April 9, 2003
"TECHNOLOGY FOR EVERYONE" @ USM
Governor John Baldacci, members of high school robotics teams,
150 Maine technology educators and the Segway Self-Balancing
Human Transporter will be featured as part of the "Technology
for Everyone" conference, scheduled for Friday, April
11, at the University of Southern Maine.
High school students from the three Maine FIRST (For Inspiration
and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics teams
competed last month at the BAE Systems Regional FIRST Competition
in Manchester, NH. Student members of the Gorham/Falmouth
team, the South Portland team and the Bonny Eagle High School
team in Standish will showcase the robots they built for the
competition. FIRST was established by inventor Dean Kamen,
founder of DEKA Research and Development Corporation. A DEKA
representative will speak about the FIRST mission, and will
demonstrate the Segway Self-Balancing Human Transporter. Governor
Baldacci will attend the session to give a presentation on
the link between technology education and economic development.
This conference event will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., Friday,
April 11, in the Hill Gymnasium on USM's Gorham campus.
The daylong conference, which is hosted each year by USM's
School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (ASET),
includes sessions on starting a biotechnology program, Maine's
new safety standards, and assessing Maine's Learning Results.
The conference runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., this Friday, April
11, in the John Mitchell Center, located directly behind the
Costello Sports Complex on USM's Gorham campus.
The 2003 conference comes at a time when ASET is working
to promote the technological literacy of Maine students, a
goal of MaineÍs Learning Results. "We need to foster
technological literacy in our young people," said conference
organizer Robert W. Nannay, a USM associate professor of technology
education. "Exposing students to computers and other
specific skills is just one component of technological literacy.
We also must ensure that they understand and appreciate the
cultural, economic and political effects of technology."
ASET, in addition to industrial technology, manufacturing,
engineering, computer science and applied immunology majors,
offers the state's only program to train technology educators.
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