Systems Design : Acts of Invetion

A self initiated research project to map the way ‘Acts of Inventions’take place in individuals and firms.

project Details

Invention means any new and useful art, process, method or manner of manufacture machine, apparatus or other article substance produced by manufacture and includes any new and useful improvement of any of them, and alleged invention. Therefore an invention is the creation of intellect applied to capital and labour, to produce something new and useful. Such creation becomes the exclusive property of the inventor on grant of patent.
When we study the great inventions of the world, we find that they are either very simple, basic things like the wheel or very complex things like the computer. Some inventions were silly, some deadly serious, but even the inventions that were not successful were not all failures either. Each invention shed some light on the good intentions of the inventor and their quest to improve the quality of life.

Creative thinking is one of the key to inventing new processes/models/products.
The different creative thinking techniques which were discussed
•  Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking (ASIT) method (Horowitz, 2001)
•  TRIZ (theory of Inventive problem solving ( Genrich Altshuller, 1946)
 
I also looked at the Invention processes as followed by MIT and NASA, two of the most prolific inventing organizations.
Common themes behind the invention processes is as following:

• Identify the need / define problem statement
• Brainstorm solutions / generate ideas
• Select a solution
• Conduct research
• Develop plan for execution
• Design and build a model / Implement the final idea
• Test the model developed

 
The cognitive framework for understanding the invention process was also looked into.
This included Mental Model , Mechanical Representations and Heuritics.
 
Finally, it also covered how does one take his/her invention/idea into business.