Segway HT inventor Dean Kamen will speak in Hollister Hall, Oct. 30
By Bill Steele
As the main plenary speaker for the 2001 conference of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen reportedly gave the higher education community a D-minus for failure to engage the imagination and passion of young people for math, science and engineering.
How he views Cornell's efforts in that direction will be on the agenda when Kamen presents a public lecture Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. in Room B14 of Hollister Hall on campus. His visit is part of the Culture and Diversity Lecture Series, sponsored by Engineering Minority and Women's Programs.
"One reason the engineering profession is not attracting the needed cadre of problem solvers stems from the fact that our nation tends to glamorize and celebrate entertainers such as sports heroes, movie stars and musical performers," Kamen told the ASEE conference. "Is it any wonder then that a young student would dream of being a professional athlete before considering a career as an engineer? Students, at the earliest age, must see engineering, science and technology as opportunities that are fun, rewarding and achievable. They must be inspired to learn."
Kamen has most recently been in the news as the inventor of the Segway Human Transporter (HT), a two-wheeled standup device that, the inventor says, allows people to go farther, move more quickly and carry more while remaining part of a pedestrian community. But it's only the latest in a series of innovative inventions. While still in college, Kamen created the Auto-Syringe, a wearable infusion pump that dispenses drugs. He went on to create several other medical devices, including a home dialysis machine and a transporter for the disabled that can climb stairs, traverse sandy and rocky terrain and raise its user to eye-level with a standing person.
Kamen is the founder and president of DEKA Research & Development Corp., the CEO of Segway LLC and the founder and driving force behind FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use and enjoy science and technology. FIRST sponsors the annual FIRST Robotics Competition, which teams professional engineers with high school students from across the country to build robots for regional competitions that culminate at a championship event, and the FIRST Lego League, which offers hands-on experience for 9- to 14-year-olds to explore and invent their own robotic creations.
Kamen recently received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize -- the world's largest single award for invention -- and donated the entire prize to FIRST. He was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President Clinton in 2000 for inventions that have advanced medical care worldwide and for innovative and imaginative leadership in awakening America to the excitement of science and technology. Smithsonian magazine has dubbed him "The Pied Piper of Technology."
