David Brown, executive director of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), will be the speaker at the Auxiliary luncheon on June 5 in New Orleans.

Brown comes from a 10-year-old organization founded in Manchester, N.H., which was formed to encourage high school students to consider a career in science and engineering.

This organization sponsors team competitions on intense six-week projects in which the team must design, construct and control a remotely operated vehicle for a sports-based playoff whose objective changes each year.

FIRST is attempting to show high school students that engineering and science can be as interesting and challenging as sports. The organization now has 20,000 students involved, on 500 teams around the United States.

The Junior High School Lego-FIRST competitions have 15,000 students involved on 1,500 teams around the United States.

Engineers in the community, along with universities and some university students, are the people who help these high school students with their projects. The fund raising for the project is done at the team level, with everyone participating.

Faculty from the high schools involved also are part of the projects, serving as supervisors and coaches for parts of the projects.

Everyone is welcome to the luncheon. Please ask for a ticket, which will cost about $25, when you register with ASME to come to the conference.

— Ella Baldwin-Viereck
Auxiliary publicity chair

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