CREATIVITY FOR ENGINEERS

Engineers, technical professionals and managers will learn how to boost their individual problem solving creativity as well as the creativity of their group and organization. This course synthesizes for the first time, powerful techniques from a diverse range of disciplines, including: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering and the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS/TRIZ) to create a unique, effective and structured approach for creative problem solving.

In this two-day course, engineering creativity is considered along the whole spectrum of problem-solving stages, including opportunity finding, knowledge acquisition, problem formulation, solution generation, solution validation and optimization. Many engineering examples and case studies are included. Artificial Intelligence techniques are included both as models for efficient human problem solving and as computer tools for amplifying human creativity.

BENEFITS of ATTENDING

• Obtain hands-on innovative engineering experience through example problems.
• Learn to avoid bottlenecks to creativity with new psychological and management strategies.
• Increase productivity through powerful knowledge acquisition, problem formulation, solution generation, solution validation and optimization techniques.
• See demonstrations of leading commercial software.
• Determine which proven techniques of innovative engineering are best for you.
• Learn how the discovery of patentable new designs can be automated.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course is for practicing engineers and inventors working in the trenches to solve day-to-day engineering problems of design and manufacturing, as well as managers interested in stimulating the creativity of their engineering team and organization.

COURSE HIGHLIGHTS

Background
Contributions to the theory of Creative Problem Solving from Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics and Engineering. Introduction to the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ).

Blocks to Creativity
Perceptual, Emotional, Cultural, Environmental, Intellectual and Expressive blocks.

Opportunities: Finding Them
Inventors as Technology Critics.

Knowledge: Finding It
Techniques and resources for collecting information: Nature. Electronic Knowledge-Bases. Engineering Resources on the Internet. Expert Systems as Dynamic Knowledge Libraries. Video of GM's Expert System CHARLEY. Knowledge Acquisition. Patents. TRIZ knowledge bases of Resources and Effects and their use in increasing System Ideality. Case Studies. Exercises. Demo of TRIZ software.

Problems: Finding Them
Methods for formulating your problem effectively. Does the problem really exist? Don't solve the wrong problem. Are your assumption valid? Alternative forms for a given problem. Demo of TRIZ problem-formulation software. Methods of representing your problem for efficient solution. 

Solutions: Finding Them
A smorgasbord of problem-solving methods for generating solutions. Altshuller's Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). Breaking conceptual bottlenecks using inventive principles: Altshuller's 39 key engineering parameter, 40 inventive principles and contradiction matrix. Engineering case studies. Demo of TRIZ software. Psychology-based Methods. Brainstorming and its variations. Class exercise using the Force-Fit Game. Demo of associational thinking with IdeaFisher software. Artificial Intelligence-based methods. Reasoning styles: Forward Reasoning, Backward Reasoning, Breadth-First Search and Depth-First Search. Path-Finding problems. Divide & Conquer.

Solutions: Choosing Them
Efficiency versus Psychology. A survey of methods for validating, selecting and optimizing the concepts generated, including Best-First Search, Genetic Algorithms and Virtual Reality/Digital Prototyping.

INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Bernard Nadel, President, IntelliGineering Corp.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Us