Here is a neat little article I found on Dean Kamen that extensively mentions FIRST.
Woah. That’s a really powerful article. Good find!
That is an excellent article. Just excellent.
I paid attention, I winced, I was awed anew by Dean Kamen’s unswerving belief in the students that join FIRST and what their futures are capable of holding. I didn’t know he has dealt with ADHD/dyslexia or that his idea of a vacation is taking time away from one project to focus on another and how sharply Dean feels that time is finite and therefore, precious. It was as close to listening to him speak/talk as any article I have ever read about him.
Thank you for posting the link.
Jane
A great article. Really show how dedicated Kamen is.
Lately though, it seems that whenever I see him on video, he is rather exhausted. It seems that he has been working on the reserves for too long. It would probably be a good thing if he actually found time for a good vacation some time.
I don’t know him personally, so I could be way off on that. It just seems that he is getting more and more serious and perhaps a bit depressed.
Read Codename: Ginger. It’s about the development of the Segway, and a very engaging read. You also see a different side of Dean. I’m pretty sure he never stops working, and it seems from the book he expects others to do the same.
[EDIT] I just finished the article, and WOW! that was good. It shows very much the same Dean that Codename: Ginger did. Whatever Dean does, it obviously works. However, I see he’s got a Tesla Roadster in his garage. I wonder how long it’ll take for him to convince Elon Musk to start showing up at FIRST events. (don’t know about Elon Musk? He’s pretty much Dean’s “intellectual heir.” He was CEO of Paypal sold that, and was a very rich man. Instead of doing nothing, he started SpaceX (on their way to supplying cargo to the ISS), has invested a huge amount of money into Tesla Motors (building electric cars), and Solar City (the largest distributor of solar panels in California). He’s the sitting CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. I don’t think he sleeps.)
A very powerful article.
Popular Science is filled with great articles, I’m glad I could share this with the Chief Delphi community.
Reading this article showed me just how dedicated Dean Kamen is, some of the things he has invented and the dedication and work he puts behind every project is crazy. It’s this dedication and the fact he believes so much in us FIRSTers that makes me proud to be a member of a FIRST team.
It must be very difficult and burdensome to be an extraordinary visionary and have such a deep desire to help humanity help itself by bettering itself as community through involvement, inspiration, education, and commitment. His life has made and is making a difference. That is no small thing.
The idea/thought of Dr. Flowers trying to get Dean Kamen back on track was just too fun for words.
best line that I can relate to:
“after someone kicks sand in your face, you’ve got to keep on going.”
The “Together in Blue Jeans” picture at the top–
Scary!
Gives me an idea for a team uniform next year. But I bet it’s been done before… Ah well, who wouldn’t like a team full of Dean clones?
It would be fun to have a Dean Kamen Day and have lots of teams participate, creating lots of photo opportunities for PR, promoting the ‘army’ idea. It would also be cool to turn the word, army, into an acronym in support of the idea of spreading FIRST’s mission and goals.
As a member of the United States Army, I think the name army is already reserved. 
How about Legion? It hasn’t been used since the Romans, officially…
I wondered about that, thanks for the correction.
The part where Dean Kamen talks about time kinda scared me a little bit. I mean, I know just as much as the next kid that everyone (I’m sorry for this breif lapse of pessimism) will die, but, well, there was a little part of me that believed that Dean Kamen would live forever.
I think Dean Kamen will make himself an android before too long, so he can continue to help the world. I certainly would.
Great article, I really enjoyed reading it.
I’ve sat on this overnight, so I think I’ve been able to objectively think about this (I think…). Great article, and there’s quite a bit in there that makes me think on some pretty deep levels. In short, I don’t believe that Dean will have to worry about the continuation of this vision to solve the big picture of finding more problem solvers for the many world problems. He’s already inspired many of us to do so, and we’re not all kids you know. Maybe it’s just me and my endless half-full thinking, look-ahead perspectives, and just-find-the-answer (yes, ADHD) way my brain works during the 90% of time I’m not on vacation?
I do wish that he would take a vacation from this problem, if only to take the time and spend it seeking out and praising the problems that have already been solved, or are being solved. For example, on ABC World News last week I was shocked that they spent 2.5 minutes of their precious time on a critical cancer treatment advancement via DNA-based testing and targetted drugs. Last year NBC had a tiny piece about a team using a Nobel-prize winning idea to track the early stages of cancer treatment. The scientists used the glowing chemicals in jelly fish and discovered that most cancers attack T-Cells first … probably the HUGEST advancement in cancer prevention to date! But things about progression in Science are so rarely seen by the mainstream media, yet so many of the advancements affect the viewers and readers of the news.
Is this because R&D requires funding with no guarantee for return-on-investment? Is this because promoting specific advances funded by companies gives the appearance that a media outlet is biased towards those companies, hence they just don’t do it? I think that removing that stigma and then shifting or broadening the main focus of the media from Sports/Business/Politics to also include Science should be a part of his plan to change the culture, if he truly wants to succeed in the grand scheme of things. After all, children and adults alike follow the media and pop culture; it’s just a fact of life. Yet other than promoting FIRST I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dean or an article about him praise any technologies or advances other than what he or his company has invented. Am I wrong here? I’m not attacking Dean, I’m simply trying to stir up some discussion about fundamental ideas that may speed things up.
Dean himself deeply appreciates the technologies that have come before him, and has expressed this view in the media several times. His house is a veritable museum of technological history, from the giant antique steam engine in the foyer, which he refurbished himself, to the historic wheelchairs, and many other items. He realizes that he stands on the shoulders of giants. I hope he has arranged for his house to be left to posterity as a museum of technology. It won’t be as influential as FIRST, but it is a wonderful place.
At FIRST events, he promotes others in the fields of science and technology. The Championship fields are named after great scientists. Speakers at the Championship have included the head of the U.S. Patent Office, the founders of Google, and others. Dave Lavery and other NASA personnel figure prominently in FIRST events. Some of the FIRST Board members are people who have mentored him; they are, or have been, executives in various technological companies. Without them, Dean would never have become what he is today.
Also, I recall seeing a news video about the Luke arm which included coverage of another company’s work in the area; Dean’s company is by no means the only one pursuing this technology. In the recent news about his island home being upgraded to all-LED lighting, the company that made the lights was mentioned. It’s not all about Dean.
Yes, a casual glance at media coverage of Dean might raise the concerns you’ve expressed. But if you delve into past articles, FIRST history, Dean’s life story, and the stories of those with whom he has worked, you get a sense of his interdependency on other companies and inventors.
As Dean himself has said, he’s not really an inventor; rather, he takes existing, cutting-edge technologies others have invented and synthesizes them into something new and useful.
I actually hosted a discussion with someone who does similar research last week. It is not the glowing chemicals but genetically modified animals that exhibit the same genes that cause the jelly fish to glow. Surprinsingly this was actually in the news recently:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN27194737
I think the main problem is that if you were to do really good reporting on an issue you would spend over an hour talking about a signle topic. There are multiple types of cancer treatments being researched at the same time. If you are going to mention cancer treatments you might as well go into detail about the ones that for all intents and purposes use absolutely no drugs. Yes there are theoretical cancer treatments that technically use no drugs. You end up burning the cancer out with a combination of gold nanoparticles and a laser tuned to the optical window of the human body. Also, most news reporters have no science background and have a complete and utter lack of ability to distingusih legitimate science from hype and fraud.
Thats the company I work for…Philips/Color Kinetics