Many of Detroit’s most pressing public problems are—by necessity—being solved outside of the public sector. As prolonged financial troubles and the consequent bankruptcy prevented city government from ...

In my consulting practice, innovation challenges that dogged teams having very good and experienced engineers for months or even years were resolved in a matter of days or hours. It was not magic; we ...

When I joined Machine Design three years ago, my No.1 goal was to expand my knowledge of engineering best practices and its relationship to the manufacturing industry. To be successful, I would need ...

TRIZ (pronounced “trees”) is the (Russian) acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving – a methodology for systematic innovation. It was developed in the former Soviet Union beginning in the ...

Identify the specific problem that you have. You need to get to the root cause of the problem. It often calls for asking “why?” many times, until you found that root cause. Find a “generic” TRIZ ...

This psychology-based problem-solving quiz reveals whether you solve problems through logical analysis, gut instinct, ...

Imagine taking concepts that can be seen around you every day, and using them to solve technical problems in your business. Well, that’s the type of training that Worcester’s own Technical Innovation ...

Brainstorming is a powerful tool for generating ideas, solving problems, and fostering innovation. At its core, brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ...

David Conley found himself on a team of experts who were attempting to design satellite superstructures, a challenge not specifically covered while earning his college degree in nuclear engineering.

There are many different frameworks for finding a product or startup idea. In this article, I'd like to discuss one framework you probably haven't heard of and also talk about a counterintuitive way ...

Cities in crisis can be crucibles for innovation, and few illustrate this fact as vividly as Detroit. The city was already an archetype of urban decline when the nationwide economic downturn began in ...