Course syllabus

Course-PM

TRA365 Inventive problem solving lp3 VT24 (7.5 hp), see also in the Study Portal

Course is offered by the department of Tracks

Contact details

Teachers:

• Alexey Pavolotsky: examiner, lecturer, supervisor in the problem solving sessions - alexey.pavolotsky at chalmers.se
• Dimitry Yadykin: lecturer, supervisor in the problem solving sessions - dimitriy.yadykin at chalmers.se
• Dag Wedelin: guest lecturer

Tracks management:

• Mikael Enelund, Director Tracks - mikael.enelund at chalmers.se
• Kristina Henricson Briggs, Director Tracks - kristina.henricson.briggs at chalmers.se
• Ingemar Josefsson, Education administrator - ingjose at chalmers.se

Student representatives: 

Klara Fejes Johansson - Klara.fejesjohansson at gmail.com
Jana Kunisch - jana.kunisch.jk at gmail.com
Massimo Muratore - Muratore at chalmers.se

Course purpose

In general, being a Tracks course, this course aims to provide a platform to work and solve challenging cross-disciplinary authentic problems from different stakeholders in society such as the academy, industry or public institutions. Additionally, the aim is that students from different educational programs practice working efficiently in multidisciplinary development teams.

Specifically, the course aims to teach, train and practice the systematic approach to solving problems in engineering and beyond. We will go step by step, from understanding the problem, through identification of the key conflict or obstacle, which makes the solving challenging, and applying techniques to overcome the identified obstacle. This approach follows the spirit of the theory of inventive problem solving, or TRIZ. Important goal of the course is forming a specific inventive mindset, which will be trained through solving of multiple real-world problems. Worth emphasizing, the course by its nature is interdisciplinary and gains and enjoys variety of the students' backgrounds and experiences.

Learning outcomes

(after completion of the course the student should be able to):

Generally, after completion of the Tracks course, the student should be able to:

• Critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced engineering problems.Master problems with open solutions spaces which includes to be able to handle uncertainties and limited information.
• Work in multidisciplinary teams and collaborate in teams with different compositions.
• Orally and in writing explain and discuss information, problems, methods, design/development processes and solutions.

Specifically, after completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Understand and analyze engineering problems. Identify and formulate the ultimate goal the desired solution should achieve.
• Identify the important elements of a problem and their interactions. Abstract from not important details. Re-formulate the problem as a system of interacting elements.
• Identify system conflict.
• Solve problem through overcoming of the system conflict and by modifying/adding or removing the problem's elements and their interactions.
• Be aware of and use techniques and tools from the TRIZ toolbox, e.g., ideal solution, (40) inventive principles, SuField analysis etc.

Schedule

Course schedule in TimeEdit

Course literature

(all available electronically through the Chalmers Library)
G. Al'tshuller, And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving -- Technical Innovation Center, Inc., 2004. - Chalmers library has a couple of copies

G. Al'tshuller, The Innovation Algorithm: TRIZ, Systematic Innovation and Technical Creativity -- Technical Innovation Center, Inc., 2007. - Chalmers library has a couple of copies
V. Fey and E. Rivin, Innovation on Demand: New Product Development Using TRIZ -- Cambridge, 2010. e-book

The above three books are similar by their content. Choose one which matches your taste more. The first one is written very much as a popular science book. The second one is a bit more detailed and used to be seen as the classic one in the past. The third one is more like a textbook as we imagine it, a bit more abstract and strict, still quite compact.

The book below could be seen as a complementary one, emphasizing upon one of the TRIZ tools:
G. Al'tshuller, 40 principles, extended edition : TRIZ keys to innovation -- Technical Innovation Center, Inc., 2004

Course design

The course is organized in week modules: topic lectures, week assignments, workshops in support for the week assignments, follow-up lectures/discussions and final project work.

A course week module starts with the week's topic lecture. After that, the week assignment gets published in the corresponding week's module. Students start working on their week assignment, which should be submitted to the module's page at Canvas by the end of the module week. In support of their efforts, and as the important part of the learning, the students are offered the supervision events organized as live problem solving workshops. The week module is concluded by the follow-up lecture or discussion attempting to feedback and reflect upon the submitted assignments and look back on the week module's problems once again.

Final project work

In final project work, the students will attempt solving real-life problem from their own subject field.

First, students will be asked to find problems relevant to their own subject field. Unlike the week assignments, each student should find his or her own problem, i.e. it will be three or four problems per group. Students will have to discuss and agree the problems they suggest for solving with the teacher.

Ideally, the students start looking for their final project problems as early as possible. Maybe already after the first week of the course. Having the final project problems set and approved early in the course will allow students to try applying the concepts and tools as those are introduced during the course!

The chosen problems will be presented to the other students (short, ca. 3 minutes flash presentations) - this is to happen during the week 8 of the course.

After that, the problem solving starts. Students are free to discuss the problems they are solving between each other as wide as they like. Important here is that at the end, the students are responsible and assessed for presenting solutions of the problems belonging to them and their group members.

Finally, the solutions should be consolidated into the single group report and submitted to the Final project module at Canvas by the beginning of examination week. During the examination week, a workshop will be scheduled for presentations of the solutions to each other. Again, quite short, ca. 5 minutes presentation is expected followed by a short discussion, if found needed.

Approach to assessment of the weekly assignments and final project work

Assessment of the submitted assignments is based, in the first place, on the demonstrated problem solving thinking and to the less extent, on the solutions themselves. Engineering problems usually have more than one solution. In most cases, there is no single correct solution. Also, in general, this course does not target finding solutions to the particular example problems, but instead, to train a creative and efficient mindset. Because of this, always pay effort not only to presenting the solution itself, but - not less important! - to explaining the way of thinking. Explain very clear not only what, but also why(!) - every time presenting a particular decision step made in the course of problem solving.

With a hope that will never be needed, but in case any assignment deadline problem occurs, students are strongly advised to discuss the problem immediately with the course examiner. Don't let the problem just be hanging! 

Changes made since the last occasion

None, yet. This is the first time the course is running.

Learning objectives

Learning objectives:

Generally, after completion of the Tracks course, the student should be able to:

• Critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced engineering problems. Master problems with open solutions spaces, which includes to be able to handle uncertainties and limited information.
• Work in multidisciplinary teams and collaborate in teams with different compositions.
• Orally and in writing explain and discuss information, problems, methods, design/development processes and solutions.

Specifically, after completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Understand and analyze engineering problems. Identify and formulate the ultimate goal the desired solution should achieve.
• Identify the important elements of a problem and their interactions. Abstract from not important details. Re-formulate the problem as a system of interacting elements.
• Identify system conflict.
• Solve problem through overcoming of the system conflict and by modifying/adding or removing the problem¿s elements and their interactions.
• Be aware of and use techniques and tools from the TRIZ toolbox, e.g., ideal solution, (40) inventive principles, SuField analysis etc.

Examination form

No written or oral exam is envisaged for the course.

Final grade for the course is given as combination of the grades for individual week assignments and the grade for the final project work. The weight of the final project's grade is triple of that for a regular week assignment:

,

where - grades for week modules (max. 5 pts. per each week module grade), - grade for the final project work (max. 15 pts).