During my career at Microsoft, I was concerned at what I saw was a steady decline in the quality of engineers coming out of school. They were all book-smart and knew their stuff, but there was a declining lack of personal passion.

After working with a FIRST high school robotics team in 1999-2000, I was inspired at how receptive high school students were to the idea of learning by doing. I saw in these students the spark of passion that makes not just engineers, but passionate practitioners of engineering: The Engineer Hobbyist!  I also learned that many students lack a basic understanding of the engineering world. By providing after school programs that allow them to explore science and technology in a safe and structured environment, we changed the educational and career choices for a significant number of our students. It is a truly profound moment to realize that a student has found a long term passion as a result of your work.

I am a founder and board member of Washington FIRST Robotics. Our mission is to inspire students to become science and technology leaders.  Our goal is to reach out into the community and engage students K-12 to see themselves in the role of scientist, engineer, or other leader in the technology fields.

Our primary method is to engage the students in a technology-oriented team sport involving robotics competitions. We give teams of students a huge problem and ask them to work together to solve it. In the process, we show the students that they are capable of doing far more than they realize. We help the students find their own passions and interests. Working with adult mentors from industry and working with the greater FIRST community, these students find their passion and also find a sense of community that is encouraging and engaging.

We work with thousands of students in Washington State, the Washington State legislature, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) initiative groups, and the state Superintendent of Public Instruction to get thousands of volunteer mentors connected to the 385 FIRST teams in Washington. These mentors provide high quality experiences for the students they work with during the school year.

We are working towards our ultimate vision, which is to have a FIRST robotics team available for every student in the state of Washington. We are currently in about 30% of the high schools and about 20% of the middle and elementary schools. We have a sustained growth rate of around 20% per year across our largest programs.

To accomplish this, we work hard to develop mentors skilled in technology, business, manufacturing, and team management. We are seeking help from anyone wanting to help change the culture of our world to make scientists and engineers on par in popularity with sports heroes and entertainment stars.