Kamen, Dean

▪ 2003

      In 2002 nearly half the U.S. states changed their laws so that inventor Dean Kamen's high-tech Segway Human Transporter could be legally ridden on sidewalks and cycle paths. After months of rumours, the invention, code-named Ginger, had finally been unveiled on Dec. 3, 2001, as a kind of superscooter. Kamen claimed the Segway, with its built-in gyroscopes, computer chips, and tilt sensors, would make getting around cities so easy that automobiles there would become not only undesirable but also unnecessary. Although the device's champions saw it as an environmentally friendly way to ease traffic and increase productivity for some businesses, the Segway's detractors warned of potential collisions and injuries. In 2002 the U.S. Postal Service was one of several companies running pilot tests of the Segway, which was not yet available to the public. Meanwhile, Kamen continued to work on developing a compact, nonpolluting Stirling engine capable of generating portable electricity or purifying water.

      Kamen was born in Rockville Centre, N.Y., in 1951, the son of Jack Kamen, a comic-book artist, and Evelyn Kamen, a high-school teacher. As an undergraduate at Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute, Kamen invented a portable infusion pump, for which he was awarded the first of more than 150 patents he held in the U.S. and other countries. In 1976 he founded AutoSyringe, Inc., a medical device company, to manufacture and market the pump, and he later sold the company to Baxter International Corp. In 1982 he founded DEKA Research & Development Corp., where he built a team to create innovative products both internally and for outside clients. One such product was a 10-kg (22-lb) portable kidney dialysis machine, which Design News magazine in 1993 selected as its medical product of the year. In 1999 Kamen introduced the IBOT, a wheelchairlike device that he described as “wearable,” which could climb stairs and stand upright on two wheels. It was his use of gyroscopic stabilizers on the IBOT that led Kamen to develop the Segway.

      In 1985 Kamen established Science Enrichment Encounters, a hands-on science museum for children in Manchester, N.H., which he hoped would help young people see science and technology as fun, exciting, accessible, and rewarding. This was a forerunner of the U.S. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) organization, which he founded in 1989. FIRST sought to turn scientists and engineers into role models for the next generation by uniting engineering teams from business and universities with high-school students in an annual robot design and construction contest.

      Kamen received many honours, including several honorary doctorates. In 1997 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and the following year he received the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment. Kamen was awarded a National Medal of Technology by Pres. Bill Clinton in 2000, and in 2002 he received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize for inventors, which he donated to FIRST.

Alan Stewart

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