Class3_1 Today’s topics Inventing alternative designs Creative problem solving tips.
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Transcript of Class3_1 Today’s topics Inventing alternative designs Creative problem solving tips.
You should have completed your problem statement and specifications by this time.
If you have finished, well done!
If you have not, you are probably procrastinating.
What you should be working on next
• Develop three alternative designs for your design project.
• Write one page for each alternative. Include a sketch of the concept and a list of strengths and weaknesses for each alternative.
Define the problem
Specify product requirements
Invent alternatives
Evaluate the alternatives
Engineer the details / analyze performance
Test prototypes
Report complete product description
Model of the Design Process
Design process
• Design benefits from a rational process
Design occurs in stages
Design is iterative
Stage 1: Define the problem
• Before you start a design always think carefully about what is really the problem
• Context and constituency
Stage 2: Specifications
1. Describe what the design must accomplish, but not how.
2. Be as quantitative as possible; be as unambiguous as possible
Stage 3: Invent alternatives
• The next slide has the most important advice I can give you about being a better design engineer…
Stage 3: Invent alternatives
• Design rule-of-three: Always invent at least 3 alternative designs for any design or part of a design.
• For Monty Python fans, this rule can be stated as…
Thou shalt always invent 3 alternatives
Thou shall not stop at 1 alternative
Neither shall thou invent 2 alternativesunless proceeding to 3 alternatives
Example of alternative designs
• See example on next slides
• Notice format: sketch with a list of strengths and weaknesses
(You will be asked to do this for your design report)
How to invent alternatives?
• Think…
• Use creative problem solving techniques
• Brainstorm
• Try a morphological chart
Inventing alternative concepts puts a premium on creativity!
Let’s spend some time talking about creativity
Creative problem solving topics
• Why be creative?
• Why the smart kids aren’t as smart as they think they are.
• Nine tips for enhancing your creativity, with puzzle examples.
Why be creative?
• More satisfying, more productive
• Better solutions to life’s little problems
• Better solutions to life’s bigger problems
• Exercises a fundamental human passion
Smart = creative ?
• A highly intelligent person can construct a case for any point of view; excludes alternative considerations
• Verbal fluency is often mistaken for thinking; intelligent person substitutes
• Ego based on intellect causes person to need to always be right, clever, orthodox
Smart = creative ?
• Intelligence is used to be critical, rather than being open to new ideas
• Intelligent people tend to jump to conclusions
• Highly intelligent people tend to confuse understanding with quick thinking and slowness with being dull-witted.
Smart = creative ?
• Conclusion: Be creative, not intelligent ??
• Don’t let your “smart ego” get in the way of being creative
• You do not need to be the smartest person in the room to be the most creative
Creativity lesson
• Don’t artificially restrict the problem
• Don’t stop with the first idea!
(Most important rule for design engineers)
Second puzzleOne morning, exactly at sunrise, a Buddhist monk began to
climb a tall mountain. A narrow path, no more than a foot wide, spiraled around the mountain to a temple at the summit. The monk ascended a varying rates of speed, stopping many times along the way to rest and eat dried fruit he carried with him. He reached the temple shortly before sunset. After several days of fasting and meditation, he began his journey back along the same path, starting at sunrise and again walking at variable speeds with pauses along the way. His average speed descending was, of course, greater than his average climbing speed. Prove that there is a point along the path that the monk will occupy on both trips at precisely the same time of day.
Creativity lesson
• Do use a variety of thinking “languages”
(verbal, visual, mathematical, musical…)
• Do seek analogies, imagery, playfulness
A steel pipe is embedded in a concrete floor. Six people are trapped in the room. They want to extract the ping pong ball at the bottom of the pipe without damaging the ball. How can this be done? The room is bare except for a shelf that contains:
100’ rope
Claw hammer
Chisel
Box of Wheaties
File
Coat hanger
Pipe wrench
Light bulb
“New information theorem”
• Adding one new piece of information greatly improves the chance of coming up with a creative solution.