I sure hope Dean Kamen will not be remembered as the guy who invented the Segway but as the guy who came up with AutoSyringe and his work on dialysis pumps.
The Cola company is apparently not that altruistic after all - world view saved.
I've met dozens of students at MIT who say the experience with FIRST was the main reason they decided to study science and engineering. (And I've heard similar stories from folks at Stanford, CMU, etc.)
Dean's a genius with an amazing team, but that impact can only go so far. Inspiring thousands of new students in STEM careers is solving the world's problems at a meta level.
If you want to learn the full story, I recommend the book Code Name Ginger. http://www.amazon.com/Code-Name-Ginger-Behind-Segway/dp/1578...