Dean Kamen's Segway Star of Falcon Jet Breakfast

Dean Kamen, medical equipment and convalescent device wizard, made an impressive entrance at Wednesday morning's Dassault Falcon Jet operator breakfast as he rolled around the dais and up to the podium on his Segway personal scooter. He was there to drum up support for his First Robotics Competition, an annual event held at Epcot Center during which robots, designed and built by students from 600 U.S. high schools with the help of participating mentors from high-tech firms, compete in contests of performance, speed and agility.
While the short-term goal is to win first place at the Epcot contest, the long-term goal is to encourage young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in high technology.

"Too many kids in cities don't have role models. We concentrate on supply, more teachers, more schools, more books. But we need to stimulate demand, generate excitement about technology, not just about shooting baskets or becoming a rock star," Kamen explained. "Too often, learning about technology is made to seem very difficult. Our program is all about inspiring kids, not teaching them. Our goal is to create a generation of people who are excited about technology," Kamen said. The First Robotics Competition is a private industry/public education partnership in which engineers from sponsoring companies volunteer their time to help teams of high school students design and build robot contestants.

To level the playing field, each group of high school students and their engineer mentors get identical kits of parts, components, motors and radio control devices. The kits aren't cheap, though. Sponsoring companies must pony up $5,000 as part of their obligation. Then, the mentors and students are given six weeks to design and build the robots.

Five years ago, Kamen started the First Robotics Competition in a New Hampshire high school gym, near his office, as a local competition. The popularity of the event spread quickly, with more high schools and more high-tech companies forming alliances. In spite of the events of 9/11 and the subsequent economic downturn, regional competitions will be held in two dozen cities this year.

Kamen's favorite story about the competition involves a former inner-city gang member who led his team to victory and then went on to be an aero engineering student at Cal Berkeley.

"We have a cultural problem, not an education problem," Kamen said. "We have a pop culture that's geared to nonsense, one that leaves our world to sports starts, entertainers and lawyers. A lot of companies say they're proud sponsors of the U.S. Olympics [teams]. I know we're not as big as the Olympics, but we're a lot more important. After the games, what can I do with a shot put?" Kamen asked.

Current corporate sponsors include Dassault Falcon Jet operator National Beverage, Johnson & Johnson, Baxter and GM.

Charles Edelstenne, chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation and Dassault Systems, also spoke at the event, leading a team that provided a recap of the year's activities. Edelstenne began his remarks by asking for a moment of silence in remembrance of the 9/11 events. "I can say that the emotion and solidarity felt in France for the victims of these horrible acts were greater than for any other world situation I have known in several decades," Edelstenne said, who added that Dassault gave Rudy Giuliani a $1 million check for the Twin Towers fund, praising the former New York City mayor as a "great and inspired leader during those dark days following the terrorist attacks."

Edelstenne also remembered the late Randy Kennedy and Ray Vilano, long-term members of the Falcon Jet family. "The Falcon program would not be what it is today without the dedication and the talent of people like them," Edelstenne said.

Four Falcon Jet models now are in production. Next year, Dassault's EASy cockpit, developed in partnership with Honeywell, will enter service, "bringing the Falcon 900 and Falcon 2000 new life," Edelstenne claimed. The entire fleet of Falcon Jets will log its 10,000,000th flight hour this month, and next year Dassault will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the Mystere 20. "It was the will of Marcel Dassault, a genius engineer," Edelstenne said.

Dassault Falcon Jet has renewed its efforts to improve customer support, Edelstenne said. Positive results now are evident. "It is heartwarming to hear many of you tell us that our new service incentives are on the right track. But, of course, we still have a lot to do," Edelstenne remarked.

By Fred George