His events get 'the Michael Jordans of science and tech in front of kids'
The innovating engineer gets a bum rap in American pop culture. He is either the slump-shouldered, pocket-protected geek or the unkempt mad scientist who's just shrunk the kids.
Dean Kamen is cast from another mold. Athletic and articulate, Kamen is perhaps best known for inventing the Segway Human Transporter, which got plenty of air time on network TV at its 2002 launch and is now the focus of an annual convention and a 3,400-member user group.
But Kamen's greatest invention is a new and improved public persona for the inventor/engineer. His First (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, launched in 1989, teams as many as 70,000 young people a year with working engineers, at events in more than 23 cities (see www.usfirst.org). By getting "the Michael Jordans of science and technology in front of kids," the competitions give young people a taste of the real excitement of inventing something with their own hands, Kamen said.
As head of his own design shop, Deka Research and Development Corp., Kamen is a passionate and practical spokesman for innovation in today's sometimes stultifying corporate culture—one that rarely tolerates the failure, time, discipline and roundabout processes that true innovation requires. "The penalty of failure on a risky project is way out of proportion with the rewards of success on an incremental project," Kamen said.
Although he holds 150 patents and claims several firsts in medical electronics, Kamen's most disruptive innovation of all is the public image he presents of a bold, grounded and successful developer.
OTHER PROFILES
Takeshi Uchiyamada
John Deng
Y.W. Chung
Theodore Berger and John Granacki
Dean Kamen
Leroy Hood
Ken Kutaragi
Jim Barton
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