Ateneo Math celebrates Pi Day, launches JAM Academy

Ateneo’s Department of Mathematics, in partnership with the Ateneo Mathematics Society (AMS),  celebrated the International Day of Math last 14 March 2024 with interactive exhibits at the SEC-A Foyer and some film showing sessions at Escaler Hall and Leong Hall Auditorium.

Otherwise known as Pi Day, the day was marked with several booths manned by volunteers from the AMS and some graduate students. There were three booths present: a booth on the Seven Bridges problem, where participants tried to cross all seven bridges only once. There was also a Buffon Needle booth, where they tried to approximate pi by throwing some popsicle sticks. 

Finally, a booth called “Tile Me Maybe?” was done about the new aperiodic monotile, called the hat. Participants here were asked to tile as large of an area as possible. Ronelyn Valera (1 AB PSY) tiled the largest possible patch using the hat, and was informally crowned as the “undisputed tiling queen of the Ateneo”.

A series of posters showcasing several outputs of Math 10 students answering the question, “What is math for you?” were also exhibited with the booths.

These exhibits were attended by hundreds of curious Ateneo students and were created to realize the need to show that math isn’t just about formulas but also these incredible feats of human ingenuity.

Concurrent to the Pi Day exhibits, the AMS also held film showing sessions featuring several movies that showcase the power of mathematics. Starting at 9:30 AM up to 5 PM, these movies played one after the other: Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani, Dimensions: A Walk Through Mathematics, The Man Who Knew Infinity – the movie about the Indian mathematician Ramanujan, The Imitation Game – about Alan Turing and the Enigma machine, and finally, Moneyball – a movie on the intersection of mathematics and sports.

Then at 5 pm, Ateneo math professors, staff, and students gathered at CTC 413 to celebrate Pi Day by remembering the life of Dr Jose A Marasigan, professor emeritus and former chairperson of the math department from 1973 to 1983 and was fondly called Doc Mara, who died ten years ago on 14 March 2014. 

A titan of mathematics in the country, Dr. Marasigan was credited with the formation of the first rigorous program for math excellence at the high school level in the country. He served as Team Leader for the Philippines at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) from 1988 up to 2006. 

He is also credited as the precursor of the mathematical finance curriculum in the Ateneo. As such, several speakers from the math department commemorated his life. Dr Richard Eden, who was a former IMO contestant himself, talked about his experience with Doc Mara as a student both under his enrichment programs in high school and his college curriculum as an undergraduate in the Ateneo.

Dr Elvira de Lara-Tuprio then talked about her experience with Doc Mara, not only as a former student and colleague in the math department, but also as one of her dearest friends.

Finally, Dr Ian June Garces, who succeeded Doc Mara as Team Leader for the IMO, talked about his experience with Doc Mara with regards to the history of math enrichment programs in the country.

After the stories, current department chair and former student of Doc Mara, Dr Eden Delight Miro, launched several programs for the enrichment of math beyond the Ateneo. Programs like the Problem-Solving Enrichment and Training (ProbSET) are to be reorganized into an umbrella academy called the Jose A Marasigan Academy for Excellence in Mathematics and Problem Solving, or the JAM Academy.

Inspired by Doc Mara’s perseverance to enhance math capability in the country, the JAM Academy will carry on his legacy towards building teachers who are more equipped with teaching non-standard problem solving skills and students who will be better problem solvers in the long run.

The room was then lit with the communal singing of Doc Mara’s favorite song, Go the Distance. 

This Pi Day was special not only because of the opportunity to bring math closer through the exhibits and film showings,  but also due to the opportunity to celebrate the life of the great Doc Mara, whose shoulders Ateneo Math firmly stands on.