Sep 25 1006The Creative Thinking Process @CSIE.CCU1 Creative Thinking Process 薛智文台大資工 [email protected] chsueh/ “It

Sep 25 1006 The Creative Thinking Process @CSIE.CCU 1

Creative Thinking Process

薛智文台大資工

[email protected]://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~chsueh/

“It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

- Robert H. Goddard

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~chsueh/




工欲善其事、必先利其器

• To excel in research, we must sharpen our skills in • positioning R&D strategically• identifying and formulating high impact problems• communicating ideas and results effectively

The entrance to graduate school marks a critical phase of transition for most graduate students from absorbing knowledge to creating knowledge…

- Prof. Lui Sha, UIUC


Cone of Learning (Edgar Dale)

• After two weeks, we tend to remember:

• Passive learning:• 10% of what we read• 20% of what we hear• 30% of what we see (pictures)• 50% of what we hear and see

• Active learning:• 70% of what we say• 90% of what we say and do

The more energy that you put into a subject, the more you can remember.


So we want you to say and do in this workshop



Level of Educational Objectives (B. S. Bloom)

• Level 1: Knowledge: List, and recite

• Level 2: Comprehension: Explain, and paraphrase

• Level 3: Application: Calculate, solve, determine, and apply

• Level 4: Analysis: Classify, categorize, derive, and model

• Level 5: Synthesis: create, predict, construct, design, imagine, improve, and propose

• Level 6: Evaluation: judge, critique, verify, and debate


R. Keith Sawyer

• Innovation requires no special thought processes, says an expert. Creative people just work harder at it.

• Ideas don’t magically appear in a genius’ head from nowhere. They always build on what came before. And collaboration is key.

• Creative people have tons of ideas, many of them bad. The trick is to evaluate them and mercilessly purge the bad ones. But even bad ideas can be useful.

from “The Hidden Secrets of the Creative Mind”Time Magazine, Jan. 16, 2006


Why You Should Learn Creative Thinking Process ?!

You don’t want to be the lower part of M-Society. ( 下流社會 --

中產階級蒸發了), Mar

15, 2006

• It’s your responsibility and duty as a person living in Taiwan.

• Recognize yourself.

http://www.cw.com.tw/article/cover/index.jsp?AID=1805




What’s Next about Taiwan and You?

• The World is FLAT.• Are we still in East Asian Four Tigers?• How could we compete with BRICs?

• What is the role of Taiwan in the world?• Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)• Original Design Manufacturer (ODM)• Intellectual Property Creator (IPC)

• What are you going to do after graduation?• Be an engineer or a scientist?• Be a professor?• Be an enterpriser?• Any else, for example… ?


Basic Elements of Successful R&D

• How to transit from lower levels of learning to higher levels of learning: a shift • from a focus on recites, apply and solve

• to a focus on categorize, critique, and create.

• What are the habits that you plan to• Overcome?

• Cultivate?

Active learning and thinking at higher levels


• What is gift and what is your gift?

• To what degree it overlaps with your interests?

• “May the force be with you”: what are forces in R&D that can help you?

1. Positioning your research



Research Focus

Societal Needs

Gifts

Interests

Research Focus

The path to success consists of three simple elements.Find what interests you1 that you can do well2, and is needed by the people3.



Being Wisdom - Understanding Yourself

• What is easier for you?• Writing a complex software program?• Proving a difficult theorem?

• What excites the community at large and what excites you?

• Does it play into your strength?

Understand others is intelligence.Understand yourself is wisdom.

知人者智，自知者明 - Lao Tze


• What is the role of concrete application scenarios in research?

• How do you spot opportunities that could create new trends of R&D?

• What is the key factor that makes a result significant?

• What are the categories of research and their• Risks• Impacts

2. Developing a R&D road map



Creating an Exciting Application Scenario

• Exciting application scenarios will• motivate you,• expose the limitations of existing solutions, and• help you to focus your efforts.

“As a mathematical discipline travels far from its empirical source, or still more, if it is a second and third generation only indirectly inspired by the ideas coming from ‘reality,’ it is beset with very grave dangers.…that the stream, so far from its source, will separate into a multitude of insignificant branches, and that the discipline will become a disorganized mass of details and complexities.”

- John Von Neumann, “The Mathematician,” 1957


Thinking Out-of-Box

• Most researchers/engineers are constrained by models and generally accepted assumptions of the real world. But our knowledge of the nature is never perfect, and the underlining technologies are rapidly changing.• Velocity of light is constant – embrace it as a low of physic

s and we have the theory of relativity.

• Clients request and server computes… -- Why not send some of the code to client instead?

• E.g.,• Is TCP appropriate for wireless communication?• Is fairness a good metric for real-time computing?

Great advancements in science and engineering often are the repudiation (rejection) of generally accepted beliefs.

- Anonymous


Pick the Right Problems to Work on

• What is the difference between a theorem and a homework problem to be proven by students?• Both were proven to be correct.• In fact, some homework problems are harder than

some of the theorems.• E.g., stack scheduling protocol and priority ceiling

protocol are easy but useful.

• Therefore…If we decide to spend time on a problem, shouldn’t we work on a problem with greater potential impacts?Of course, you should persuade your advisor if you find a great impact topic. ^^


Know What has been Done and Estimate the Impacts

• New directions• Challenging long-held beliefs and pioneering a new path

• Broad applicability• For the further development of the theory

• For solving practical problems

• Unification / Integration• Proving a unifying structure or theory and give deeper

understanding to seemingly diversified approaches

• Advancement along an established line of inquires• You need to significantly improve performance, reliability,

or scale.


• How can we help audience understand your points?What should be made concise and what should be elaborated?

• How can we make our presentations?

3. Getting Your Ideas across


‧More informativeMore interesting‧More insightful‧



Impart an Understanding

• Understanding is an act that builds a bridge between what your audience already know to what they need to know.

• Focus on key ideas and key results, go from specific to general and from concrete to abstract.


Managing Human “cache memory”

• Human short term memory can only hold about 5 unfamiliar items

• Don’t load it up with unimportant details.

• Suppose you need to present an OS overhead formula unfamiliar to your audience, (2S + …).

• Don’t say we now add “two S” to …. This forces others to remember what S means. Poor use of human short term memory.

• Say we add “round trip context switching time to…”

• Think carefully about the new ideas you want your audience to absorb.

• Keep them in the “cache” by periodic refreshing during your talk, until your audience “write the new ideas” into their long term memory.


Techniques that help get ideas across

Techniques that reduce “unfamiliarity” and help “write through”:

‧Read out the physical meaning of the terms.

‧Use analogy familiar to your audience.

An ideal presentation is one that is:

‧Informative

‧Interesting

‧Insightful


Being Informative

• “New” is relative to your audience.• What they already know?• What they should know after your presentation?• What are the steps in-between?

• For example:• Managers: the key ideas, expected impacts, and

costs.• Experts: new challenges and new insights/results

Inform: give new knowledge…


Being Interesting

• Seemingly unimportant fact that actually holds the key

• Seemingly true but it is in fact false

• A “difficult” problem is solved with ease and elegance.

Interesting: unexpected, counter intuitive, difficult to believe


Being Insightful

• Explain a seemingly complex and confusing problem in a way that is easy to understand.

• Unearth hidden/unstated assumptions. And quickly put an argument to rest.

• Show things in new angles, new lights and new forms and gain new understandings.

• Demonstrate subtle but important connections/inter-dependencies between seemingly unrelated subjects.

Insight: impart a deeper understanding


Syllabus

• Meeting 0: Introduction

• Meeting 1: Creative thinking process, case study, and team formation

• Meeting 2: Presentation – each team should propose two potential research topics.

• Meeting 3: Discussion and refinement

• Meeting 4: Presentation (,discussion, and refinement) – each team should further elaborate one research topic.

• Meeting 5: Final presentation


Assignment

• Each one has to prepare a five-minute presentation, which should introduce:• The global trends that you think• Your interests• Your gifts/strengths• The trends related to your interests or strengths


“The Creative Thinking Process”Workshop

Meeting 1

Creativity is a mechanical and learnable process.



Creative Thinking Process

• Identify potential research topics in the context of people’s gifts and interests.

• Position the research focus on the intersection of your gifts, your interests, and societal needs.

• Examine the Trends

• How the idea relates to the research trends?• What are the key related works?• How to spot opportunities that could create new trends?

• Look deeper into the Challenges• What can be solved by current technology?• What needs to be invented?• What is the estimated effort?• What is the key factor that makes a result significant?


Creative Thinking Process (Cont.)

• Estimate the Impacts• What are the categories of research and their

risks/impacts?• new directions, unification/integration, broad applicability,

incremental improvements.

• Look ahead into the Future• What else will the future technology enable?• What are the new and exciting application scenarios that

established technologies stop working?• What is truly hard and what can be removed from your

design?• understand the true nature of constraints and separate the

hard constraints from the soft ones.


Creative Thinking Process (Cont)

• Expand to a Device Family• A group of devices where each member is complemented

and reinforced with each other .• What are their intrinsic characteristics?• What are their strength and limitations?

• Layout an Elegant Architecture• Optimally use the advantages of each member.

• Build Low Level Details• Publish papers and file patent.• Create new architectures, protocols,…• Prototype demonstration and identify industrial partners.


End Products

• From incremental improvements to existing architectures & product lines

• To the creation of a new product line• architecturally different from the existing products• new form of information sharing and exchanging• enabled by emerging technologies


Trends

Challenges

Impacts

Future

Device Family

Architecture

Details

societal needs

gifts

interests

Research focus & next-wave technology

A New

Product Line

The Process to Find the Next-Wave Technology


Creative Thinking Process - Summary

IdentifyPotential Research Topics Trends

ElegantArchitecture

Extend toDevice Family

Impacts

Challenges

Look Further

BuildLow-Level Details

Look Deeper

How the idea relates to research trends?

Key related works Estimated efforts

What needs to be invented?

What are the key factor/cores?

What can be solved by current technology?

Expected impacts

Nature of impacts

New directions

Broad applicability

Unification/integration

Incremental

What else will the future technology enable?

Role Settingfor Each Member

Intrinsic characteristics

Strength and limitations

Optimally use the advantages

Creative Process-Mechanical-Learnable


Successful Stories

• Apple Computer Company

• E-Ink Corporation

• Discussion


Case 1The Apple Computer Company

Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs had been friends in high school. They had both been interested in electronics, and both had been perceived as outsiders. They kept in touch after graduation, and both ended up dropping out of school and getting jobs working for companies in Silicon Valley. (Steven Wozniak for Hewlett-Packard, Steve Jobs for Atari)

Apple Computer was born on April 1, 1976. At that time Jobs was 21 and Wozniak was 26.


Product History (1/2)

1976 Apple I

1977 Apple II

1983 Lisa / Lisa 2 / Mac XL

1984 Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Macintosh

1987 Macintosh II

1989 Macintosh Portable

1991 Power Book


Product History (2/2)

1993 Newton Message Pad

Macintosh Color Classic II

1994 Power Macintosh

1998 iMac

1999 iBook

2004 iPod Mini


Steve Jobs

• He is the CEO of Apple Computer and the Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.

• He was stripped his duties in 1985. After that, he founded NeXT Computer.

• In 1986, Steve Jobs bought Lucasfilm's computer graphics division from George Lucas for $10 million and named the new computer animation studio Pixar.

• In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $402 million, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded.


Case 2The E-Ink Corporation

Electronic Ink is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of regular ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity or using processor power; as these resources are only required to change or erase the image.

Sony Librie EBR-1000EP, 2004


Technology Review

Developed in 1997


Product Lines

• High Resolution Displays

• Segmented Displays


Discussion

• Please give us your opinions.

• How to keep a company alive?

• Does every creative product work?


Reference

• http://www.apple.com

• http://www.apple-history.com/

• http://www.eink.com/

• http://www.wikipedia.org/


Homework 2

• Team formation – 2 to 4 people in a team

• Select one possible research topic or new product. The slides should includes:• The trend related to your topic• Your topic or your product• Target feature or system architecture• Claimed goal (give us the killer application if possible)• Key related work such as paper or data sheets• The Strength of each member related to your topic• Related issues and challenges when marching to the goal

(rank the priority of these challenges)• List possible future technologies related to your topic in the

future if needed

• Expected Impacts


Q&A

• Q1. 據在業界的父母說，台灣的資工人才由於能力不敵大陸及印度，國外公司都不喜歡用台灣的資訊工程師，而學生缺乏哪些能力呢 ? 教授對此一現象的看法為何 ??

• Ans: 父母說的都對！不對的是我們自己。• 智力耐力生產力溝通力英語• 創造力解決問題團隊合作


Q&A

• Q2. 近年來國內指考分數資工系有逐漸向下的趨勢，教授的看法是 ?

• Ans: 認識自己資訊最適性

時勢所驅資訊最寬廣

資訊科學

資訊工程

Computer Science and Information Engineering

資訊管理

資訊教育

生物資訊

醫學資訊

圖書資訊

金融資訊

資訊電子

資訊服務


Q&A

• Q3. 未來資工系大學生畢業後，在找工作上占有什麼優勢 ? 未來可從哪方面的相關部門著手 ?

• Ans: 了解事情的本質不怕沒優勢只怕沒本事

• R&D Engineer, Product Manager, Project Manager, Field Application Engineer, Sales, Marketing, CTO, CIO, CSO, CMO, COO, CEO, President, …

• 比創意與願景所要具備的能力 • 市場格局架構組織團隊想像力創造力執行力



工研院創意中心

• 魔境水之械廢土花盆吸水泥土光電共生原生植物園導電玻璃罐影舞集

innovator adaptormoderate

innovation

future

before


Conclusion

• 台灣製造台灣創造• 削弱補習班文化• 創意心法

• neuro-linguistic programming

• Innovation = invention ＋ insight

• 個人成功要件• skills + expertise + intrinsic motivation (passion)

• 團隊成功要件• people + product + press （氛圍） + platform


Valuable Life

year

Value

20

-Value

30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1100 10


It’s not Luck

• Eliyahu M. Goldratt

• Theory of Constraints (TOC)• constraints• limitations• conflicts• ?• solutions


The World is FLAT

• 10 bulldozer (forces)• 1989 Berlin Wall• 1995 netscape IPO• workflow• open source• outsource• offshore manufacturing• insource• supply chain• search engine• light tech, steroid

Documents

Sep 25 1006The Creative Thinking Process @CSIE.CCU1 Creative Thinking Process 薛智文 台大資工 [email protected] chsueh/ “It

Sep 25 1006The Creative Thinking Process @CSIE.CCU1 Creative Thinking Process 薛智文台大資工 [email protected] chsueh/ “It