University of California, Irvine

The University of California, Irvine is a public, coeducational university situated in suburban Irvine, California. It is one of ten University of California campuses and is commonly known as UCI or UC Irvine.

Trivia

• One of the biggest traditions at UCI is "Midnight Magic", which occurs on the first day the UC Irvine basketball teams begin official practice. The second Friday of every October, the athletics department hosts a big party for the UCI Students with food, music and games at the Bren Events Center. Then, at midnight, both the men's and women's basketball teams are introduced to the crowd and partake in scrimmages, three-point shooting contests and a slam-dunk contest. Midnight Magic is the one of the biggest student events on campus, with over 1,500 people in attendance.
• A popular chant among UCI students during athletic events is "Zot"... the sound made by the tongue of the anteater in the comic strip B.C. as it flicks out to catch an ant. This is usually accompanied by the "Rip 'em Eaters" handsign which is similar to the "Hook 'em Horns" handsign of the University of Texas.
• Several of the Brutalist buildings at UCI were involved in the production of the movie Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
• The school was featured in the 2001 production of Ocean's Eleven. In the movie, the building where the crew steals the EMP device is actually the Gillespie Neuroscience Research Facility located in the College of Medicine.
• The floor plan of the Science Library closely resembles the Enterprise from Star Trek. However, some believe that the Science Library and the design on the plaza directly in front of it represent the human reproductive system, a theory lent credence by the fact that both are located in the School of Biological Sciences.
• Blizzard Entertainment, a PC game developer, has its headquarters on UCI land. Its facilities are purported to be nondescript.
• Broadcom Corporation, one of the top technology companies in the world, will be relocating its Irvine operations to UCI's University Research Park. (2005)
• Buildings in the Middle Earth student housing community are named after places and characters from the fictional world of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings fantasy novels.
• One of the on-campus eateries is named "B.C.'s Cavern on the Green", named in honor of the comic strip B.C.