Robot Championship Brings Out Alumni, Celebrities

Last week at the FIRST Championships in St. Louis, I had a chance to talk to MIT alumni, admitted students, and current students. MIT has a strategic alliance with FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) designed to boost alumni involvement in the hands-on robotics program. We’ve been connecting with alumni all over the world and finding out about their FIRST involvement. And you can get involved!

Who was there? Brion Fox ’88, SM ’89 is a course 22 alumnus who got involved in FIRST because his daughter Abby, age 13, said he had to: “Dad, I want to do this, make me a team!” And so he did. Abby and Kyra, daughter of Laura Kiessling ’83, joined with other students from the progressive Wingra School in Wisconsin and formed the MAD A.R.T. FIRST Lego League (FLL) Robotics Team. What does Fox think of it? “My job is to just wind them up and get out of their way.”

Abby and her friend Sullivan Sweet, who blogged about the championship, were both eager to talk about their desire to attend MIT one day. They’ve already done a project on artificial intelligence for the Google Science Fair, and their FLL Global Innovation Award entry focused on creating a spinal cord injury prevention device.

Current MIT freshman Seth Berg was on hand. He has been involved with FIRST at Stuyvesant high school in New York City. Last year he was named to the first Dean’s List, an award named for FIRST founder Dean Kamen that recognizes student leaders. I asked Seth if FIRST had changed his life. “I don’t think I’d be at MIT if it hadn’t been for FIRST,” he said. “It really helped me to define my interests.” He is now a mentor to his high school's team 694. Can you guess where he’ll be doing his summer internship? At Kamen’s company in Manchester, NH—DEKA Research & Development.

Meeting pre-frosh who were there to compete was truly inspirational. They took time out to meet alumni and talk about their future on the MIT campus. We met more than 20 students who are looking forward to being a part of the MIT Class of 2015.

Finally, I ran into a few celebrities including a host of alumni--Irwin Jacobs SM ’57, ScD ‘59, founder of Qualcomm; Sal Khan ’98, MNG ’98, founder of the Khan Academy; engineering rockstar to FIRST enthusiasts Professor Woodie Flowers SM ’68, ME ’71, PhD ’73; plus MIT president emeritus and National Academy of Engineering president Chuck Vest HM.

Celebs included multi-platinum music artist will.i.am, journalist John Hockenberry, actor Morgan Freeman, venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, journalist Soledad O’Brien, and television writer and producer Norman Lear. They were all there to enjoy the competition and celebrate the youth whose involvement in the FIRST robotics competition is leading to future science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Want to find out how you can get involved? Check out the alumni K-12 STEM Facebook page and sign up to be a part of the K-12 STEM Education Alumni Network. Learn more by watching the ABC television special “I am FIRST” filmed at the championships, set to air on August 14.