{"622229":{"#nid":"622229","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Employee Plays Part in Jeopardy! History","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA historic \u003Cem\u003EJeopardy!\u003C\/em\u003E win streak came to an end on Monday, June 3, and one Georgia Tech employee witnessed it from behind the buzzer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EJay Sexton, chief operating officer of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cdait.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECenter for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies\u003C\/a\u003E (CDAIT), finished in third place as James Holzhauer ended a 32-game win streak to the night\u0026rsquo;s champion, Emma Boettcher. Sexton finished the game with $17,000, which\u0026nbsp;on any other day could easily have been a winning score.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It was the most efficiently played game in \u003Cem\u003EJeopardy!\u003C\/em\u003E history,\u0026rdquo; Sexton said. Fifty-nine out of 60 clues were answered correctly, all of them by the first person to ring in, with only one incorrect response. \u0026ldquo;I just happened to go up against two absolutely amazing players.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESexton had made appearances on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/show\/high-q\/\u0022\u003EHigh Q\u003C\/a\u003E, a local quiz show for high school students, and taken the \u003Cem\u003EJeopardy!\u003C\/em\u003E test before. As a kid, he memorized all of the questions from the Trivial Pursuit Genus I board game, reading trivia cards on road trips. His sister even appeared on the show a few years ago. But nothing could prepare him for being at the buzzer himself.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The buzzer makes a big difference,\u0026rdquo; he said. \u0026ldquo;I never got the feel for it until too late in the game. Both [Emma and James] were amazing with the buzzer.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESexton was up against the show\u0026rsquo;s most dominant player in years. Holzhauer now holds the top 16 slots for one-day win totals, and won $2,464,216 overall during his run on the show \u0026mdash; just $58,484 shy of Ken Jennings\u0026rsquo; record total earnings. Of course, Sexton didn\u0026rsquo;t know that going into his game \u0026mdash; his episode was taped in March, before Holzhauer\u0026nbsp;first appeared in front of a national audience. Sexton quickly got a sense of Holzhauer\u0026rsquo;s level of play during player introductions, though, when he learned the length of his winning streak and how much money he\u0026rsquo;d already won.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;You realize he\u0026rsquo;s winning almost $80,000 per game, which is a record in so many ways, that we knew, \u0026lsquo;Wow, OK, this guy is something else,\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo; Sexton said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESexton is a two-time Tech graduate, with a bachelor\u0026rsquo;s and master\u0026rsquo;s in electrical engineering. He also holds a Master\u0026nbsp;of Business Administration from Georgia State University. He came back to Tech as an employee in 2000 thinking he\u0026rsquo;d stay for a few years while pursuing a graduate degree. Almost two decades later, he\u0026rsquo;s still here.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;What I love about working at Georgia Tech is the variety of things I\u0026rsquo;ve been able to work on over those 20 years,\u0026rdquo; he said. His work with CDAIT and the Georgia Tech Research Institute has spanned K-12 outreach, accessibility, public safety, and sustainability.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHis tips for those considering a Jeopardy appearance: Study, watch old episodes, and practice using a buzzer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Jay Sexton Placed Third in History-Making Match"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA historic \u003Cem\u003EJeopardy!\u003C\/em\u003E win streak came to an end on Monday, June 3, and one Georgia Tech employee witnessed it from behind the buzzer.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A historic Jeopardy! win streak came to an end on Monday, June 3, and one Georgia Tech employee witnessed it from behind the buzzer."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2019-06-04 20:51:08","changed_gmt":"2019-06-05 15:31:17","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-06-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-06-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"622228":{"id":"622228","type":"image","title":"Jay Sexton with Alex Trebek","body":null,"created":"1559681453","gmt_created":"2019-06-04 20:50:53","changed":"1559681453","gmt_changed":"2019-06-04 20:50:53","alt":"Jay Sexton with Alex Trebek","file":{"fid":"237005","name":"Jay Sexton Jeopardy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jay%20Sexton%20Jeopardy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Jay%20Sexton%20Jeopardy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":49925,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Jay%20Sexton%20Jeopardy.jpg?itok=5vyuqnr3"}}},"media_ids":["622228"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/features\/behind-buzzer","title":"Behind the Buzzer: Yellow Jackets on Game Shows"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1255","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"3423","name":"employees"},{"id":"12207","name":"jeopardy"},{"id":"2435","name":"ECE"},{"id":"1925","name":"Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"id":"506","name":"alumni"},{"id":"366","name":"Graduate"},{"id":"181462","name":"jay sexton"},{"id":"3397","name":"fun"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:snorris@gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESteven Norris\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}