1. Concepts of Engineering and Technology Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

2.  The process of forming ideas.  The creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas  An idea is understood to be a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete, or abstract  An essential part of the design process, both in education and practice Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

3.  The exchange of ideas in order to generate more ideas  To get people to think about things in new ways  It is important to be open and not rule anything out  No criticism or judgments allowed  Failure is an opportunity to seek new solutions or ask different questions Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

4.  Improvement is incremental  Innovation is a game changer  Examples of improvement:  Realplayer, Windows media player, winamp  Examples of innovation: ITunes  Netflix is doing to TV what ITunes did to music  Improvement is necessary for a companies survival, innovation can create market dominance Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

5.  To create business value. This can be a reduction in cost, a new product, an improvement to an existing product, or a new service  To generate as many ideas as possible in as condensed a timeframe as possible  Companies want to believe that generating and leveraging the ideas of their workers is one of their core competencies and leads to a competitive advantage Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

6.  To discover important new products or features  To add efficiency to a process  To develop open communication through the process of discussion  To leverage the collective brainpower of the entire organization  People involved develop a sense of purpose and value to the company Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

7.  Ideation is becoming more common in a company’s product development process  The old process was more linear and relied on the capabilities of fewer individuals  The ideation process promotes an internal corporate culture of trust and shared information  Anyone can contribute to innovation Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

8.  More than one person, group, or organizational unit  Collaboration has to be developed  What can we do together must turn into what will we do together.  Relationships are often the key  There must be some structure to the process  A tangible goal has to be defined Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

9.  Look at trends  Do an industry analysis  Leverage customer interactions  Voice of the Customer  Customers can provide some insight into wants or needs  Particularly with early adopters  Brainstorm possible solutions  SWOT analysis (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

10.  Creativity  Problems often have contradictory requirements  Keep the cost down and make it durable  Called an inventive problem  A problem with no known solution Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

11.  Innovation  A new method, idea, or device  Development  To process of producing a product or result  Actualization  Making the product real Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

12.  Engineers generally think of themselves as expert problem solvers  Engineers can apply knowledge of systems, mechanical properties, and have a tool chest of things that have worked in other situations  Engineers are not generally considered to be artistic or creative  The tools an engineer uses to solve a problem are usually analytical or mathematical (logical) Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

13.  Engineering is RESULT driven and the primary goal is always the same: Find the OPTIMAL solution to a problem  An engineer want to look at a solution as a series of simple pieces  Complexity leads to the use of simplifying assumptions  An outside viewpoint is often needed to bypass the restrictions that logical or sequential thinking involves Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

14.  Ideation is a creative process, not an analytical process  Ideate with a geek, validate with the meek  Diversity is important  You need divergent thinking  not ideas for slight variations to existing products that do not lead to innovation  Cross functional planning teams Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.

15.  Creative problem solving usually requires two distinct phases: divergent thinking (ideation) and convergent thinking (idea analysis and evaluation)  There has to be some method of implementing proposed solutions  What good are ideas if they are not put to use? Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.