Spotlight on Volunteers...
Passion Drives Volunteerism for ABB's Ernie DiCicco
Ernie DiCicco (in black shirt) confers with FIRST referees
Article reprinted with permission from ABB Inc.
What do you get when you combine industry passion with a love for children? A dedicated volunteer named Ernie DiCicco.
Through the not-for-profit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology) Ernie, a web developer for communications in our company’s Process Automation division, is a mentor for children exploring the worlds of science and technology. “My philosophy is to guide the kids and help them to make correct engineering decisions.”
Ernie first got involved with FIRST in 1997 when his son, Michael, was a senior in high school. Michael called from school one Saturday evening asking his dad to bring some snacks – it was going to be a late night. Ernie said he was not quite sure what his son was up to but once he found out he said, “I didn’t leave.” Michael and his teammates were working diligently to design and create their robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC); Ernie stayed to make sure they did what they were supposed to be doing.
Teams that participate in FRC have six weeks to design and build a robot. Each year FIRST designs a new game and the teams must create a robot to play the game. After six weeks, the teams must ship their robots to a holding facility. The teams will not see their creation again until the regional tournaments. Winners move on to the FIRST Championship. Teams can only make tweaks to the robots during the competitions and do not get the robot back until after the Championship.
Ernie, an engineer by trade, said he has always been interested in the community and working with kids. Becoming an advisor to the FRC team was the perfect marriage of his interests.
“It’s all about knowing what it takes to succeed in business and trying to take those same skills to show the kids what works and what doesn’t in a professional environment,” Ernie said. “I take the things that I’ve seen in my career that work correctly and try to impart that knowledge to the kids. It all comes down to being able to work successfully on a small project without enough time, money and resources. Those are the skills needed to be successful in business.”
After his initial involvement with FIRST, Ernie was hooked. So hooked, in fact, he helped teacher Bill McGowan start up the Mount Olive Robotics Team (MORT) at the local high school in Budd Lake, N. J., which this year was named the 2008 Chesapeake Regional Champion.
In 2000, Ernie helped develop a FIRST program for middle schools throughout New Jersey. The program – called FIRST LEGO League, which exists in a number of states – is a partnership created by FIRST Founder Dean Kamen and The LEGO Group’s Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. The program is an age-appropriate, friendly competition similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition. Its goal is to help teach children life skills including time, cost, engineering, and design management skills. “At FLL, the kids not only have to build a robot, but also describe how they built it and to talk about the process,” Ernie added. “The kids have to research the theme of the year and write a report as well.”
Today Ernie, who works at ABB Inc., is the chairman of the New Jersey FIRST LEGO League Planning Committee. It is his job to work with all middle schools in New Jersey to get local tournaments and teams up and running. He said the program is quite popular and continues to grow: the initial 16 teams have grown to 128 in 2007. In addition, Ernie has been the head technical judge at the FLL’s tournament finals, also known as the World Festival. As lead judge, Ernie is responsible for organizing and supervising all of the judges, and jumping in to judge as needed.
“The whole environment of working with these kids and guiding them through a difficult process to reach a conclusion is just awesome,” said Ernie, who loves volunteering. “I love to see the light bulb go off - to see their faces light up when they solve a problem and are able to explain it and talk about it really makes you feel like you have had an impact on their lives.”
FIRST has become a family affair for the DiCicco’s. The couple’s younger son Matt also participated in FRC. His invaluable experiences with the program helped him to successfully complete degrees at both Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Now Matt is part of the technical staff at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is a mentor to a FRC team at San Marino High School in California.
For the last few years, Ernie’s wife Gail has been involved with the FIRST LEGO League team at Mount Olive Middle School in Budd Lake, New Jersey where she works and is co-advisor of her school’s team. Gail also served as a project judge at the state and World Festival competitions. Guess who Gail lobbied to be the team’s technical advisor? That’s right, Ernie DiCicco.