MARS Robotics

All studies and data support the incredible impact and personal benefits gained by those involved in the FIRST program. Participants are inspired by and become passionate about technology and science while gaining real world engineering skills. Recognizing the need to make this experience available to all students and schools, Dean's speech at the 2007 Kick-Off identified the need for significantly greater growth at a faster rate than the current program can produce. To promote a future where every student who would like to can participate requires educating legislators and politicians about FIRST, its vision and its impact. Every team is asked to contact media outlets and invite them to a regional or championship competition. Invitations, who was contacted and their response will be published on the FIRST website.

Dean Kamen’s Homework Speech During the 2008 FIRST Kick-off.

 

Dean Kamen gave the following speech during his portion of the 2008 FIRST robotics competition kick-off in New Hampshire on Januray 5th 2008:

 

“One of my favorite traditions at first is the homework because I get to give it. Last year for anybody that is not a rookie, you remember the homework was let's get our political leaders to see what we're doing. We're growing really well, we have lots of people involved, but we're still a pretty well kept secret.

 

“So the homework was let's get your local and your state and our federal leaders to see what we're doing, because the best way to get support for FIRST is to get people there. The events, as you all know, are powerful and contagious. So I'm going to -- before I give you this year's homework assignment I'll report on last year's.

 

“You get a B plus. Tell you why. Last year we had lots of governors, lots of senators, lots of members of congress attend our events. I don't have exact specifics. You can look at our website but it was impressive. We were asked to speak at the national governor's association, to all the governors about what they should find ways to help implement FIRST in all their schools in all their states. It was a very, very effective meeting in Washington. We were asked to testify at the United States Senate on the issue of science, technology and competitiveness. Again, I think we had a lot of people listening and I was very happy to see that a lot of the people there already knew about us because of all the homework you had been doing. There were little episodes where senators and congressmen were fighting with each other about who knew about FIRST first. Who had more teams from their district. It was pretty exciting. Last year winning teams from every level of FIRST, the FIRST LEGO league, the vex challenge, the robotics competition, every level had its winners invited to the white house to be honored by the president of the United States. It was a very nice event. You did a pretty good job on getting the attention of politicians. In fact, now that I think about it, they even moved the primary to this weekend just to make it fit with the FIRST kickoff.  So maybe we'll make it an A minus.

 

“Okay. This year's homework. I'm not sure what metrics we'll use to grade it. Sort of like the chairman's award. Nobody has ever figured out exactly how to grade it but you always see and recognize a great work. This year I think besides continuing to get more political support to help put FIRST within reach of every kid in this country, I think we need media attention to help us. So one of the things some of you may or may not have noticed, you go to FIRST events and they're full of people. But almost everybody there is on one of the teams. We don't yet bring people from the general public. We're sort of preaching to our own choir. We might have 2,000 people in the stands and they have 50 teams and each one had 40 people. I think we need to really be the sport that everybody wants to watch as a spectator. And start to get more and more and more general public awareness of what we do. It will help us have a much bigger impact on what people think about science and technology.

 

“So the homework assignment for this year starting now, you have a whole season to do this, your model ought to be by the time I get to my first regional I want to make sure there is standing room only to get in and celebrate what we're all doing. We want to do that by getting local media, print press, video, television, news, documentary, we want them to talk about us in the right way. It's sort of like a science fair but the geeks look like they're having too much fun. Not like that. We want to be a mainstream part of our culture. That's what we've always wanted to do.

 

“So you figure out how to do it. But we'll have some help. Just like we did last year. As of this afternoon, if you go to the FIRST website you'll see a couple of new items. There is a FIRST media guide. It will help you figure out how to work with and attract the press. There will be a FIRST forum on collaboration and how to collaborate with other teams, again, to get more and appropriate media coverage.

 

“As you know, we have a great relationship with Google and with Youtube. There will be a FIRST Youtube page, a Youtube link that we hope you'll manage to get all your great video and other press up on. We'll probably find ways to vote on what we like and what we really like and what is really awesome. Maybe that will impact your grade. We'll leave it to you to find other ways, creative ways, to make sure that our message gets out and we're not the only ones that are celebrating the extraordinary things that happen at FIRST. Because everybody else ought to see how great this community is. So as I said, I don't know how we'll grade it. I didn't know how we'd grade last years but it had a great impact and I think we as the FIRST community this year really want to focus on getting more and more people involved.”

 

Our Commitment to the Homework:

MARS Robotics as a team has sent out letters to all major presidential candidates inviting them to the Florida Regional and Georgia Championship. If we can get them to come, the press will follow.  Responses will be listed here and our efforts will be reported to the FIRST website referenced above.

Basic Invitation Information & How to Contact Media Outlets:

Key Messages About the Homework

Q & A About the Homework