TRIZ thinking heuristics to nurture future generations of creative engineers

ABSTRACT

A recent report by the Foundation for Young Australians that derived from an analysis of 4.2 million job advertisements in Australia from 2012 to 2015, revealed that the demand for professionals possessing creative problem-solving skills grew by 249%. This paper reflects on the successes of engineering educators in developing creative graduates and discusses the means to instil the skills of creative problem-solving. It considers research evidence of the suitability of heuristics (methods) for problem framing and idea generation that are sourced from the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) for enhancing the creative problem-solving skills of engineering students. Twelve TRIZ heuristics are considered. A repository of TRIZ educatinal materials (TRIZ Repository) is introduced. The outcomes of four studies from Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand that embedded educational materials offered by the TRIZ Repository into existing courses are presented. This paper concludes that TRIZ heuristics are suitable for embedding into courses that require students to tackle open-ended problems. As demonstrated by the studies, even one class devoted to a TRIZ heuristic can statistically significantly enhance students’ creative problem-solving self-efficacy. The TRIZ Repository of educational materials may enable many engineering educators to instil creative problem-solving into their courses.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering creativity
• TRIZ heuristic
• creative problem-solving
• engineering education
• self-efficacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Iouri Belski

Iouri Belski is a Professor of Engineering Problem Solving with the School of Engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). He authored a book on systematic thinking and problem solving, over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and has been granted 24 patents. His research interests include engineering creativity and problem solving, as well as novel methods and technologies of education. Iouri is a recipient of numerous awards including the Australian Award for Teaching Excellence and the National Senior Teaching Fellowship. He is a Principal Fellow of HEA, Senior Member of IEEE and a TRIZ Master.