Innovation, development and tech transfer
The innovation process
Process of developing new ideas and inventions, ready for commercial and public sector use.
Purpose: to create new technology
principle role in creating real wealth
Invention
The original concept or discovery
sum up invention
Cannot be ordered to happed
Invention can be encouraged by a sympathetic social attitude and an awareness of the fields
Invention is not always dependent on advanced technological
training
Weakly dependent on economic cycle but encouragement for and exploitation of the invention is more likely if times are favourable
personality traits seem to be
opposite of those that are easiest to assimilate into industrial
often need to look for someone else to fund, produce and
market
inventors traits
– Intelligence (but not genius)
– Burning curiosity
– High degree of autonomy and self sufficient
– Tendency to introversion, but open to stimulation
– Resilience and non-conformism
– Willingness to take risks and work hard
– Intuition and creativity
– Not afraid of apparent contradictions
– Not predisposed to reach premature conclusions
Key Concepts and Issues
Intellectual property rights:
• novel ideas can be patented;
• designs and trademarks can be registered;
• copyright exists on drawings, film, audio and video tape.
Not all inventions become innovations
• the idea may not be good enough;
• not enough resources are available to develop the idea;
• well-established comparable or competing solutions already exist
Ten steps to innovation:
1 Identify a need.
2 Produce an original and creative solution; you now have an invention
3 Check for originality (patent and literature searches).
4 Don’t upset the apple cart (like trying to alter the way a keyboard is arranged )
5 Build a working model (both to check out the idea and to demonstrate it to others
6 Learn the patent system and protect the invention (not too early or too late
7 Decide how to produce it; be realistic about demand and costs.
8 Sell yourself with the invention.
9 Find yourself a product champion (inventors don’t usually have the skills, authority or capital to make their invention a success).
10 Persevere! Successful innovation requires exceptional commitment and effort
Innovation
process of developing the original concept or invention
comprising those technical, industrial,
commercial and other steps that lead to the successful commercial
Entrepreneurship
Shifting economic resources out of an area of low and into an
area of hi productivity and greater yield
(Ends of entrepreneurship is economical
and does not need to involve technology)
Linear model of innovation
Technology push, market pull
– Technology push: Invention provides the stimulus for innovation
(example: compact disk)
– Market pull: Customer need is the stimulus for innovation
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• Product innovation vs. Process innovation vs. System innovation
• Product innovation: includes progressive improvements and introduction of new products
• Process improvements: Introduction of new processes – incremental character, risk and returns are substantially within the control of the company
• System innovation: Developing all the elements needed to carry out the function – turnkey project.
Design
stimulus for innovation comes from demand, design is link between stimulus and final
Social, cultural and other perspectives are involved
Design was not always separate from making, now design must be come first
Converting a idea into a form. disciplined problem solving process which involves defining and
resolving the problem
The design process needs to include input from the likely users
KOEN, design process which requires iterations and feedback
Engineering method
Purpose of causing the best chance in an poorly understood situation
Heuristics
Approach based on experience that may solve a type of problem but
offers no guarantee (example: rule of thumb)
Characteristic features of heuristics
– It does not guarantee a solution
– It may contradict other heuristics
– It reduces the search time to solve the problem
– Its acceptance depends on the immediate content instead of absolute standards
Categories of engineering heuristics
– Simple rules of thumb and orders of magnitude
– Factors of safety
– Engineering attitudes for example: “the best you can with resources available”
– Keeping risk acceptable by making small changes in the state of the art
– Rules of thumb in resource allocation. Resources must be allocated as long as the risk of not knowing exceeds the cost of finding out
Design Process 
Iterative process as each step sheds light on preceding
Costs of early stage design =
10% but determines 75-90% of
total cost