Kamen: We Need More Geeks Now!

The Pied Piper of technology gave a party for young geeks this weekend, but not enough kids could come out to play.

By Michelle Delio Wired.com

Teams from 38 high schools engaged in a heated battle of ‘bots and brains in the FIRST http://www.usfirst.org/ (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition regional playoffs at Columbia
University. The kids were happy, the crowds were stoked, but Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,48788,00.html and founder of FIRST, wasn’t satisfied.

Kamen won’t be content until every high school kid with even a vague interest in engineering, science
or creative and careful thinking can participate in his robot games.

"We should have at least double the teams and double the crowd that’s here today," Kamen said.
"Companies need to figure out they need technically skilled kids more than the kids need them."

Kamen created FIRST to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in kids, their schools and
their communities.

Appreciation requires participation. In addition to the $4,000 entrance fee for each competition, every
team spends a minimum of $15,000 in travel, building materials, administrative costs, shipping and
uniforms. So students rely heavily on corporate sponsorships to compete.

Several teams that won the New York regionals said they’d attend the finals only if they could afford it. Statements like that make Kamen angry.

Kamen rode his ballyhooed invention, a Segway Human Transporter, into the center of Columbia’s Levin Gymnasium during the closing ceremonies, and delivered an impassioned, and at times somewhat
rambling, speech. Gesturing with one hand while holding a microphone in the other, all while rolling around the arena balancing effortlessly on the Segway, he thanked those who participated and not so
gently nudged the crowd to crank up the cash and interest.

"Over 20,000 high school students participate in the robotics competition. That’s less than five percent of all high school students," Kamen told the crowd. "Time is not on our side here. If we take four years to
get the program to the point where all high schools can participate, we’ve already lost an entire generation of students."

Despite the fiscal downers, the program continues to expand, growing from 28 teams when it launched 11 years ago to over 600 now.

FIRST pairs up professional engineers with high school students. Teams are given a problem to solve and a 150-pound crate of parts. They have six weeks to figure out a way to turn those parts into a machine
that can compete against others in a sporting event.

This year, the robots had to be able to race around a playing field, catch and collect balls, latch onto large metal goal baskets and then shove the balls or the goals back to home base — all in less than two
minutes.

The similarity to standard sporting events is purposeful; Kamen wants to show kids that science is as cool and lucrative as athletics.

"You have teenagers thinking they’re going to make millions as NBA stars when that’s not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is," Kamen said.

But winning the game requires more than a nerd’s brain and a bodacious ‘bot. Unlike other robot competitions, bashing other contestants is forbidden, and students get scored on their "gracious professionalism"
as well as their driving skills.

They also get points for collaboration. The kids play in three-team "alliance" groups, and don’t know which other teams they will be paired with until shortly before the game begins. Snap decisions have to be
made about whose robot will play offense and defense. Alliances change through the elimination rounds, and a competitor in round one may be a teammate in the finals.

Robots who score the highest points get to go to the finals, but teams can also qualify for the big event by scoring points for design, persistence and politeness. Kamen and FIRST carefully design the games so
that kids with real science skills and those who are fueled by sheer enthusiasm have an equal chance of winning awards.

Winners http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/rgevents.htm of awards at the 17 regional competitions can attend the championship event April 25-27 at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida.

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