Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. The new documentary
Speaker 1: and it's called More Than Robots. It follows four teams
Speaker 1: of teenagers from around the world as they get ready
Speaker 1: for the Robotics competition. The documentary will premiere at south
Speaker 1: By Southwest this coming week and one week from today
Speaker 1: it will stream exclusively on Disney Plus. Check it out.
Speaker 1: When we started this odd teams, now we have thousands
Speaker 1: of thousands all around the world. First has given me
Speaker 1: the opportunity to become better and better and too never
Speaker 1: stop training. It is way more than a club teaching
Speaker 1: the skills of life. It's technology, respect and more. It
Speaker 1: is more than robots, and that is the name of
Speaker 1: the new documentary, More than Robots on the first Robotics Competitions.
Speaker 1: It was the brainchild of trepreneur, an innovator, holder of
Speaker 1: so many patents. Dean came in. We always remind everybody
Speaker 1: he invented the segue. He's been on a mission for
Speaker 1: years to spark stem interest in achievement among our young
Speaker 1: and is so great to have back with us. Dean
Speaker 1: came and found her first and he joins us en
Speaker 1: route to south By Southwest. Right now, he's in Memphis, Tennessee. Deans,
Speaker 1: so good to have you here with Tim and myself.
Speaker 1: This documentary tell us about this process and why you
Speaker 1: wanted to put down and show what you have been
Speaker 1: doing really for years and really sparking interest when it
Speaker 1: comes to stem among kids. Well, first of all, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you. You are you are articulated, and
Speaker 1: you have had so much great data about person what
Speaker 1: you just did, and you are one of the crowning
Speaker 1: examples of why first works so well. I've got thirty
Speaker 1: seven hundred corporate sponsors committed to helping FIRST become a
Speaker 1: reality in every school in the in the country. I
Speaker 1: have two hundred thousand volunteer technology people now as mentors
Speaker 1: working with these teams. We have, you know, tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of teams, and it's almost exclusively a volunteer organization.
Speaker 1: It's driven mostly by passion by smart parents, smart teachers,
Speaker 1: smart industry leaders, smart government leaders that recognize, unless you
Speaker 1: give kids a shot at understanding what really will be
Speaker 1: their future if they embrace technology and and and developed
Speaker 1: that muscle hanging between their ears um, this world is
Speaker 1: going to be a great place. But if anything, I
Speaker 1: think first is now becoming more accepted because thirty years
Speaker 1: ago I told everybody, you can all try to solve
Speaker 1: the problem we don't have claiming that our educational systems
Speaker 1: are lacking, and instead, why don't you go after the
Speaker 1: real problem in a free society where you get the
Speaker 1: best of what you celebrate. Thirty years ago and even
Speaker 1: still to this day, all the heroes, particularly to young women,
Speaker 1: particularly to minority kids, all their role models and heroes
Speaker 1: come from the NBA, the NFL, Hollywood Motown. They don't
Speaker 1: see young adults successfully pushing ahead in careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, inventing.
Speaker 1: And it's not that those things really are not every
Speaker 1: bit as fun as accessible as as bouncing a ball.
Speaker 1: It's just we have a culture that that made sports
Speaker 1: superstars crowd out everything else. But the sports works. All
Speaker 1: I did was very simple, you steal a good idea
Speaker 1: that works. I said, let's turn science, technology, and engineering
Speaker 1: into a sport, and then we'll attract all the kids
Speaker 1: that already loved sports. They love the competition, they love
Speaker 1: the excitement, but let's let them develop that muscle hanging
Speaker 1: between their ears. It will be the only sport where
Speaker 1: every kid on every team can turn pro. There are
Speaker 1: millions and millions of jobs out there in the technical fields. Dean,
Speaker 1: take us back to your childhood, though, and talk to
Speaker 1: us about how you were inspired at an early age
Speaker 1: and how you see that not happening today. I mean, what,
Speaker 1: what did you have access to in your childhood that
Speaker 1: you want to recreate for children today. Well, luckily, and
Speaker 1: very luckily, I as a kid, my parents didn't mind
Speaker 1: that I did a lot of tinkering. I took all
Speaker 1: the basement, I started building things. I bought you know,
Speaker 1: bolt meters and the scyloscopes and played are you taking
Speaker 1: a part of cliances on your parents? Yeah, I did
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. Yes, it's sort of uh frustrated
Speaker 1: them at times. But but I got as a teenager,
Speaker 1: I started making money doing technology for people, and I
Speaker 1: realized that most kids don't see the power of that.
Speaker 1: And I also realized my mom is a teacher, and
Speaker 1: I realized just the way schoolwork goes. You know, you're
Speaker 1: intimidated in the classroom learning equations, and if you don't
Speaker 1: get them right, you get a red mark. Whereas that
Speaker 1: same teacher becomes the coach after school and if you
Speaker 1: didn't hit that ball or you didn't get that basket,
Speaker 1: this this teacher that's required to be judgmental in the
Speaker 1: classroom becomes this coach that's so nurturing that helps you
Speaker 1: after school. And I said, no, wonder kids love sports, no,
Speaker 1: whether they're intimidated by science and physics and math. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's those teachers the opportunity to coach a team that's
Speaker 1: using all the things that we claim a valuable about
Speaker 1: other sports, that's using teamwork and exciting stuff to give
Speaker 1: kids the skill sets they need to build a future. Dean,
Speaker 1: we just have about a minute and a half year.
Speaker 1: We wanted to talk about your home in Bedford, New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: and I was looking going back to an old story
Speaker 1: and someone described it as nothing less than a mini
Speaker 1: Smithsonian or the northeast version of the Henry Ford Museum
Speaker 1: in Dearborn. Um, could you share with us a little
Speaker 1: bit about your thinking for your home in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: It's where you do your work, a lot of work. Well,
Speaker 1: it's got a machine shop in an electronic shop and
Speaker 1: a great library and a hangar for you know, everybody
Speaker 1: needs a helicopter in their house. But it's it's, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's just a place that it's more of a
Speaker 1: place for convening. Actually, Bill Gates was visiting at one time,
Speaker 1: said Dean, I think your house represents the physical manifestation
Speaker 1: of what's in your side, your head, and it's a
Speaker 1: cross between a museum of science and technology and really
Speaker 1: want to st but the factory, and I considered all
Speaker 1: about a compliment. But but the important thing for your
Speaker 1: listeners is, while I'm so so excited that First is
Speaker 1: now in tens of thousands of schools and affecting over
Speaker 1: a million kids, it's sad that all kids everywhere aren't
Speaker 1: aware of it. And so if Bloomberg and you know,
Speaker 1: if we can if the Disney plus streaming of this
Speaker 1: program can reach millions and millions of kids and parents
Speaker 1: of teachers, we really can't trend. We will transform the
Speaker 1: future of what kids in this country aspire to do,
Speaker 1: what they what they become as adults. And and I
Speaker 1: think they named this thing so perfectly more than robots.
Speaker 1: Please let people know it's not about being geekie and
Speaker 1: building robots. It was I've been saying for thirty years.
Speaker 1: It's not about robots. It's never been about robots. We
Speaker 1: don't use kids to build ropes robots. Kids hang out
Speaker 1: for a second. We're gonna do a little bit more
Speaker 1: news and we're gonna come back and continue with us.
Speaker 1: We are our guests right now. Dean came in, founder
Speaker 1: of First. He's going to come back to us in
Speaker 1: just a moment on Bloomberg. We do want to get
Speaker 1: back to Dean Cayman, who is with us. Founder First,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, stands for inspiration and Recognition of science
Speaker 1: and technology, creator of the first robotics competitions, and we've
Speaker 1: been talking about the documentary More Than Robots, which will
Speaker 1: premiere at south By Southwest this coming week and one
Speaker 1: week from today will stream exclusively on Disney Plus H.
Speaker 1: Dean is still with us on the phone from Memphis, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and we should point out the movie tracks uh four
Speaker 1: groups of students UM who are competing in the robotics competition. Yeah, Dean,
Speaker 1: it's great to have you back with us. UM. I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about where we are
Speaker 1: as a society and trying to really understand how he
Speaker 1: can get more kids into STEM and what we need
Speaker 1: to do as as a country in order to do that.
Speaker 1: And I want you to draw parallels between again, how
Speaker 1: you were able to get inspired and and lead the
Speaker 1: life that you have, and how you can in turn
Speaker 1: see that happening with kids today. I just have to say,
Speaker 1: I'm the world has changed so much and and I
Speaker 1: wonder if we have the educational infrastructure in place today
Speaker 1: four kids to thrive like they did, you know, in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties. So I believe we have the the
Speaker 1: educational infrastructure. Everybody I know has a teacher that they
Speaker 1: think changed their life. We've got the best systems in
Speaker 1: the world. We spend more per capital and education than
Speaker 1: anybody in the world. That's the whole point of first
Speaker 1: was It's not an education crisis, the culture crisis. It's
Speaker 1: not what we don't have enough of, it's what we
Speaker 1: have too much. In a rich culture. Culture, in a
Speaker 1: rich society, we've been able to turn leisure time into
Speaker 1: a phenomenon. We've turned sports into something bigger than life itself,
Speaker 1: and it's crowded out to kids the idea that they
Speaker 1: can excel at something else, they can become superstars in
Speaker 1: some other way, and the entire premise of first look
Speaker 1: at our name for inspiration and recognition of science and technology.
Speaker 1: Kids will always do better. It's something if they're inspired
Speaker 1: to work hard at it. That's why the US is
Speaker 1: still leads the world in sports and an entertainment in
Speaker 1: Hollywood in the NBA. So we just said, let's take
Speaker 1: that model and create a sport that will be available
Speaker 1: to all kids, again, particularly women and minorities in the
Speaker 1: United States that are so subtly but effectively convinced by
Speaker 1: the time they're even in middle school that science, technology,
Speaker 1: and engineering. It's difficult, that's frustrating, it's boring. It's only
Speaker 1: for the gifted view because ironically, it's where all the
Speaker 1: big jobs are going to be, so these kids have
Speaker 1: to get into it early. You took me exactly where
Speaker 1: I want to go. Uh. Tim and I were part
Speaker 1: of a Bloomberg Live event. It was all about work
Speaker 1: shifting and just how things are changing post pandemic. But
Speaker 1: every executive, whether it was at that event or every
Speaker 1: executive who comes on air, I mean, everybody's a technology company.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter what industry you are, you need I t
Speaker 1: workers tech workers. Um, that's just the world that we
Speaker 1: are in and I do wonder, you know, everybody says
Speaker 1: that there's just not enough out there, how us the
Speaker 1: message gotten out there? You've got You have been doing
Speaker 1: this for a while, and I still see a lot
Speaker 1: of money spent on big, you know, sports programs, whether
Speaker 1: it's in colleges or even you know, at lower level.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing an impacted change since you started doing this.
Speaker 1: We are certainly seeing a change, But you're right, there's
Speaker 1: still overwhelmingly more money and excitement thrown by the media,
Speaker 1: particularly at at at at making sports bigger than life,
Speaker 1: and they somehow have still failed to include us as
Speaker 1: the ultimate sports that humans ought to participated. But as
Speaker 1: an example, you say, isn't working. When you look at
Speaker 1: the four teams that participate in this great documentary, you'll
Speaker 1: see that one of them, uh two of them once
Speaker 1: from Mexico, once through Japan. Two are from the U S.
Speaker 1: They're both in California, And it turns out that each
Speaker 1: of them has a mentor once a teacher, and her
Speaker 1: husband's the mentor for the competitive team. He works at
Speaker 1: ray Theon and he's hired more than twin five of
Speaker 1: the kids. This essentially an inner city school system that
Speaker 1: without first wouldn't have produced any kids that could go
Speaker 1: work at raytheon and when you look at the thirty
Speaker 1: seven cop responses, we have in a couple of hundred
Speaker 1: universities that are at all our big events scouting, just
Speaker 1: like the football team does. The reason these thirty seven
Speaker 1: hundred sponsors are there is, as you pointed out, every
Speaker 1: major company in the country and in the world is
Speaker 1: desperately looking for more technically competent people. And the best
Speaker 1: way to create them and to build a better pipeline
Speaker 1: is to start earlier and have these tech giants and
Speaker 1: even the tech startups be there giving these kids encouragement
Speaker 1: and inspiration and making this the sport of choice for
Speaker 1: kids because it is the only sport where every kid
Speaker 1: can turn pro. Yeah. I guess that your border directors
Speaker 1: has always blown me away. Um Ursula burns right from
Speaker 1: the Xerox, now it to Neo. You've got Rockwell, the
Speaker 1: former chairman CEO of Rockwell Collins Rockwell Automation to Sigma
Speaker 1: David Seagull. These are but that are certainly familiar. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, pick any of those big companies in the
Speaker 1: STEM world and they are there. Hey, one thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you if you will indulge us a
Speaker 1: little bit. Is I know I've talked with you before
Speaker 1: about North Dumpling Island that's in Long Island Sound. I've
Speaker 1: passed it when I'm out in the water. What's interesting
Speaker 1: is you are, I believe right um operating independently of
Speaker 1: the regional electrical grid there right solar wind UH. It's
Speaker 1: a home that you've got there. And I do think
Speaker 1: about the week, the last couple of weeks with the
Speaker 1: Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we've seen the volatility and
Speaker 1: the energy markets, and you see the EU moving aggressively
Speaker 1: to wean itself off Russian oil. Everybody talking a lot
Speaker 1: more about alternative energy, solar, alternative energy power or companies
Speaker 1: you know, rallying as a result. What what's what's the
Speaker 1: big thing that we need to be having here? We are,
Speaker 1: we are at the perfect storm and this could be
Speaker 1: the catalyst that makes it all happen. But power semiconductors
Speaker 1: are now available to make highly efficient UH grid quality
Speaker 1: AC out of just about any any any energy wind.
Speaker 1: UH batteries can be now efficiently used to both store
Speaker 1: and then we deliver, whether it's DC or to the grid.
Speaker 1: But but you know, for many, many reasons, it's it's
Speaker 1: good for the environment, it's good for the economy, it's
Speaker 1: good for our national security, it's it's good for business.
Speaker 1: And finally, solar power, wind power, all of them collectively
Speaker 1: are starting to become realistically capable of taking on more
Speaker 1: and more of our energy loads and as well as
Speaker 1: building more efficient lighting systems like L E D s
Speaker 1: and come up with better ways to make our computational
Speaker 1: stuff more efficient. I mean, at this point, believe it
Speaker 1: or not, we more of the power coming through our
Speaker 1: grid is powering computation and data center has been lighting
Speaker 1: and it's getting more so. So I think if you
Speaker 1: look at it holistically, for all sorts of reasons, we
Speaker 1: are reaching a tipping point where where energy UH is
Speaker 1: going to be transformed and how it's made, how it's stored,
Speaker 1: and how it's transformed. And by the way, doing all
Speaker 1: of that's going to create enormous exciting jobs for kids
Speaker 1: that can embrace technology. Are you optimistic that this happens
Speaker 1: within a few years. I mean, I just don't see
Speaker 1: the political will and just Correicktly just got about thirty
Speaker 1: seconds you can talk about political will. But when you
Speaker 1: see the price of fuel go through the roof, when
Speaker 1: you see the availability of you'll go through the roof.
Speaker 1: That's what that Trump's political will any time, and it
Speaker 1: will make it happen. You know. Necessity is the mother
Speaker 1: of invention, and we got a lot of necessity on energy.
Speaker 1: All right. Dean came in, Thank you so much. Dan
Speaker 1: came and found her first on his way to south
Speaker 1: By Southwest. Why is he going there because that's where
Speaker 1: more than robots. The documentary about kids involved in that
Speaker 1: first robotics competition will premiere this coming week and then
Speaker 1: one week from today will stream exclusively on Disney Plus.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be checking that one out. It's it's gotta say.
Speaker 1: We had some great video running on YouTube for those
Speaker 1: who are watching. Um, it's just amazing what these kids do.
Speaker 1: What they build all themselves and then compete