Dean Kamen

Dean Kamen on his stair climbing wheel chair (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Dean+Kamen&qpv ())

Many of us have seen movies such as Star Wars and gawked at the amazing feats of science fiction showed on screen, such as Luke Skywalker's robotic arm, and dreamed of seeing those in the real world and now one man is making that a reality. That man is Dean Kamen, he is one on the most pioneering scientists of the modern generation; he has created robotic arms for amputees and water filters that can produce 10 gallons of pure water an hour while only using less that a kilowatt of electricity (slingshot). Dean Kamen as a student was average; he never had an interest in the school system so never showed his full potential. However, after High school he began inventing, working on projects such as the AutoSyringe or the New York Ball Drop. He tried attending college but did not take enough classes so after five years he got kicked out for having insufficient credits. That school later awarded him an honorary PhD. Dean Kamen enjoyed tremendous financial success from an early age, being a millionaire before 30 but he has never retired. Dean Kamen is a hero because he is driven, intelligent and inspirational, always trying to make the world a better place.

Dean Kamen has faced many obstacles in his life that would make most men quit and had many opportunities to stop working and retire, a dream come true, but has never stopped inventing because he is driven to making the world as perfect as it can be before he stops. Dean Kamen struggled in school because he was more interested in real world work "at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; after five years as a student, Kamen was deemed to have made insufficient progress toward a degree and was asked to leave" (Biography in Context). Most people would consider being kicked out of college the end of the world, they would think that they could never get a job because the failed, but Dean Kamen was already inventing at the time and trying to invent machines to improve peoples lives and remained on that path after being undeterred about failing college. This shows how driven Dean Kamen was to make his imprint of the world a lasting, beneficial one; he never quit or gave up in the face of an obstacle but instead kept driven to improve the world. Dean Kamen not only stayed driven through his failures but also through his successes. "Kamen was undeterred by his experiences with formal education and continued inventing. He finished his AutoSyringe and marketed it under his company of the same name, founded in 1976. The device proved to be as important as predicted, and in 1982 he sold AutoSyringe to Baxter International for a sum that reportedly made Kamen a multimillionaire"(Biography in Context). A million dollars in todays economy is a huge amount of money, a million dollars in 1970 would be about $5,917,371 which is more than enough money to retire off of, most people would retire the next day if they received that much money because they would not need to work for money but Dean Kamen doesn't work for money he works because he wants to make the world a better place and will not rest until he is satisfied. This just shows how driven Dean Kamen is, he could have easily never worked another day in his life but he chose to keep going forward in science because he loved it and was driven to make his impression on the world. A hero is a person who works not for personal gain but because they want to make a difference and that is exactly what Dean Kamen is doing, he is trying to make the future a better place and will sacrifice anything to do so, even his retirement for other people's benefit.

Luke Arm (http://growingbranch.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/m ())

Dean Kamen is not only driven but also extraordinarily intelligent in many senses of the word; he is a genius inventor, a skilled businessperson and a person who can see the big picture. "His brother, a medical-school student, observed that patients who needed round-the-clock drug injections were forced to center their lives on hospital visits. Kamen responded by inventing the AutoSyringe, a device worn by the patient that administers medication automatically, allowing the user to go about his or her regular activities"(Biography in Context). Intelligence is the ability to collect and analyze data to find the most efficient solutions to problems, that is exactly what Dean Kamen has done in this example; he heard about a problem that was limiting people's ability to function normally in society and he analyzed the problem to come up with a solution so revolutionary that it had changes science yet so simple that it has since been applied in many other devices, including some of those for cancer treatment. Dean Kamen was blessed with a mind that can efficiently analyze data and with his gift he read lots of scientific theories (Newton was supposedly a passion of his growing up) and with his gift and his studies he developed an efficient, intelligent mind. Dean Kamen's business sense can be seen in many different ways, one of which was mentioned earlier: selling the AutoSyringe to become a millionaire but the other way to see it is through the amazing speed at which he has been able to produce his mechanisms. This quote shows the vast amount of inventions that Dean Kamen has invented over the years "Founded AutoSyringe, 1976; demonstrated first portable infusion pump, 1978; sold infusion pump product rights, became multi-millionaire, 1982; founded DEKA Research and Development, 1982; invented portable dialysis machine, 1993; invented the iBot, a wheelchair able to climb stairs, 1995; introduced the Segway, self-balancing, electric-powered transportation machine, 2001"(Newsmakers). These are only some of his inventions and yet you can still see the amazing speed at which he and his team have been able to produce this technology because of both their intelligence and business sense (being able to get funding for all of their projects) their most recent project being the slingshot water purifier that they actually partnered with Coca Cola to manufacture. This shows how intelligent Dean Kamen is in so many different ways and how much time he has spent studying to improve his intelligence, taking true devotion. Dean Kamen's intelligence makes him a hero because it shows his commitment to knowledge, his desire to learn and his ability to excel, which are all characteristics that someone needs to succeed.

His Most Famous Invention (http://www.whoguides.com/who-invented-the-segway ())

Dean Kamen's affect on our planet has stretched greater than just his inventions, he has served as an inspiration for those in our generation and will continue to inspire future generations for years to come. "Kamen was a mediocre student in junior high and high school, disinterested in the curriculum but devoted to self-study. Ironically, he read difficult texts by the likes of Sir Isaac Newton (and reportedly used what he learned to heckle his science teachers), but his grades proved to be an inaccurate reflection of his abilities. As a teenager Kamen began inventing and building in his parents' basement and was hired by such institutions as the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan and the Museum of the City of New York to install sound- and light-control systems. Before he graduated, Kamen was invited to work on automating the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square. By this point, he was reportedly earning $60,000 annually--as much as the combined incomes of his father, a Mad Magazine artist, and his mother, a teacher"(Biography in Context). Dean Kamen was an average student only interested in having fun and yet he has grown up to be one of the most successful scientist in all of history proving that there is hope for all students and because you have not been achieving to your potential in school doesn't mean that you cannot have a successful future in whatever field you want. This should serve as an inspiration to all the average students in this school who are planning to get an office job and retiring at the age of 65 like you parents, this should inspire them to push themselves and explore a meaningful future doing what the love, be it teaching or medicine anything is possible. Dean Kamen an inspiration because of not only how he faced adversity but because of how early he attained success. "He was still a college undergraduate when he devised the first wearable infusion pump, which found applications in chemotherapy, neonatology, and endocrinology. He founded AutoSyringe, Inc., in 1976 to manufacture and market the infusion pumps. Using the same principals he used to invent the infusion pump, he developed the first insulin pump for diabetics" (Newsmakers). Dean Kamen was inventing at an age when most of us will still be learning, he was a student that was beating the teacher so to say in that before the school system had taught him what most people in his field have learned he was already pioneering inventions that have changes live and been implicated in multiple other inventions and treatments, including cancer (Aksys). This should serve as an inspiration to all young inventors trying to pioneer the world but still in the school system because even if you are young does not mean that you cannot change the world. As you have seen Dean Kamen is a true and deserving hero.

Dean Kamen is a hero deserving of all of our admiration because he has revolutionized multiple times and truly made the world a better place. Dean Kamen has done more than use his intelligence and drive to revolutionize the world technologically but he has also inspired future generation's children, such as me, to improve the world. A hero is someone who makes the world a better place, places others above themselves and will make the world a better place e very day. That is Dean Kamen. Dean Kamen is driven, intelligent, inspirational and most importantly a hero, my hero.

1 "Dean Kamen." Gale Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
2 "Dean Kamen." Newsmakers. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
3 "TO INNOVATE, 'MAKE SURE THE EXPERTS THINK YOU'RE NUTS,' KAMEN TELLS ENGINEERS." States News Service 19 Nov. 2011. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
4 "Aksys(R), Ltd. Announces DEKA Agreement." PR Newswire 3 Nov. 2005. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
5 Dean Kamen's Slingshot Heard 'round the World | New Hampshire NEWS02. DEKA, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
6 Dean Kamen. Digital image. www.whoguides.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
7 Dean Kamen on the iBot. Digital image. Impactlab.net. Impactlab.net, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.
8 Dean Kamen Luke Arm. Digital image. Growingbranch.com. Growingbranch.cpm, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.