Inventor Dean Kamen sees student high-tech hub in Denver (Are there any Montana schools participating in the FIRST program?)

Noted inventor Dean Kamen wants Denver to become a regional hub for a program he established to encourage more students, particularly minorities, to get involved in science and engineering.

By Andy Vuong
Denver Post Business Writer

More than 20,000 students from 700 high schools around the world participate in the after-school program called FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – which is a technological version of Odyssey of the Mind. A handful of schools in Colorado participate in the program.

"I’m coming to Colorado to convince the people out there they’ve got enough high-technology companies and enough universities that they ought to be a hub," Kamen said Tuesday from his office in Manchester, N.H.

Kamen, whose inventions include the much-hyped Segway scooter, will deliver a keynote address Thursday at the Colorado Software & Internet Association’s Hi-Tech Breakfast at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Becoming a hub, which Kamen hopes will happen by 2003, would require more area corporations and universities to sponsor the program. It would also make Denver home to one of 24 regional championships in which 30 to 40 teams compete in a robotics competition.

Kamen established FIRST 13 years ago in part to help increase the number of minorities who pursue opportunities in science and engineering. Only 11 percent of scientists and engineers in the United States are women or ethnic minorities, he said.

"I think it’s a cultural problem," Kamen said. "It’s about the fact that our culture, among other things, particularly to women and minorities, make science and engineering and inventing seem like it’s only for the gifted few."

The program appears to be making a difference as more than a quarter of participants are female, which is 25 percent higher than their rate of enrollment in undergraduate engineering programs, said Cathy Ewing, director of the Colorado Software & Internet Association. Thirty-one percent of students in FIRST are ethnic minorities.

In addition to FIRST, Kamen on Thursday will discuss the impact and future of technology in a speech titled "Inspiring Innovation in the 21st Century."

"We really wanted him to come out and talk about innovation _ where is innovation going?" Ewing said. "Innovation is what hopefully will lead us, I think, out of this recession."

Kamen’s innovations include the portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that can climb stairs and move on sand.

Last year, he unveiled the Segway scooter, a battery-operated machine that can travel up to 12 mph and uses tilt sensors and gyroscopes to balance the rider. Kamen’s goal was to ease urban congestion by providing an environmentally safe alternative for short travel.

Though the scooter is being piloted at various agencies across the country, it won’t be available to consumers until at least next year.

"It’s a little frustrating that we haven’t done a consumer launch yet," Kamen said. "We really want to do it right and make sure that municipalities and police departments and the postal workers and the factory people get a chance to prove it’s a good, reliable machine before we start launching it to consumers."

Kamen’s speech Thursday is open to the public. Admission is $65. Call 720-890-0611 or visit Coloradosoftware.org.

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