Celebrating Pi Day

March 14th was Pi Day! Students from the UC San Diego chapter of Tau Beta Pi, a national engineering honors society, celebrate Pi Day every year by dropping pie from EBUII.

This year, the pie was made of mayonnaise and fell apart in mid-air!

Everyone got free pizza and pie - IF they could answer an engineering question. Many of the questions involved converting radians to pi.

Undergraduate Daniel Gonzalez came in first in this year's Pi Mile Run

Engineering students also braved finals week and a light drizzle to celebrate Pi Day by running 3.14 miles and enjoying a well-deserved slice of apple pie after.

This year, the Department of NanoEngineering captured the first three places. Daniel Gonzalez, a senior, completed the race course in just 18'36". A triathlete, he showed up for the March 14 race to have fun, he said. Darren Lipomi, an assistant professor and half-marathon runner, came in third.
Meanwhile, Iana Volvach, a Ph.D. student in the research group of ECE Professor Vitali Lomakin, was the first woman to cross the finish line.

In all, more than 60 registered for the run and helped raised about $700 for the San Diego Science Alliance.

Darren Lipomi, faculty member from the Department of NanoEngineering, is close to crossing the finish line.

Celebrating Pi Day of the century--a daily early

More than 240 people turned out on (the potentially scary) Friday, March 13 to celebrate Pi Day one day early. They helped raise about $1200 for the San Diego Science Alliance by taking part in the annual Pi-Mile Walk and Run. This year, in addition to the slice of pie and T-shirt they earned through their registration, they could also enjoy free pizza, courtesy of The Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.

The organization also held its second annual pie drop from the top of EBU II. This year's pie was home made, filled with red fruits, including strawberries and cherries, and made a impressive splatter once it hit the ground.

The actual Pi Day will be extra-special this year: at precisely 9:26:53 the date (if written 3/14/15) will match the number Pi to the 10th digit. 

Video of the fun above. All pictures from the event here: http://on.fb.me/1xsNEyV

It's going to rain pie on March 13 in the Jacobs School Bear Courtyard

The design for this year's Pi-Mile Run/Walk T-shirt.

Pies will be falling from the sky on Friday, March 13 at the Jacobs School of Engineering, more specifically in the Bear Courtyard. Dozens of people will also be running--but not because of the flying pies.
It's all part of Pi Day celebrations at the Jacobs School, which will be held a day early this year, since the actual Pi Day, March 14, falls on a Saturday.
Festivities will start with the Pi-Mile Run/Walk, which takes participants through a 3.14-mile course around the Jacobs School , RIMAC and Calit2. The start and finish line are in the Bear Courtyard. Registration is $10 and includes a free T-shirt and a slice of pie. Proceeds from the event go to the San Diego Science Alliance, an organization that promotes science education in kindergarten through 12th-grade in San Diego.
Click here for more info and to register: http://tinyurl.com/2015PiRun
The run, organized by the Jacobs Graduate Student Council and the Triton Engineering Student Council, will be followed by the Pie Drop, organized by honor society Tau Beta Pi, a national engineering honors society. Students will drop a pie from an unspecified location in the Bear Courtyard.
Here is video of last year's pie drop:


By the way,the actual Pi Day will be extra-special this year: at precisely 9:26:53 the date (if written 3/14/15) will match the number Pi to the 10th digit.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...pie?

You can't be an organization called Tau Beta Pi and not celebrate Pi Day on March 14. So that's exactly what the San Diego chapter of the honor society decided to do--by dropping a pie (yes, with an e) from the third floor of the Structural and Materials Engineering building at the Jacobs School.

Students said they were inspired by UC San Diego's long held tradition of dropping objects from tall buildings, including the Watermelon drop at Revelle College and the pumpkin drop at Muir College.

So Friday, they dropped a 13-inch, 4.5 lbs pie from the third floor of the SME building. Students got to eat a wide variety of pies after the drop. As an extra bonus, they could estimate how big of a splatter the pie would make and receive gift cards. Turns out cherries went flying in a circle with a 18.2 feet diameter. The closest estimate was 17 feet.

These 200 people ran for Pi(e)

More than 200 students, staff members, faculty and alums turned out today for the third annual Pi Mile Run at the Jacobs School. We were there to document it all and have pictures here.

Photo highlights below.  Thank you to Victor Chen, from the Jacobs School's Office of Engineering Computing for serving as our photographer during the event.

Congratulations of Dave Berry, a graduate student in bioengineering, who crossed the finish line first, running 3.14 miles in just 18 minutes and 40 seconds. The first woman was Jennifer Kaehms, a fifth-year undergraduate student, who also studies bioengineering and finished the race in 21 minutes and 20 seconds. The first dog finisher was Hiccup, a 2-year-old Shiba inu, whose owner John Chen, is a UC San Diego alum who currently works at The Scripps Research Institute.

Participants received a T-shirt and a slice of pie in exchange for their $10 registration. Proceeds from the event benefit the San Diego Science Alliance.

Two (not so irrational reasons) to sign up for the Pi-Mile Run and Walk

UPDATE 03/12/14: Registration is still open! You're just taking your chances about getting a T-shirt.

We just love this year's T-shirt for the Pi-Mile Run and Walk, an event that takes place every March 14, also known as Pi Day, here at the Jacobs School.
This year's shirt was created by ECE graduate student Eshed Ohn-Bar (see above). "I love running and getting cool T-shirts--so I figured I would design one," he said.
His inspiration came from "I heart NY"-style T-shirts. "But I wanted to make it more relevant to the meaning of Pi," he explained. "So since it's an irrational number and love (symbolized by a heart) is irrational, it worked well together."
Mark Chapman, a Pi-Mile Run organizer, added an additional creative touch by writing the heart shape with some of Pi's first digits.
Want the shirt? Sign up for the Pi-Mile Run and Walk! It's just $10 and you get a slice of pie too. But hurry! The deadline to register is March 3.

More info: 
The event kicks off March 14 in the Bear Courtyard at noon. All proceeds benefit the San Diego Science Alliance. The event is co-sponsored by the Jacobs Graduate Student Council and the Triton Engineering Student Council.
Click here for a route map.