Get the full-length version of this article for your Kindle, iPhone or iPod Touch at Amazon!...or better yet...Get extended articles every week for your whole organization at no cost! & don’t forget to catch this topic on the TrendPOV show ...Read the Transcript

Bill Miller Director FIRST Robotics Competition http://USFirst.org

For the past two years he has been responsible for the successful execution of the FRC season and scaling the FRC staff and resources to support a growing organization.Prior to FIRST, Miller served as the Senior Vice President of Operations at PEP-Direct, spent 26 years with Polaroid Corporation in multiple leadership roles. Colonel Miller (retired) served six years on active duty in multiple military leadership command positions including Airborne Ranger and Infantry Officer as well as serving 18 plus years in the United States Army Reserves. -United States Military Academy, West Point, and United States Army Command and General Staff College.

The spotlight award is given to organizations that demonstrate an honest understanding of emerging trends and work to turn them into an advantage. This month, we honor For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) with the Spotlight Award in the category of Education Trends for understanding the need, and for taking innovative, scalable and measurable steps to meet it.

FIRST was founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 to “change the culture” by “inspiring young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.” The non-profit organization provides challenge programs culminating in competitions where teams from grades K-12 put forth their best solutions to real world problems posed by sponsors. 

Three factors make FIRST special and of note to organizations everywhere: it reaches all the way down to the early elementary level, it is measurable, and it is massively scalable. 

Among FIRST programs, if Junior FIRST LEGO is tee-ball, FIRST LEGO is little league, FIRST Tech Challenge is Junior Varsity and FIRST Robotics Competition is Varsity. Coaches and mentors from companies that sponsor, promote and just get involved provide guidance, real-world application, hands-on learning and critical encouragement to teams of all ages. Today, FIRST has 3000 corporate sponsors and reaches over 196,000 students. Careful tracking has shown that FIRST programs directly increase technical career choice by two to four times. The secret to FIRST scalability is putting the power in the hands of individuals who come together to create their own teams. Coaches and mentors volunteer within these local teams. 

We asked FIRST President, Paul Gudonis, how he will know when FIRST has succeeded in changing the culture? He recommended a two-sided measure: qualitative and quantitative. He suggests, “quantitatively, by college entrance and by graduation in STEM fields and qualitatively by who we celebrate as a culture. You get what you celebrate - we celebrate innovation, creativity, and teamwork.”

Companies and organizations worldwide can turn this trend into an advantage in several ways: get involved, create additional challenge programs locally, and incentivize employee participation at the individual level. Time is a precious as money and it does not take a lot of either to start seeing the rewards of a solid technical talent pipeline for your organization.