More than 2,000 people celebrate Mathematics Day at the BCAM Naukas 2025 event

As every March 14 for the past six years, the Chair of Scientific Culture of the UPV/EHU, the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), and the Naukas dissemination platform have celebrated International Mathematics Day with the BCAM Naukas outreach event.

This year, the event has managed to bring together more than 2,000 people at the Bizkaia Aretoa of the UPV/EHU, both in-person and online formats. The outreach day has become a great opportunity to celebrate the more playful and attractive side of this formal science.

Activities in tune with Pi Throughout the morning, more than 840 elementary and secondary school students and 55 teachers from 21 different educational centers participated in a series of mathematical workshops. During these sessions, conducted in Basque and Spanish, among other activities, students were able to enjoy mathematical origami classes, discover the secrets behind ID cards, play with giant games, and learn about various mathematical properties.

In the afternoon, the program continued with a series of brief and dynamic 15-minute lectures showcasing some of the everyday properties of the number Pi and mathematics in general in daily life. Around 210 people attended these talks in person, and more than 340 followed the conferences via streaming.

On behalf of BCAM, Luca Fanelli (Ikerbasque, UPV/EHU & BCAM) participated in the afternoon event with the monologue ‘Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol La, π: Why do we have seven notes?’; and Daniel Eceizabarrena (MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow at BCAM) with the talk ‘The length of the coast and other fractals’.

In the words of the director of the Chair of Scientific Culture of the UPV/EHU, Iker Badiola, 'BCAM Naukas has established itself as a must-attend event to celebrate mathematics, make them more visible, and raise awareness in society about the impact of their multiple applications.' For his part, as emphasized by the scientific director of BCAM, José Antonio Lozano, 'From our center, we work to advance mathematical knowledge from an interdisciplinary approach. Events like this demonstrate the contribution of mathematics to innovation and progress.'"