the summer "the help." this is "piers morgan tonight." it's not easy to find a bright spot in america's economy these days but my next guests have done just that. inventor dean kamen the man behind the segue and will.i.am from the black eyed teamed up with the geeker builder? >> i do music and if you look at the industry i'm in, it's based on technology, from radio to phonographs to cds, it's all technology, microphones, reel-to-reels, cameras, editing, chips, right, it's all technology. >> how did you meet him? >> i met him on stage touring, as you know our crew was building our stage, right, technology, getting all the lights, all that stuff. i'm on the segway. so i was riding the segway and i was like, just thinking about the idea, who thought of this. i was riding, thought to lean back to stop and leaned forward and who thinks that way? i got introduced to dean kamen via e-mail. >> dean, you're mr. robot and running this thing for 20 years, inspired these american kids and kids from all around the world, 56 countries to be building robots and suddenly out of nowhere you get a call from this guy, front man of the black-eyed peas, one of the biggest pop stars in the world, music stars in the world. what are you thinking? >> i didn't know what to think until i got on the phone and within one minute i thought i was in trouble, because the first thing he said to me was, "dean i've heard you speak and i've heard you speak about your first program," which is about convincing kids that science and technology is critical to your future. he said "kids have role models come from entertainment and the world of sports." i figured here it comes, the defense of it. "he said, you're wrong some people have the right heroes." not to embarrass him, he says "you're my hero, i agree with you, too many kids don't see the real opportunities. how can i help first?" and i said, well, you're doing the halftime show for the other sport out there, the super bowl, but people already love that sport. i've got to get more people to understand what our sport is about. >> this thing first, for inspiration recognize of science and technology. >> correct. >> science olympics for kids, is that the easiest way to describe this? >> a very good shorthand. the trouble is they don't know about our sport. >> the ethos of this, it's interesting, looking at you, will, for example, you come from east los angeles, a very humble background, and you've talked very honestly about that before. do you kind of feel that everybody, whatever their upbringing and background, has the potential to be something special, whether it's technology or entertainment or whatever, do you believe that? >> wholeheartedly. i also believe that cutting programs isn't good for our future, whether they're the arts or science, you know, i also believe that, you know, more opportunities and -- my sister's not going to be a football player, right? there's just no way, but there's a football field in her school. you know, shouldn't there be a science program be in her school? shouldn't f.i.r.s.t. be in her school? think about economy now. technology isn't suffering. kids already had the iphone one. the iphone 2, i got the ipad 2. technology is still moving forward. >> apple, they're like the complete exception to the economic rule. they're ruling the world economically, apple now is worth more than america virtually. a crazy situation. >> technology, it's science, it's math, it's engineering, right? it's jumping jacks are good but so is you know this discipline. listen, that's not -- i'm not a scientist, i'm not an engineer. i have visions and things that when i met dean i was like hey i want to make this louder. that's the concept of performing at the halftime show of the u.s. first robotics competition. to me that wasn't enough. >> this is an amazing outfit you wore at the super bowl, the flashing singing all dancing electronic super outfit, in fact the guy that designed the code for this was a graduate of the first originally right -- >> from england, this english bloke -- >> english are always the best designers. >> -- were back stage, did you get my hat with the l.e.d. display? he was like yeah, why do you want to put a logo? i'm doing this program with dean kamen a year from now and i want to start putting little leading up to it. he was like you know i graduated i was part of f.i.r.s.t. in england. i was like are you serious in let me call dean. >> you wanted to have the logo and the guy you told to put that in your helmet whatever it was you were wearing is a guy who graduated from this which is a perfect way of illustrating how far this kind of project can take people. >> no, that particular guy is an amazing, has an amazing skill, you know. he doesn't just write code for l.e.d. lights. he can build anything. he's a great engineer. and these kids have inspired me to try to push myself to do all that i can to shine a light on this movement. >> you can do so much, will, you're a big role model to are this and it's very lau dible. the guy that can do the very most, "obama let's get these kids educated" does he have a role now especially you've got involved? >> he makes an appearance on the show? >> he does. on sunday? >> on sunday, august 14th. >> is he playing with the robot? >> no, just applauding and kong grat lating and showing support. >> you sang and getting young people out to vote for the president. how is he getting on? if the question was yes we can, has he? >> that wasn't the question. it was a statement. if you pay attention to the sentence, it's yes we. now the question is, are you part of the we. and are you dedicated in doing your part in the we to change your community, to do your part to inspire someone to do their part. >> interestingly, back in britain we've had a lot of riots this week and one of the reasons put up for this is bad education, parental lack of responsibility, these kids come from very impoverished backgrounds. >> outlet. >> all of that kind of stuff, exactly. you come from, you know, a pretty rough part of los angeles. you didn't have it easy when you were young. when you see what's going on with these riots and stuff, do you have an empathy with these kids or do you believe that actually the way out is to go another way? >> i remember the l.a. riots, the race riots in the early '90s. we had programs, the school i went to was a magnet program, a brentwood science magnet program at palisades school, that was the differentiating factor between me and my next door neighbors. i could have ended like the kids in my neighborhoods but he told me a great statistic. >> this year 90,000 volunteer scientist, engineers, 22,000 schools from 56 countries, if you count all the grades from little kids and elementary school right on up. we have a special program where we recognize, we ask teams to identify special kids, a couple from each school and i just heard from the people back at the headquarters that 100 out of 100 of those kids are going off to college this year. >> wow. >> every single one. >> that's amazing. >> that's pretty good data, a nice statistic. >> dean i take my hat off to you, you are a genius. however i have got to split one hair with you which is i did get on one of your segways in 2 thoi 7, here in los angeles, santa monica boulevard, and i have to show you a video of what happened next. you'll see me there. crashing to the ground, and concrete. the result of this, i've been on that segway four minutes in my life. the result was that i broke five ribs, and i partially collapsed my lung, so basically, dean, you nearly killed me and i've been waiting for somebody to blame for the last four years. all i want is somebody somewhere to say, sorry, piers. >> sorry, piers. >> that's over and done with. i feel sort of cleansed now. when we come back i want to show you the robot software you put me with here. i have no idea what they are, what they do but i know they're part of your twisted mind, aren't they, dean? >> they are. >> you love these things in. >> i love what they do for kids. [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lily and i are back on the road again. where we belong. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. sure, but let me get a little information first. for broccoli, say one. for toys, say two. toys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 central standard time. he's in control. goodbye. even kids know it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. you can talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. i've done a lot of things, did the world cup, been too rome, italy, brazil, been a lot of places, but spending time with those kids building robots just ignited my whole life. >> that was will.i.am earlier this year and back with me along with dean kamen who invented this whole project involving kids and robots. will, basically you're a big kid, aren't you? you love these things, you love robots? >> i like seeing kids inspired. >> you like them yourself? >> i had a good time building this with the kids. >> this alone, this is sort of, what does it, i'm led to believe this is basically you, the show-off entertainer, doesn't do very much? >> the robot dancer, this could do the robot dance better than people do the robot dance. >> one of the kids built this? >> a team of kids built this guy. >> tell me about this one. this is the real brains one, right? >> correct. >> far away. >> that's built from a kit, the first tech challenge kit. we have different levels of competition and our middle level between the first lego league, elementary and first robotics, the high school competition, sort of the xwoel. this is the middle first tech challenge. once we found out that will was going to come to our finals in the 70,000 seat dome in st. louis and do a halftime show for us on friday night we said well, sometime friday before the show and before the championship saturday morning we should get will to build one of the robots and compete with the kids. little did i know he was going to compete with me and he won. >> really? >> it was humiliating. >> you have these kids that are 10, 11, 12, 13, that's the age of the kids i built this robot with, actually they built it and let me screw in a couple of things. >> and take all the credit. >> i'm not taking the credit, giving credit where credit is due. >> okay. >> and they just amaze me, right, these kids, hold on, well, wait, wait i have to finish writing this code, there's aa bug in it. i can't do that. they showed me this whole new world that dang, i wish i was doing that when i was 13. >> it's not fully functional but what can it do? >> the goal of the robot every year we give the kids a different challenge, raise the bar each year and the playing field for those robots had four of them on the field simultaneously and they have to go over ramps, pick up sticks and turn them and put them in goals. >> are they remote controlled, computerized? >> they're remote controlled and also can autonomously run, they do both so kids learn software and electrical and mechanical engineering and sensors. they learn how to deal with complex problems and learn how accessible and fun it is to learn science and engineering and math and learn self-confidence and learn to have serious relationships with serious adults and serious ideas about the real world. >> and let's get back again to east los angeles when you were a kid, because you never knew your father. your mother had three kids and adopted four others, and there was never much money around and stuff. when you look back to that time, what was your inspiration other than the science we've discussed, what was the motivation to you, what do you think got you out? >> encouragement. >> from who? >> my family, family, friends, my teachers, mr. wright, ms. montez. >> you can remember them? >> mr. wright changed my life. because i had a.d.d., still do. just figured out how to use it for my benefit. so i don't think my mom, she couldn't afford the medicine, ritalin, which is great, i'm glad she couldn't. mr. wright said the way you'll get through school is ask questions to your teachers and you're going to get through school. that advice, i became like every teacher's friend, and that's why to this day me and miss montez are close. >> when you see the gang kids is the big part of the problem the fact they don't have anybody. >> they do have somebody. that's a misconception. they found it in that community, right? but if there was other things for them to get involved with, they wouldn't have that as the only option. i know people in gangs, i could have went down that route but music and that community saved my life. the teachers, the reach out miss montez said don't go writing on the walls. she'd ask me why am i writing the walls on school in i had been practicing my script and i want people to see it. she's like hey don't damage the property. i promise all come in my classroom and write on the chalkboard and i won't take it down. right? that little deed changed my life so i would hang out in the classroom and get to draw on the chalkboard and all the other kids were like yo i like that piece of art you did in miss montez room. >> can you achieve this thing without the driving force of a mother, father, somebody who is with you to be a provider, a chance to do it? >> it depends on the people around you. sometimes your friends, good friends replace that. of course you know what i mean, i can't speak for those people. i'm speaking for me being raised by a single mom and uncles and friends that pitched in, and but yes, there's always ways out of it. >> your mother must be pretty proud of you. >> i'm proud of her. >> she must be really proud of you to see what you've made of yourself, rewarding all the sacrifice she made. >> she was really happy to go to the robotics competition in st. louis. she was happy to give out the scholarships to the kids, to feel like she was a part of something and i'm happy and proud of my mom and you know the difficult decisions. sometimes it takes difficult decisions to do things, to leap. you just got to leap. especially if you know it's better than just sitting there and bickering and fighting and, right, and waiting for people to make it happen for you. >> when we come back after the break i want to talk to you about the bickering and fighting in washington, the debt crisis, america, the economy, because it strikes me you two probably between you may have a few answers. [ jon ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska. it's the cleanest, clearest water. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster we can find. yeah! [ male announcer ] hurry in to crabfest at red lobster. the only time you can savor three sweet alaskan crab entrees all under $20, like our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake or snow crab and crab butter shrimp. [ jon ] i wouldn't put it on my table at home, i wouldn't bring it in. my name's jon forsythe, and i sea food differently. we'll never stop sharing our or getting lost in a good book. we'll always cook dinner, and cheer for our favorite team. we'll still go to meetings, make home movies, and learn new things. but how we do all this, will never be the same. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. more smart kids to take over this world, which is kind of a mess, and we need to give these kids tools. we just put them in a hole in this country. we just saddled on top of them $3 million -- $3 trillion in debt. at least we can give them the tools to shovel themselves out of that. >> now, on sunday is an abc special that combines hollywood sport and engineering. tell me about this hour of television coming up. >> so it's shining the light on the kids that are dedicated in technology, science, mathematics, letting them shine and so other kids can see that it's cool to do this. it shouldn't be an underground movement. it should be the most popular movement in america. >> and dean, how important is it to get somebody to like will.i.am? it doesn't get much cooler, short of having my endorsement for your project, this is as good as it's going to get. how important is it for to you get somebody like him who in one swoop can get millions and millions of kids in this country? >> you answered the question yourself. he can do it in one swoop is an enormous success. i started it 20 years ago as an experiment and 20 some odd companies that adopted 20 schools and doubled the next year and doubled the next year. we're bigger and more exciting than any science fair and hafing thousands of schools and 90,000 volunteers is pretty good but not by a standard of academics and school but the standard of our popular culture, virtually nobody knows about f.i.r.s.t. compared to the people who know the superheroes of football and baseball and entertainment, and so i said from day one, if we can make our event every bit as exciting as any other sport or any other entertainment and we can prove to kids that it's accessible, yes, they have to work hard but you have to work hard to be good as basketball. it takes years, we said particularly if young women and minorities could see just how exciting it is and what the possibilities are and they could see real professionals could believe in them and help them we could change their future and now we're in our 20th year, it's a big year for us and when i get this unbelievable call out of the blue from an icon of what makes things cool and popular and he says, how can i help? we sucked him in. >> interesting talking to the pair of you for the last 20 minutes, you're the perfect guys to ask about this economic malaise that's engulfed your country. let me start with you, when you see figures like $14 trillion in debt, when you see the debt ceiling has to be raised even higher, what do you think? what do you think of america as a business model right now? >> it goes over my head, because i can't comprehend it. i don't know how we got there. i don't know how, i don't know why we don't have jobs. all i know is the people that create jobs are companies. right. visionaries, investors, leaders of industry. i don't know if -- last time i checked, i don't know if government makes jobs. >> dean, what do you think? >> i agree, as usual, with will. i'm not a politician or economist but one thing that i'm sure would help, there are enormous problems out there, global warming, you believe it or you don't believe it, you still want jobs, and technologies that will replace old technologies with better ways to make -- >> when i see what you're doing, is it all about new technology, should that be where america leads the field? >> progress has always depended on innovation and most innovation requires that you have advanced capabilities with technology, again whether you're curing diseases, that's going to be science and technology, whether you're dealing with energy problems, you can't name a major global or problem in this country that doesn't requir