Concepts of Engineering
and Technology
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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
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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
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Improvement is incremental
Innovation is a game changer
Examples of improvement:
 Realplayer, Windows media player, winamp
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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
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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
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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
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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
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More than one person, group, or
organizational unit
 Collaboration has to be developed
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 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
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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
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Brainstorm possible solutions
SWOT analysis (strength, weakness,
opportunities, threats)
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 Creativity
 Problems often have contradictory
requirements
 Keep the cost down and make it durable
 Called an inventive problem
 A problem with no known solution
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 Innovation
 A new method, idea, or device
 Development
 To process of producing a product or
result
 Actualization
 Making the product real
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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
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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)
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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
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An outside viewpoint is often needed to
bypass the restrictions that logical or
sequential thinking involves
Copyright © Texas Education Agency, 2012. All rights reserved.
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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
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Cross functional planning teams
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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
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 What good are ideas if they are not put to use?
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