FLINT, MI--This weekend, renowned engineer and inventor Dean Kamen visited Flint for the first time in 14 years to inspire young engineers to keep following their dreams.
On Saturday, Kamen came to Kettering University to speak to 41 Michigan high school teams participating in the state's district games for the FIRST Robotics Competition. Kamen holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, and he is most known for inventing the Segway, an electric self-balancing human transporter. He also cofounded FIRST in 1989.
He was scheduled to speak during the opening ceremony to the district competitions on Saturday, but he didn't arrive until 11:30 a.m., after the day's competitions has already begun. He spoke to the audience about how he and his partners started FIRST, and about its growth: he says there are more than 41,000 participating schools in 80 countries.
After his speech, attendees lined up alongside the rails to take photos with Kamen and get him to autograph their shirts, signs, and robots. They then followed him around until he left. The scene wasn't much different from fans seeing a celebrity athlete, actor or musician.
"The proof that FIRST works is that kids want to have role models. It doesn't matter whether that role model bounces a ball, or throws a ball, or kicks a ball, or sings on a stage," Kamen said in an interview after the speech. "If they can see people that are extraordinarily successful at something that they can see a path to be like; if they can see that people who are good at something with their mind, that it leads to great careers and opportunities, then those kids will work at that. Sadly, we stereotype engineers as being anti-social, and not having fun, and being in a laboratory."
Victoria Torres, a senior at Carman Ainsworth High School, doesn't plan to go into engineering for a career, but she was still moved by Kamen's visit. She had Kamen sign an autograph for her, and then asked him for a hug.
"He created such a great community and program where we're all one big family and we all help each other," she said. "I used to be very shy, and now I'm safety captain, and going around and talking to different team. It completely changed me."
Last time that Kamen was at Kettering, he was receiving an honorary degree from the university. Bob Nichols, director for FIRST Robotics Center at Kettering, remembers the day vividly.
"That week, he had just introduced the Segway on Good Morning America on that Monday, and on Friday he was here for our graduation. He rolled the Segway into here, and this place went nuts," Nichols said, in an interview before Kamen arrived. "You'll see when he walks through the door how much of a rock star he is. He's a rock star to these kids, because he's the ultimate guy that preaches what we're doing."
Each year, participating schools in FIRST Robotics receive instructions and a robot kits. They make the robots based on a game they're given--a new game every year--aand pit the robots against each other for chance to compete in state and national competitions. Saturday's competition, like many others, was a hectic, lively scene: mascots, supportive signs and a loud audience surround a gaming area, where teams control their robots from behind glass walls while
Michigan has the fastest-growing amount of FIRST Robotics teams in the country. Nichols said there are 18 districts around the state now, with nearly 300 participating schools in Michigan; the closest is California, which has about 200 schools. Saturday's district competition has 13 new teams, including International Academy of Flint and Atherton High School, which is the largest amount of new teams that has been at a district competition in Michigan.
Nichols attributes the success with FIRST to Governor Rick Snyder, who put money in the education budget in a three-year grant that helps start FIRST teams, and to the state's FIRST program for proactively reaching out to schools.
Kamen also praised Kettering and its leadership for using programs like FIRST to give students up-to-date, hands-on experience.
"A lot of schools have refused to recognize the changing times and changing needs in this country. They're institutions, and that's great, but some of them don't know how to change to reflect the real needs and give those kids new opportunities," Kamen said. "I think Kettering is one of those great schools that realized they needed to change, they needed to be more relevant, and they needed to attract the kids that would benefit most from a great education."
The statewide FIRST Robotics Competition championships are in April, and the national competition is in St. Louis.