Dean Kamen: Inventive Genius - Working on the Big Problems That Matter the Most

Inventor Dean Kamen talks about education and the growing problem of kids in the US falling significantly behind in math and science. Dean has responded by creating FIRST an annual robotics contest which has shown dramatic change in the achievement of the students who have participated in the program.

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BIF-2 Summit

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Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen holds more than 150 U.S. and foreign patents related to medical devices, climate control systems, and helicopter design. He's an inventor whose rebellion against convention has consistently yielded smart solutions. As a high school student, he developed an audiovisual control system that was used in New York's Hayden Planetarium. While in college, his brother—then a medical student—told him how difficult it was to administer intravenous drugs to cancer patients and diabetics. Dean thought about it and invented the portable infusion pump, enabling these patients to receive their medication without being confined to a hospital bed.

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The BIF Innovation Story Studio isn’t just an archive of cool videos, interviews, audio and narrative pieces. It is BIF’s platform for helping our innovation community learn from each other, share their wisdom, and revel in the outcomes of our experiments, whether they succeed or fail.