A typical mosaic consists of tiny pieces of stone, tile, or glass arranged in a specific way to create a larger complex image. However, to welcome WPI’s new president with a new piece of artwork, one club decided to use 1,800 Rubik’s cubes as its medium.
“The administration reached out to [the Rubik’s Cube Club] to ask if we wanted to make a mosaic for the inauguration,” says data science major Krish Shah-Nathwani ‘24, past president of the club. “We thought it was a great way for our club to get involved.”
To create the mosaic, the Rubik’s Cube Club came together to mix and rearrange the standard 3x3 cubes (which measure 2.25” x 2.25”) to create an approximately 3x6-foot image of WPI’s logo. The piece of art will be featured during the inauguration of Grace J. Wang, PhD, as the 17th president of WPI.
“Rubik’s Cubes are such a versatile puzzle, and the possibilities are endless,” says Shah-Nathwani. “With one cube, there are over 43 quintillion different ways you can mix it up.”
According to the club’s current president, Harshith Iyer ‘25, this is the second time the club has built a Rubik’s Cube mosaic for the school.
“The first was built to honor a club member who’d passed away,” says computer science major Iyer. “That one is on display right outside the school’s Center for Well-Being.”
Club members like Shah-Nathwani and Iyer picked up this puzzle-solving hobby as kids and they even attended competitions at very young ages.
“I was attending competitions at the age of 13, and I made friends with a few competitors who were going to attend WPI,” says Shah-Nathwani. “The first time I ever went to WPI wasn’t for a school visit, it was for a cubing competition.”
“I was first interested in Rubik’s Cubes in sixth grade,” says Iyer. “That’s when I looked into Rubik’s Cube competitions, and I joined one in my local area while living in India. Since then I have attended seven competitions.”
In February the club hosted a cubing competition of its own, consisting of more than 100 competitors from all over Massachusetts. During these competitions, extreme competitors like Shah-Nathwani could solve a Rubik’s Cube in as little as 6.66 seconds.
“I think of a competition as a track meet, where there are a bunch of different solving events,” says Shah-Nathwani. “Competitions are something I’ve been excited to share with the club, and they are the reason I fell in love with cubing.”
To help club members improve their puzzle-solving times, the club hosts workshops to teach different algorithms and techniques to solve these puzzles. Club members also get to try solving different types of Rubik’s puzzles, including the four-sided Pyraminx and the 12-sided Megaminx puzzles.
“You don’t need to know how to solve a cube very fast to join the club,” says Shah-Nathwani. “It’s a very supportive environment where we get you started and teach you how to solve from there.”
The inauguration of President Wang will take place on March 22.
