Recently, there has been significant discussion in these forums about the purpose of FIRST, the roles of students, the roles of engineers, etc. I was disappointed at times that some people might not completely understand what I thought were key ideas about the purpose of FIRST.
Then I realized that it was probably due to the fact that its been a long time since Dean has given us a good long speech, one with details and examples and analogies. Those of us that were fortunate enough to hear his Kickoff speech in 1998 were treated to (imho) The Best of Dean Kamen.
The transcribed text of Dean's 1998 Kickoff speech was recently re-installed on the Huskie Brigade website (go to
www.huskiebrigade.com and click on DEAN KAMEN).
It's worth your time to click over and read it.
I hope you find it entertaining and informative. Keep in mind that in 1998 the Kickoff was attended by only team mentors, and that there were only a couple hundred teams.
Enjoy,
Ken