IEEE: A Call to Action from Dean Kamen

[Billfred]

Billfred says "That's the bomb-diggity!"

I do have to call him, though, on the growth. Growth can be a good thing, but there is a flip side...(quote from www.mrholloman.net)

I'm always hearing people say "If you stop growing, you die." Or, "I hope this program really grows!"

Why is growth so coveted? Unrestrained growth is Cancer—really! Cancer occurs when the body gets the idea that it needs to grow. Tumors switch on genes that are supposed to be off, in an attempt to make things happen. Tumors have been found that contained teeth, hair...

You do not die when you stop growing. Growth should not be a goal in and of itself. Every organism should grow until it reaches equilibrium, and then stop.

I'm reminded of a line from The Matrix, when Agent Smith points out that Mankind is the only organism that does not reach this equilibrium—instead, it grows and expands and consumes resources until there is nothing left.

It goes back to the old problem of quality vs. quantity, IMHO. We could get a FIRST team in every high school in the land in five years. But would that be the best thing for FIRST? I'm not so sure. Growing at such a rapid pace (going from some 1000 teams to covering the hundreds of thousands of American high schools) puts strains on everything, from sponsors to regionals to teams that mentor a lot to FIRST itself. You'd need to pretty much rent the Georgia Dome for another week to put together that many kits.

The other big problem is the culture. Right now, FIRST is a (relatively) small, tight community that's willing to help each other whenever they can. If we grow at such a pace, I fear that folks wouldn't be as close, and it'd take a lot of work to get kids out of that "they're out to get us" mentality (which was posted at least once on our message board in hindsight) and into the way FIRST works. Otherwise, things might evolve into a different FIRST, one that I'm not so sure I want to see.

I hope this doesn't turn into a growth debate, but I just don't know whether that kind of growth is healthy.

[Jessica Boucher]

Billfred, I dont think this will become one debate about growth or any of the other issues mentioned here because there's so many issues mentioned. I'm only going to touch on one right now.

I think Dean needs to reevaluate how he feels about the "soft skills". After all, if he tweaked his views concerning the relationship between engineers and "soft-skilled" people, we wouldn't have stuff like this happening (and I dont mean MattK posting ....I mean weak marketing campaigns).

But will this actually happen? Maybe not.....but can we work on fixing it? Absolutley. In 2003, half of students in the program went on to science & technology collegiate programs. What we need to accept as a whole is that the other half isn't trash: they have a strong, personal, greater understanding of why science & technology is cool than most kids their age, and are just as willing to spread the message as an engineering student. They should be as embraced as much as the engineering student - since it's their contact with the program that will bring about the broadening of FIRST into new areas...for those times when the tech field is tapped out.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Billfred

(going from some 1000 teams to covering the hundreds of thousands of American high schools)

Actually, I believe there are just under 90,000 total public schools in the US and there can't be all that many private schools so I'm betting that there actually aren't that may high schools. Maybe 25,000 or 30,000? Okay, now that I look at it even 25,000 is kind of a lot. For FIRST to grow 25 times as big in only 5 years would be absolutely nuts. I say we just let FIRST take its course as it has been and hopefully we will all live to see the day that it reaches every high school.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

For FIRST to grow 25 times as big in only 5 years would be absolutely nuts.

Is it really that nuts? In 1995, there were (I believe) 38 teams. In 2004, there were roughly 1000 teams, right? That's 26x growth in 9 years...

Of course, that assumes FIRST can expand at a linear rate... probably not the case. I know around here a lot of schools are hooked up with other (non-FIRST) robotics programs which makes them nearly impossible to recruit. That problem will become more and more apparent as those types of schools represent an increasing percentage of the remaining non-FIRSTized schools.

[Adam Y.]

I think engineers have to be a voice to the next generation. They will never be as loud a voice as the world of entertainment or sports; entertainers are masters at it. Engineering will never be as loud a voice as the world of sports, but there needs to be a venue where engineers and scientists can show kids what an engineering career is all about. If professional engineers of the world aren’t willing to tell them about engineering, who will?

Im not really sure. There are certainly engineers, scientists, and other people that have communicated about the significance of science. Bradbury, Asimov, Clark, and Wells are four people that wrote about the significance of technology. Bradbury even designed Spaceship Earth in Epcot. I recently bought the original Iron Man comics. It sickened me as to how many times the word transistor was used. Transistor powered magnets, transistor powered skates, and even a transistor powered heart (read pacemaker). Then again it could have been because of the writing style of comics during that time. Personally then again there are times when I think that science is vastly undereported in this world. I was reading through my Almaanac and discovered that there were now five forms of matter. I wondered how did I miss that.

[Marc P.]

I think the biggest problem with rapid growth is lack of resources. Not every school has a capable machine shop, and I know of more and more schools cutting funding from classes like wood shop, and industrial arts. My school cut the wood shop about 8 years ago, to redirect funds to other classes. Our middle school is considering making a similar move. We are a vocational agriculture school, and as such do have a rather capable metal shop, but the powers-that-be refuse to allow our team to use it's resources, despite multiple meetings to explain what exactly FIRST is, and what we would require.

Similarly, it's becoming more and more difficult to find sponsors willing to aid the cause, particularly in rural areas. I think that's the biggest problem with rapid growth. Over time, it may not be as big a problem, as new engineers inspired by FIRST join the workforce, either employed by companies or starting their own firms. In either case, these grown up FIRSTers will eventually lead the engineering world, and hopefully continue to spread the inspiration to their local communities, by spawning lego league and FRC teams.

I do think it's great that FIRST is growing, and hope it does continue to reach more and more lives as it grows. However, I do worry if it grows too fast, it may stretch already too limited resources a bit too thin, and it's common sense to know that's not a good thing. Just like a fish can only grow preportional to the size of it's tank, FIRST can only grow as big as the resources supporting it, to ensure the level of comfort necessary to deliver it's message.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by Marc P.

... and as such do have a rather capable metal shop, but the powers-that-be refuse to allow our team to use it's resources, despite multiple meetings to explain what exactly FIRST is, and what we would require.

:jaw on floor: Do I want to know why? It's stuff like that that just boggles my mind.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Marc P.

...and as such do have a rather capable metal shop, but the powers-that-be refuse to allow our team to use it's resources, despite multiple meetings to explain what exactly FIRST is, and what we would require.

Or as in our instance, being charged 1000 dollars a day to use the school by our own BOE and school system to use the school during off hours.
IE: Those hectic last few days that take up weekends, or fundraisers that would take place on a Saturday.