Structured Innovation and Inventive Problem Solving for Science and Engineering
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Steve Jobs
Program Description
These Science and Engineering courses provide the opportunity to acquire an in-depth education in structured approaches to innovation. The education develops skills for real world challenges with the intent of providing real value whenever possible, e.g. ideas / concepts / solutions to support the development of new businesses, solutions for entrepreneurial endeavors, solutions to real world problems within organizations, et al.
Program Objectives
After completing each of the following courses in the Structured Innovation / Inventive Problem Solving for Science and Engineering the student will be certified in each of the courses and upon completion of 600 hours of training will receive a Professional Innovator diploma.
Courses are offered in seminar and semester formats. Seminar offerings are compressed and scheduled to match a team’s specific needs.
All courses include self-directed project labs which gives individual students and teams the opportunity to deliver a return on investment to potentially offset the cost of the course.
Current Science and Engineering Course Offerings
Inventive Problem Solving I for Technological Systems – Summer 2016
- Learn how high-level innovators think about and solve problems that have ‘no known or acceptable solution’.
Inventive Problem Solving II for Technological Systems – Fall 2016
- Learn how to add more structure to solving complex problems and how to leverage knowledge of the evolution of systems.
Contact Dana W. Clarke, Sr., Dean of the Department for information on scheduling compressed seminar training for teams.
Expanded Course Offerings for 2017 and Beyond:
Innovative Product Weight Reduction
- Learn how to apply inventive problem solving skills to overcoming product weight reduction challenges.
Measurement, Detection and Control Systems Innovation
- Learn how to attack challenging measurement, detection and control challenges related to technological systems, how to improve existing systems, how to create new systems and how to evolve existing systems.
Risk Mitigation – Failure Analysis and Elimination
- Learn how to analyze failures and eliminate their root causes by creating innovative solutions. This educational process includes learning how to address any other situations where there is some form of unexplained phenomena occurring.
Risk Mitigation – Failure Prediction and Prevention
- Learn how to use structured approaches to predict potential failures associated with technological systems and prevent or mitigate the risk associated with the threats.
Patent Deconstruction / Reconstruction
- Learn how to dissect an existing patent by analyzing and structuring patent claims and related knowledge of the patent for the purposes of constructing ways around infringement issues and blocking patents.
Developing Patent Portfolios for New Product Platforms
- Learn how to structure knowledge in such a manner that it can be used to identify a range of patentable concepts that can be transformed into new or expanded product platforms.
Paradigm Shifting Innovation for Technological Systems
- Learn how to analyze a technological system for the specific purpose of identifying and removing significant barriers to change and how to use the results of analysis as a means of validating the identified paradigm shift.
Mapping the Future of Technological Systems
- Learn how to analytically define and map how the future ‘can and will’ unfold for the purpose of developing and evolving strategies for technological systems. This process moves beyond traditional roadmaps and has numerous additional competitive / business intelligence advantages.
Train-the-Trainer and Facilitation Skills
- Learn how to teach and facilitate individuals and teams focused on applying structured approaches to solving complex problems and developing strategies. While this course focuses on training and facilitation skills, one of its primary focal points is dealing with the psychological factors / challenges that block innovation success.
Additional specialized courses and seminars are being planned.
- The Department of Structured Innovation and Inventive Problem Solving Sciences is committed to developing courses focused on the needs of organizations to enable: 1) increasing existing market profits; 2) increasing existing market share; 3) taking control of new market niches; 4) increasing overall market size; 5) creating whole new markets; and 6) improving price earnings ratios and/or image as an innovative organization.
Potential Career Impact
- Deliver a significant return on investment as a result of each course
- Advance your career
- Become an innovation leader / go-to-person for innovative solutions
- Deliver significant growth and profitability improvements
- Train and facilitate other professionals; multiply yourself
- Enhance your resume
- Improve your job opportunities