels. He now had the opportunity to work with something new and joined the robotics team. 

“I came to Monarch as a freshman and did the BEST robotics competition in the fall. This was only the second year our school did it, so almost everyone was very, very new to how the competition worked,” Mosakowski said. 

“He does both Computer Science and Engineering,” computer science teacher Ms. Johnson said, “he’s an excellent computer scientist.”

Jordan now works at Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and defense company, starting in the spring of 2019. Because of Lockheed Martin’s security, he was not able to share the specifics of what he does. “I don’t know what I’m allowed to say about that because a lot of it is very proprietary information,” said Mosakowski.   

At Lockheed Martin, Mosakowski is a boy amongst men. Most of his coworkers are college students who are working their way towards degrees in computer science, while he is working on getting into college. He keeps up with his competition and hopes to do great things in the future.