Local News in Brief : Irvine : Toy Boats, Planes Open UCI’s Zany ‘Nerd Week’
UC Irvine, one of the nation’s most honored institutions of scholarly research, on Monday witnessed engineering students playing with toy boats and paper airplanes.
Students lofted bizarre paper planes into the skies and built, then sank, toy boats made of aluminum foil.
This was scholarly research? Sort of. It was the first day of the campus’ 15th Annual Engineering Week, a time when the students provide a light-hearted look at a serious academic discipline.
The highlight of the week, for instance, is the annual student “Nerd Contest,” which this week will be at noon Wednesday on the campus’ Engineering Plaza.
The contest is a frank admission that engineering students often are branded as “nerds” by some other students in other disciplines. Engineering Week on campus, college officials note, turns the joke inside out and celebrates “nerd pride.”
Several other zany events are scheduled during the week, which culminates Saturday with the Engineering Week Banquet at 6 p.m. at the University Club.
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