International Day of Mathematics

14 March 2025

The International Day of Mathematics takes place on 14/3 every year. In the US that is written 3.14 and that is the common approximation of Pi and a celebration called “Pi Day” evolved. When it came time to have an International Celebration of Maths, Pi day seemed to be a logical choice.

There are many ideas on the IDM website with ideas for how to celebrate it. The Maths Eyes team have come up with a great competition for all schools on the island - details below.

Have You Got Maths Eyes

The creative people at Maths Eyes, Terry and Ciaran have come up with an IDM competition with several categories (primary, secondary and public)  and €100 prize in each category

Check out the IDM website for more wonderful resources.

Including this poster with Penrose tiling that highlights the connections between maths and art.

You can also download an uncoloured version that can be coloured in different ways  

Several world leading mathematicians and scientists arrive in Trinity College Dublin today to celebrate the Hamilton Mathematics Institute’s (HMI) 20th anniversary. 2025 also sees the 220th birthday of William Rowan Hamilton, Ireland’s greatest mathematician in whose honour the institute is named. A statue of Hamilton flanks government buildings in Dublin. While most of the proceedings are for specialist mathematicians, there is a special public talk on Hamilton’s remarkable life and work on Thursday 13 March at 7pm.  There are still some places available.

Maths Ireland Blog

In his latest blog, Prof Colm Mulcahy celebrates major international mathematicians that were honored by universities on this island. Reflecting the historical realities there are only two women on the blog, Hilda Hudson and Cathleen Morawetz who despite the restrictions of the times made major contributions to mathematics. Here we carry the pen picture of Hilda Hudson who attended Cambridge at a time that Cambridge and Oxford wouldn’t confer degrees on women. Trinity College Dublin did from 1904 to 1907 and over 700 women travelled to Dublin to get the recognition they deserved. You can read the full content here

Hilda Hudson (1881-1965) was born into a mathematical family in Cambridge, and was educated at Girton (BA earned but not awarded 1903).  She was one of the steamboat ladies, receiving an ad eundum MA from TCD in 1906.  Her career included time at the Univ of Berlin (1904-1905), lecturing at Newnham College in Cambridge (1905-1912), Bryn Mawr (1912-1913), and West Ham Tech Inst (1913-1917).  She was the only woman to present a talk at the 1912 ICM in Cambridge ("On Binodes and Nodal Curves"). In 1913, a year in which she published 6 papers, she received an honorary DSc from TCD.  She later authored a significant tome on Cremona Transformations in Plane and Space.

Deadline Today 12 March

The SciFest mission is to give every post-primary pupil a chance to participate in a STEM fair. Schools can enter projects in the brilliant SciFest@College events at 15 higher education campuses around the island. These events take place in April and May but the entries must be in today Wednesday 12 March and students will have until April/May to complete their projects for the fair.

Good luck to all schools taking part in the ESB Science Blast at RDS next week.

Science Blast is a great STEM programme for primary schools, north and south, that encourages children’s natural curiosity and helps them develop 21st century skills while getting the chance to showcase their project at a major event in Dublin, Limerick or Belfast. While the Dublin event runs next week, the submission deadline for Limerick and Belfast  is 14 March.

13 March

Regional Pi Quiz

The Pi Quiz has been running since 2009 where teams of four Junior Cycle Higher level students compete in a table quiz format.

29th March

Portlaoise

The winning team from each centre will progress to the National Final on Saturday, March 29th 2025 in the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise.

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5th April

Maynooth

The Irish Science Teachers Association returns to Maynooth University for their 2025 annual conference.