Inventive Engineering

Knowledge and Skills for Creative Engineers

Tomasz Arciszewski

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498788229
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Engineering General
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Inventive Engineering is an emerging engineering science focused on the conceptual designing processes whereby creative, or inventive, designs are developed. Its core concepts are too often unknown and even surprising, but they are also feasible and can be learned, leading to potentially patentable designs. Inventive engineers have a tremendou

Chapter 1

Why learn inventive engineering

Ten reasons

A letter from the author to the reader of this book and potential inventive engineer:

Dear Future Inventive Engineer,

Your future begins today. The academic decisions you make today will shape your future professionally and personally for many years to come. They will shape your opportunities, your failures, and your successes. I know this statement can be easily forgotten when you are in the middle of never-ending projects, exams, and internships—all the “stuff” it takes to be an engineering student—not to mention your everyday and personal life. I understand and respect your feelings because I’ve been there. However …

Did you know that this period of study, intense as it may be, is really only a brief moment in your life? It is a critical period for your future, though, and perhaps one of the most important junctures you will ever come to. From this crossroads, you get to choose one direction or another. One road is marked with stepping stones that will lead to ultimate well-being, success, and satisfaction. The other will lead you to mediocrity and limited opportunities. What awaits for you down that “road of mediocrity”? Do not let its smoothly paved surface fool you. Take this road in today’s competitive market and the result will be a loss of professional opportunities—opportunities lost possibly to other engineers who decided to go in the direction of success. The road of mediocrity is dangerous, to be sure, and it is ultimately full of disappointment and unwanted consequences. As you may have guessed, I want to lead you down the stepping stones of ultimate success and well-being. The journey along this road will be challenging but also incredibly satisfying, and the pay off will be immeasurable. There is one caveat to the path to true success, however. The gate to this path is locked. You need a key. I offer you this key. I call it “inventive engineering.”

Let me share a secret with you. It is a mystery discovered by me as a result of my 45 years as an academic and inventive engineer. It is also a priceless piece of experience accumulated through years of living all over the world, including Africa, Europe, and North America. And, by the way, this secret is only for you, so please do not share it with others …

I discovered a long time ago that thinking only about current goals and challenges is like looking at a very small piece of the big mosaic that is your life. It is “local thinking” instead of thinking “globally” (Figure 1.1). Global thinkers look at the “big picture” of how their current activities are connected to their dreams and to their vision of the future. “Local thinkers,” on the other hand, are never fully successful; their focused and limited understanding of the world simply prevents them from developing their full potential. Even more importantly, because they do not see or even think about the future, they are not motivated by their dreams. This sad state of affairs drastically reduces their ability to work hard, to focus, and to be creative. Let’s face it—to say the world for fledgling engineers is competitive is an understatement. Being a local thinker in this world leads directly to reduced opportunities and loss.

Figure 1.1

Local and global thinking. (Based on Arciszewski, T., Successful Education. How to Educate Creative Engineers , Successful Education LLC, Fairfax, VA, 2009.)

After teaching for nearly half a century, I have finally realized that engineering education is not just about knowledge and professional abilities and skills. So what is the ultimate goal of your studies if not these things? It is this: to transform yourself from a mere student following his or her instructor or master into a truly successful engineer, a professional who is not only able to think practically and analytically but also creatively or inventively, and to translate that creativity and inventiveness into innovative ideas and projects that stand out from all the others. This transformation is not only intellectual; it is also psychological. You need to open your mind, develop a set of new abilities, and become a different person in many ways. This book will help you understand this transformation. Most importantly, this book will prepare you for it and guide you along the way.

My dream is that you will become a successful engineer. Even more, I dream that you will have a chance to win at that global competition that you are about to enter into. And this will happen for you, I am sure, because of the unique combination of traditional engineering knowledge and inventive engineering knowledge that you will soon possess—and because you are motivated to realize your dreams.

I know how we engineers think. We are all about precise calculations and structured information gathering. So let me provide you with ten powerful and rational reasons why you should learn inventive engineering and ultimately become a truly successful inventive engineer.

1.1 Ten reasons why you should become an inventive engineer

1.1.1 Reason No. 1. The new era is coming

The history of Western civilization can be seen as an evolutionary process. In this process, our societies gradually undergo a series of transformations as they move through various eras. Each era can be characterized by the most important human activities that occur at a particular time and that provide the material support for society while also shaping that society’s culture and priorities.

During the nomadic era, tribes traveled constantly, following migrating wild-animal herds, and hunting was the most important human activity. The next period, the agricultural era, ended only recently, in the nineteenth century. In this period, the dominant human activity was the cultivation of crops. Control over land was the key to power. In the next period, the industrial era, manufacturing became the main focus, and the ownership of industry was the source of power. To a certain degree, we are still living in the industrial era. In the 1960s, however, the knowledge era emerged. The critical human activity since then has been knowledge acquisition, processing, storage, and utilization. “Knowledge is power” is the best way to describe this time period. Recently, at the beginning of this century, the picture has changed again. Knowledge has become a commodity and is easily available over the Internet. The center of gravity has been moving from knowledge to innovation and creativity, which has become the most important human activity, deciding the future not only of individual people but also of their nations and ultimately of the whole of civilization. American political scientist George Pink (2006) calls this period the era of innovation and creativity. Today the most important human activity is creativity, particularly engineering creativity, which advances technology and is the driving force behind the evolution of society (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2

Evolution of Western civilization. (...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Chapter 1: Why learn inventive engineering: Ten reasons
• Chapter 2: Lessons from the past
• Chapter 3: Lessons from modern science
• Chapter 4: Basic concepts
• Chapter 5: Science of inventive engineering
• Chapter 6: Morphological analysis
• Chapter 7: Brainstorming
• Chapter 8: Synectics
• Chapter 9: TRIZ
• Chapter 10: Bioinspiration
• References