-(car cruising) -(upbeat music) We're doing what would normally take a utility a decade; we're able to do system-wide in less than a month.

(upbeat music continues) Hi, I'm Dusty Birge, founder of Fast Forward, a software company based out of Kearney, Nebraska.

(car cruising) [Narrator] Dusty and Fast Forward are creating a better way for power companies to inspect these 6 million miles of power lines in the United States, and catch problems before they lead to outages and fires.

Thermal cameras mounted on a vehicle capture images of 6,000 power poles a day.

Software then identifies hotspots that need repair.

We're trying to make as little amount of work for the utility as possible to implement the repair.

[Narrator] Dusty has been an entrepreneur since selling candy to grade-school classmates.

After college, he launched archery, laundromat, and drone businesses; selling two of the three, and worked in the utilities industry.

Hi, my name is Eli.

What are some ways you are still learning?

We're using technology that didn't exist a few years earlier, and so I've continued to innovate by surrounding myself with really talented people.

And if you surround yourself by a good team, you can accomplish a lot of stuff that you may otherwise not thought possible.

Hi, my name is Chloe.

What are things you loved doing or studying as a kid that help you now?

I really had a passion for robotics and electronics, but I never really had an opportunity to do that in school.

I'm really pleased to see that the curriculum nowadays, there are schools that include robotics and technology classes.

The challenge is that technology evolves so fast that what you learn in grade school might not be still relevant by the time you join the workforce, so it's important to stay involved with the latest trends in technology or your area of interest, and always be learning.

Hi, my name is Delaney.

What advice do you have for kids who wanna discover ways to change how we live?

Stay curious and ask questions.

Sometimes it's asking "how" or "why" that will lead you to solving the problem that you're trying to work towards.

(upbeat music)