Dean Kamen
In 1989, Kamen founded FIRST, a robotics competition for high school students. Dean Kamen remains the driving force behind the organization, providing over 1,000 high schools with the tools needed to learn valuable engineering skills.
Dean Kamen is probably best-known to the public for the product that eventually became known as the Segway. The device balances on two parallel wheels and is controlled by moving body weight. Kamen has worked extensively on a project involving Stirling engine designs, attempting to create two machines; one that would generate power and one that would serve as a water purification system. He hopes the project will help improve living standards in developing countries. Kamen is also the co-inventor of a compressed-air-powered device which would launch a human into the air in order to quickly launch SWAT teams or other emergency workers to the roofs of tall, inaccessible buildings. However, Kamen was already a successful and wealthy inventor, after inventing the Auto-Syringe, a new type of mobile dialysis system for medical applications and the first insulin pump. Dean Kamen is constantly trying to outdo himself with FIRST and every year he does. He hopes that one day every high school around the world will have a robotics team. “Everybody has to be able to participate in a future that they want to live for. That’s what technology can do.”
-Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST
-Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST
Woodie Flowers
Woodie Flowers is a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas are engineering design and product development. He is the co-founder of the FIRST robotics competition since its inception in 1992. Each year, the Woodie Flowers Award is given by FIRST to one mentor for his or her contributions to the students on their team. Flowers was the first recipient of the award, which began in 1996. Woodie Flowers is a prominent member of the FIRST robotics community. He is a member of the Game and Kit Design Committee for the FIRST Robotics Competition.
"If you try and fail, that's OK; just try again. The only unforgivable sin is not trying hard enough."
- Woodie Flowers, Co-founder of FIRST
- Woodie Flowers, Co-founder of FIRST
FIRST
FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. That’s exactly what FIRST does. It inspires younger generations to become
engineers and scientists with opportunities like FIRST Robotics and FIRST Lego League. FIRST was started by Dean Kamen, an inventor, famous for such things as the Segway. Kamen’s dreams were to further inspire the world of science and engineering, so he founded FIRST in 1989 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Robotics competition followed shortly after in 1992, in an event called the “Maze Craze”. To this day FIRST continuously pushes the borders of Engineering and Science.
FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. That’s exactly what FIRST does. It inspires younger generations to become
engineers and scientists with opportunities like FIRST Robotics and FIRST Lego League. FIRST was started by Dean Kamen, an inventor, famous for such things as the Segway. Kamen’s dreams were to further inspire the world of science and engineering, so he founded FIRST in 1989 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Robotics competition followed shortly after in 1992, in an event called the “Maze Craze”. To this day FIRST continuously pushes the borders of Engineering and Science. 