IRVINE : UCI’s Nerds Engineer a Turnaround

They study too much behind their horn-rimmed glasses. Their voices squeak. Their hair is unkempt. They dress funny. They’re just, like, totally uncool, y’know?

Yet once a year, these social outcasts from UC Irvine’s School of Engineering unabashedly stage their revenge in the Nerd Contest, the highlight of the school’s annual Engineering Week.

“Engineering is a difficult discipline and the students have to study very hard,” said Cynthia Morris, engineering department spokeswoman. “By participating in the contest, they’re laughingly living up to their reputation of being a nerd, and at the same time, dispelling the myth.”

Because of Wednesday’s pouring rain, sponsors said, the contest drew only four nerdy acts. But that did not dim the fun as engineering majors acted out the perpetual stereotype of themselves for more than 100 students.

“The contest lets us make fun of ourselves,” said contest coordinator Victor Kardos, an engineering student. “It also gives the engineering students a chance to show that the stereotype of us being nerds is untrue.”

Fully aware of their less-than-flattering image as antisocial geeks, this year’s nerds broke loose on stage in a computer-science room Wednesday afternoon.

Regaling his audience with his satirical portrayal of model Paulina Porizkova, senior Peter Bruno won first prize, an audio equalizer.

Flouncing his falsies and long blond tresses, Bruno, 22, a mechanical engineering major from Anaheim, threw out one-liners like, “I knew it was true love when we both reached for the electric generator at the same time.” Bruno’s gyrating dance to Madonna’s “Where’s the Party” was also a hit with the audience.

After winning first place, Bruno sashayed in his deep blue dress, worn over white shorts, and posed his false 38-31-38 figure for photographers.

“I thought it would be so funny to portray the most ultimate nerd as a beautiful woman,” Bruno said. “The contest gives (engineering students) a chance to show the funny side in us.”

Second place, an electronic chess set, went to a duo rap group, McNerd and the ECE Posse, alias electrical engineering majors Rory Job and Don Clem, both 21.

Looking less like nerds and more like two James Dean wanna-bes in their jeans and oxfords and dark sun glasses, Job and Clem rapped “You gotta fight, for your right, to stuhhh-ddyyyy,’ ‘ a parody of the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for Your Right to Party.”

“We’re not your typical nerds,” said Job, of Fullerton. “Nerds are shy and antisocial. We’re here for the (prize) and the chicks.”