A bit of mathematical trivia -- the square root of -1, noted on the chip, is a key element in math dealing with Imaginary Numbers. The result is written as i (lower-case italicized i).

It fits that a math & stats professor would include this in his chip design.

The Wikipedia page defines it as:
The imaginary number i is defined solely by the property that its square is −1:
With i defined this way, it follows directly from algebra that i and −i are both square roots of −1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_unit