Pi-Day Dingbats
March 14 is a day to celebrate if you like π (3.14...). To mark the occasion, MASH announced the winner of their first artwork competition. This competition was to design an original dingbat involving π. Entries were judged by a team of three: Christine Venney, MASH co-ordinator, Sue Fairhurst, graphic designer, and Kevin Lord from the Further Mathematics Support Programme and prolific designer of π day dingbats in previous years. The competition was supported by the Alumni Fund, University of Bath.
The winning entry, Pinecone, was designed by two MASH peer mentors, Peter Brent and Joe Dupont. The design was made into a canvas which was hung in the MASH room on March 14, during a small celebration. The winners each received a copy of this canvas to keep. Second place was awarded to Caroline Harris, a colleague from the Office of the University Secretary, whose dingbat was 'Pioneering.' She will receive a personal copy of her dingbat made into a canvas.
Dr Jane White, Director of MASH said "The purpose of this competition was to raise awareness of MASH as a support service for all students at the University of Bath whilst providing some original artwork to be displayed in our base room. I think we were successful on both accounts. Peter and Joe clearly thought carefully about their entry and the result is a very clever design, creatively constructed. Following this pilot, we plan to run the competition on an annual basis."
Kevin Lord was also very impressed by the winning dingbat: "Peter and Joe have captured the essence of dingbats in their design, combining text with shape and position to convey the meaning of a word or phrase. Competitions like this are a fun and engaging way to get students involved, whilst publicising the mathematics support service"
To view the winning entry, you are warmly invited to visit the MASH room, 1W3.7, any afternoon during term-time.
For further details of the support that MASH can offer to students at the University of Bath please see http://www.bath.ac.uk/study/mash
