Course syllabus

Course-PM

TRA365 Inventive problem solving lp3 VT25 (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
• Guest lecturer - TBC

Tracks management:

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

Student representatives: 

to be appointed

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, SuField analysis, (40) inventive principles,  etc.

Schedule

Course schedule in TimeEdit (the link to be updated once the new schedule for LP3 2025 is published in TimeEdit)
also, the schedule pdf printout is here.

Course literature

V. Fey and E. Rivin, Innovation on Demand: New Product Development Using TRIZ -- Cambridge, 2010. e-book

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

D. Mann, Hands-on Systematic Innovation for Business and Management – IFR Press, 2004 (2nd Edition (2007, 2014), ISBN:1-898546-73-8 view here (view only, not for downloading!)

Each of three books above are sufficient for the course, having each its own specifics. Choose one, which matches your taste. The first one is more like a textbook as we imagine it, sometimes a bit abstract and strict, still quite compact. The second one is written very much as a popular science book, somewhat of easy-reading kind. The third book is of a bit more modern kind, still introducing to all the important concepts and, in contrast to the first two books, considers more business- than engineering-oriented reader. 

 

The books below could be seen as complementary ones:

G. Al'tshuller, The Innovation Algorithm: TRIZ, Systematic Innovation and Technical Creativity -- Technical Innovation Center, Inc., 2007. - Chalmers library has a couple of copies. (This is quite detailed book and used to be seen as the classic one in the past.)

G. Al'tshuller, 40 principles, extended edition : TRIZ keys to innovation -- Technical Innovation Center, Inc., 2004. (This book is dedicated to one of the TRIZ tools.)

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. Out of total seven week assignments, it will be five, which students will be solving in the groups, and two, which they will be working individually. 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.

We will attempt to invite some guest lecturer to present his or her experiences of problem solving in some professional situation. More info to come later.

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. 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 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.

Finally, the solutions should be 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. Real-life problems (e.g., 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

Schedule now follows the pattern found to be preferred by students, when the course was run previous time.

Recommended textbooks collection has been a bit modified.

Grading scheme has been modified a bit and in addition to only group assignments, the individual assignments are introduced now.

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 group and individual week assignments and the grade for the final project work. The weight of the individual week assignment is twice of the group assignment, while the the final project's grade is quadruple of that for a group week assignment:

,

where - grades for group week assignment (max. 4 pts. per each of five)   - grades for individual week assignments (max. 8 pts. per each of two), - grade for the final project work (max. 16 pts).

The usual rounding to the closest integer number applies.