Idea Generation Tool Research Articles

Finding Relevant Retrosynthetic Disconnections for Stereocontrolled Reactions.

Machine learning-driven computer-aided synthesis planning (CASP) tools have become important tools for idea generation in the design of complex molecule synthesis but do not adequately address the stereochemical features of the target compounds. A novel approach to automated extraction of templates used in CASP that includes stereochemical information included in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and an internal AstraZeneca database containing reactions from Reaxys, Pistachio, and AstraZeneca electronic lab notebooks is implemented in the freely available AiZynthFinder software. Three hundred sixty-seven templates covering reagent- and substrate-controlled as well as stereospecific reactions were extracted from the USPTO, while 20,724 templates were from the AstraZeneca database. The performance of these templates in multistep CASP is evaluated for 936 targets from the ChEMBL database and an in-house selection of 791 AZ designs. The potential and limitations are discussed for four case studies from ChEMBL and examples of FDA-approved drugs.

A Case Study of Utilizing ChatGPT as an Assistant Writing Partner in a PBL College Writing Course

Objectives This study presents a case study of utilizing ChatGPT in a project-based writing course, and explores its applicability and effectiveness. Through the course, an examination was conducted on the roles, strengths, and weaknesses of ChatGPT as a writing assistant tool by investigating students’ vivid responses, evaluations, and their perception of the effectiveness and satisfaction with the use of ChatGPT in the course.
 Methods To achieve this, a project-based writing course model utilizing ChatGPT was designed and implemented for 227 students enrolled in a “Basic College Writing” course at a four-year university, quantitative and qualitative data were collected through online surveys, weekly reflective journals uploaded by students to the LMS, course evaluations, and descriptive responses. A mixed-methods research approach was employed to analyze the data, allowing for an examination of the effectiveness and benefits and limitations of utilizing ChatGPT as an assistant writing partner.
 Results The findings revealed that students perceived knowledge utilization as the most effective aspect in the project-based writing course using ChatGPT, followed by communication and social skills, self-directed learning abilities, writing self-efficacy and problem-solving skills. While students recognized ChatGPT as a useful tool for idea generation and improving writing depth, they encountered difficulties in verifying its information, highlighting the need for fact-checking and responsible use. Additionally, the instant feedback feature of ChatGPT was highly valued for creating a psychologically safe writing environment.
 Conclusions This study exhibited that the project-based writing course utilizing ChatGPT has a positive impact on students’ overall writing learning experience. It was found to be effective in providing personalized support, timely feedback, and access to wide range of knowledge, thereby fostering creative and critical thinking in a college writing course, However, both instructors and students should remain attentive to the limitations of ChatGPT and ensure its ethical and responsible use through ongoing vigilance.

Understanding English as a Foreign Language Students’ Idea Generation Strategies for Creative Writing With Natural Language Generation Tools

Natural language generation (NLG) is a process within artificial intelligence where computer systems produce human-comprehensible language texts from information. English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ use of NLG tools might facilitate their idea generation, which is fundamental to creative writing. However, little is known about how EFL students interact with NLG tools to generate ideas. This study explores strategies adopted by EFL students when searching for ideas using NLG tools, evaluating ideas generated by NLG tools and selecting NLG tools for idea generation. Four Hong Kong secondary school students attended workshops where they learned to write stories comprising their own words and words generated by NLG tools. After the workshops, they answered questions to reflect on their writing experience with NLG tools. In a thematic analysis of the written reflections, we found students may have existing ideas when searching for ideas and evaluating ideas with NLG tools. Students showed some aversion to ideas generated by NLG tools and selected NLG tools that generated a greater quantity of ideas. The findings inform our understanding of EFL students’ concerns when using NLG tools for idea generation and can inform educators’ instruction to implement NLG tools for classroom creative writing.

WikiLink: An Encyclopedia-Based Semantic Network for Design Creativity.

Data-driven design is a process to reuse data sources and provide valuable information to provoke creative ideas in the stages of design. However, existing semantic networks for design creativity are built on data sources restricted to technological and scientific information. Existing studies build the edges of a semantic network on statistical or semantic relationships, which are less likely to make full use of the benefits from both types of relationships and discover implicit knowledge for design creativity. Therefore, to overcome the gaps, we constructed WikiLink, a semantic network based on Wikipedia, which is an integrated source of general knowledge and specific knowledge, with broad coverage of disciplines. The weight in WikiLink fuses both the statistic and semantic weights between concepts instead of simply one type of weight, and four algorithms are developed for inspiring new ideas. Evaluation experiments are undertaken, and the results show that the network is characterised by high coverage of terms, relationships and disciplines, which demonstrates and supports the network's effectiveness and usefulness. A demonstration and case study results indicate that WikiLink can serve as an idea generation tool for creativity in conceptual design. The source code of WikiLink and the backend data are provided open-source for more users to explore and develop.

A study on product development using the TRIZ and additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) has become an important methodology in modern manufacturing due to its unique features. AM is a promising technology that allows designers to innovate product over a wide range and acquire the full advantages of this technology. However, there are significant limitations with using AM to its maximum capacity. After comprehensive literature survey, it was discovered that in addition of creation, AM possess considerable problems like material usage, cost, cycle time, quality consideration. TRIZ is a problem-solving technique that incorporates different tools to develop specific solutions to problems in a creative and innovative way. The purpose of this paper is to understand the concept of TRIZ and implement TRIZ theory in additive manufacturing. Also, this paper aims to form TRIZ matrix specifically for designers to easily solve problems in additive manufacturing. The TRIZ matrix helps designers to design product without compromising the effectiveness of the other features considering the situation where solution to one problem creates an entirely new problem. Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is used to provide design rules and enhance its suitability to AM. This approach is combined in the form of “A Study on Product Development using the TRIZ and Additive Manufacturing “and it is used as an idea generation tool that can generate innovative solutions for design problems. A case study of CPU fan is introduced to evaluate the proposed methodology. The TRIZ-based DfAM approach results in a reduction in material usage and also a reduction in overall print time.

Creativity in Virtual Teams: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Abstract As communication technology capabilities have improved and the globalization of the workforce has resulted in distributed teams, organizations have been shifting towards virtual teams and virtual meetings over the last decade. This trend has been accelerated with current work-from-home orders due to COVID-19. Even though virtual collaboration has, in the past, been the focus of multiple studies, there are some surprising gaps in our knowledge. For instance, there are few empirical studies examining the impact of virtual devices and tools on creative problem-solving. While there is a substantial body of research on electronic brainstorming and the use of virtual tools for idea generation, less is known about earlier processes such as problem construction or later processes such as idea evaluation and idea selection. Furthermore, as a dynamic process, creativity and innovation is heavily influenced by the people engaged in the process and their collaborative environment, yet there is a gap in the literature regarding the type of virtual tools used in the process (i.e., audio + video vs. audio alone, or the use of file-sharing technologies). In this paper, we will review the current literature on virtual teams, virtual meetings, and creativity. We will then explore theoretical frameworks such as media richness theory that can help us understand how virtuality and virtual tools may influence team creativity across the dynamic range of the creative problem-solving process. Finally, given the limited research in the domain of virtual team creativity we provide questions to help guide future research. Research questions will help identify those areas where virtual teams may be beneficial for creativity and areas where virtual teams may be likely to perform less effectively on creative tasks.

Forms of stimuli and their effects on idea generation in terms of creativity metrics and non-obviousness

ABSTRACT Idea generation is acknowledged to benefit from intentionally administered stimuli or designers’ processes that include the search for external sources of inspiration. Text-based and graphic forms of stimuli are the most leveraged in design literature, but it has not been yet demonstrated which form is most effective for boosting creativity. This is due to the fact that previous studies have employed many varying conditions which do not allow for comparisons to be made. The present paper presents an experiment in which three groups of 27 participants were asked to generate new ideas for new-borns’ outfits. To perform the task, the participants first considered five stimuli presented to them in one of the forms depending on which group the participants had been assigned to, i.e. textual, pictorial or combined (juxtaposition of the two). The stimuli were intended to share the semantic content, thus limiting potential bias due to different meanings. The outcomes of the experiment were evaluated in terms of creativity and non-obviousness. The presence of a pictorial dimension resulted in a significant increase in terms of rarity and non-obviousness of ideas, but did not affect quality, originality or quantity. The limited overlap among ideas emerging from the three forms suggests the potential value of developing design tools for idea generation that mix multiple forms of stimuli.

A Design Framework for Additive Manufacturing: Integration of Additive Manufacturing Capabilities in the Early Design Process

Additive manufacturing has emerged as an integral part of modern manufacturing because of its unique capabilities in various application domains. As efforts to effectively apply additive manufacturing, design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) has risen to provide a set of guidelines based on a practical design framework or a methodology during the product design process of additive manufacturing. However, most existing DfAM methods do not effectively consider the capabilities of extant additive manufacturing technologies in the early design stages, and therefore it is hard to map functional requirements from customer needs onto a product design for additive manufacturing. Moreover, available DfAM methods tend to rely on the direct application of a specific decision method rather than a systematic approach with appropriate deployment and transformation of available design decision methods considering the additive manufacturing environment. Consequently, existing DfAM methods lack suitability for use by additive manufacturing novices. To tackle these issues, this study develops a design framework for additive manufacturing through the integration of axiomatic design and theory of inventive problem-solving (TRIZ). This integrated approach is effective because the axiomatic design approach can be used to systematically define and analyze a design problem, while the TRIZ problem-solving approach combined with an additive manufacturing database can be used as an idea generation tool to generate innovative solutions for the design problem. A case study for a housing cover redesign is presented to apply and validate the proposed design framework.

In-Silico Extraction of Design Ideas Using MMPA-by-QSAR and its Application on ADME Endpoints.

Matched molecular pair analysis (MMPA) has emerged as a powerful approach to mine and extract tacit knowledge from measured databases of small molecules. Extracted knowledge from past experimentation can assist future lead optimization as an idea generation tool and, hence, reduce the number of design-synthesis-test cycles. While attractive and intuitive, MMPA still presents several limitations. Analyses of internal absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) databases of measured compounds show that chemical transformations with 10 pairs or more represent less than 1% of the total transforms identified by MMPA. A great wealth of design ideas remains effectively untapped and underutilized as the lack of measured data hinders extraction of robust trends. In this study we report the use of a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model augmented MMPA approach (MMPA-by-QSAR) to infer the overall effect of chemical transformations on two essential ADME endpoints-lipophilicity and metabolic clearance. First, QSAR models are employed to predict compound activities, and subsequently, MMPA is used to identify and to extract virtual trends. Results obtained from retrospective analyses showed the ability to predict magnitudes of change close to experimental ones for the majority of transforms from each ADME data set. In the case of the lipophilicity endpoint (SFLogD) 73.7%, 87.85%, and 99% of transforms were predicted within 0.1, 0.15, and 0.3 units of the actual change. In the case of the clearance endpoint (HLM) 67.2%, 82.3%, and 99.5% of transforms were predicted within 0.08, 0.11, and 0.3 log units, respectively. Prospective application of MMPA-by-QSAR on untested compounds identified several novel transforms not observed in our measured data sets. When MMPs from these transforms were screened in our internal assays, it was found that the correct directionality of change was predicted for all but one of the tested transforms, and the predicted magnitudes of change have varying errors between predicted and measured mean changes ranging from 0.01 to 0.24 units for SFLogD and from 0.0 to 0.38 log units for HLM. This proposed MMPA-by-QSAR modeling approach has the potential to allow exploration of infrequent transforms or even identify completely novel transforms where no measured MMP is available.

Idea generation in biomedical engineering courses using Design Heuristics

ABSTRACTWith increasing demand for improved medical equipment and healthcare, next-generation biomedical engineers need strong design skills. Equipping biomedical engineering students with tools for idea generation and development can increase student design success. Design Heuristics are an ideation tool developed through empirical studies of product designs. While identified in the mechanical engineering space, Design Heuristics may be applicable in biomedical engineering design. In our study, we implemented a Design Heuristics session during upper-level undergraduate and first-year graduate biomedical engineering design courses. We examined the applicability of Design Heuristics within individual and team concept generation contexts. The findings demonstrated that biomedical engineering students were able to use Design Heuristics to generate multiple concepts, and that initial concepts produced using Design Heuristics were carried over into final team design. The results support the applicability of Design Heuristics to student idea generation in biomedical engineering design.

Developing a New Method for the Architectural Design Process: An Experimental Study Using Found-Object Art in the Design Studio

By the late twentieth century, the use of digital media for the design process had become epidemic amongst the designer communities. This paper aims to explore the place of human creativity. In this way, the present study is an attempt to develop a new medium as a tool for the architectural design process by using Found-Object Art. To identify the opportunities of this medium, an experimental study was carried out in some notable universities in Iran. Findings demonstrate that the metaphor as a meaning-making tool for idea generation and Found-Object Art as a physical tool can provide a creative tool to present the idea in a real form. Findings in the study show that the students tried to think in a different way about the objects surrounding them which had previously been ignored. Through analysis of the design projects, it can be said that this medium is a motivating factor for innovative design.

Let's generate ideas - a review of web-based crowd sourcing tools for the basis of entrepreneurship

The main aim of this paper is to review web-based tools designed for generating and documenting business ideas. The paper first reviews related literature and then discusses useful instruments relevant for creative entrepreneurial tasks. These tools can be helpful in the initial phase of entrepreneurial activities. While several factors are crucial for successful ideas and their implementation, the discussed web-based idea generation tools might assist in creating, evaluating and selecting entrepreneurial ideas. The aim of this manuscript is to provide an overview of such tools so that scholars and practitioners can select a tool that is appropriate for their purpose. As future work we plan an in-depth empirical investigation of these tools.

Using creative exhaustion to foster idea generation

Numerous studies have shown the value of introducing cognitive supports to encourage the development of creative ability, and researchers have developed a variety of methods to aid in generating ideas. However, design students often struggle to explore more ideas after their initial ideas are exhausted. In this study, an empirically validated tool for idea generation, called Design Heuristics, was introduced as a means of productively pushing past creative exhaustion in an industrial design course at a large Midwestern university. Students worked on a simple design task on their own, generating an average of 6.1 concepts in a 30-min session; then, after 10 min of instruction on the Design Heuristics tool, students generated an average of 2.8 additional concepts for the same task using Design Heuristics for an additional 30 min. The concepts created in this second session using Design Heuristics were rated as higher in novelty, specificity and relevance. These results suggest that students benefit from introducing support tools following a period of working on their own ideas. Once their own ideas are exhausted, students may be more open to using and learning from support tools, and these tools may support skill development while producing higher quality outcomes.

Managerial perspectives on crowdsourcing in the new product development process

One way organizations have sought to improve the new product development (NPD) process is to leverage the wisdom of crowds by reaching out to different communities for product and service ideas. However, integrating crowdsourcing into NPD can be challenging for managers and executives managing the process. This exploratory, qualitative research provides internal perspectives from managers and executives at business to business (B2B) firms utilizing crowdsourcing during NPD. Their insights suggest that input gathered through online forums from internal crowds is typically used in the fuzzy-front end (FFE) of the NPD process, whereas externally generated ideas tend to be used more during the commercialization stage of development. Interestingly, in these data, crowdsourced ideas during NPD tended to result in product line extensions rather than new-to-the-world products. This result is due to operational barriers which include the absence of a formal process and infrastructure for crowdsourcing, lack of alignment between budgeting and project timelines with crowdsourcing efforts, and unclear responsibility for managing and validating crowdsourced ideas. In addition, online platforms that can be used for crowdsourcing (e.g., social media) may not be viewed as legitimate tools for idea generation. Therefore, crowdsourced ideas are still considered supplemental to more traditional market research.

건설 설계VE의 효율적 문제해결 아이디어 도출을 위한 비즈니스 창의성 코드(BCC) 활용방안

변화와 혁신의 가속화로 산업과 비즈니스에 대한 창의적 접근에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있으나 공공의 영향을 받는 건설산업은 상대적으로 이러한 창의적 접근에 대한 연구가 미비하다. 설계VE 역시 효율성 증대를 위한 창의적 접근에 대한 연구가 진행되고 있으나, 기법제안에 그친 경우가 많아, 실무적용 가능성에 대한 실증적 연구가 필요하다. 본 연구는 새로운 아이디어 창출 방법으로 BCC(Business Creativity Codes)사고체계를 소개하고, 이를 반영한 개선된 설계VE 아이디어 창출 프로세스를 제시하였다. 또한, 실무 종사자를 대상으로 BCC의 11가지 창의코드를 활용한 VE모델 분류실습과 설문 및 집단면접 등을 통해 BCC사고 체계의 유용성과 활용 가능성을 검증하였다. Although the importance of creative thinking is rapidly increasing in the new century, the generation of creative ideas and its application in the construction industry have been considered relatively difficult. Thus there have been a few studies on the subject that how to apply creative thinking tools with empirical evidence in the construction industry. Value engineering(VE) has been widely applied in the design phase of construction projects due to the government regulation, Brainstorming has been the most prevalent idea generation techniques in the VE activities during the past several decades. Contrary to popular belief, the performance of brainstorming is not so good. It is known as the brainstorming myth. This paper proposes the business creativity codes(BCC) as an alternative idea generation tool in the design phase VE of construction projects. In order to examine the effectiveness of the BCC, 50 successful field cases awarded in the design VE competition of government agency are used. The result shows that the BCC can be used as an effective idea generation tool in the design phase VE construction projects.

Evolving Paths: Undergraduate Design Education through Graduate and Generative Research with a Particular Focus on Sustainability

Design considerations that take into account the diverse issues of sustainability have become a central source of inspiration for third-year design students in the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University. These considerations include the development of products that can evolve in line with local needs, product maintenance, repair and upgrade, and the effective use of resources and have been integrated into various design projects relating to diverse product sectors (e.g. small household appliances, bathroom tiles and accessories). While engaged in these projects, the graduate students focused on and developed a generative design research method and an innovative idea generation tool that helped the design students better understand and incorporate these considerations into the idea generation phase of the design process. This paper presents suggestions for and insights into the means of bringing together undergraduate education and graduate research by providing examples from design education cases.

INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOUR TYPES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON INDIVIDUAL CROWDSOURCING PERFORMANCES

Crowdsourcing as a tool for idea generation has become popular for companies in the last few years. The aim of this research is to identify innovative behaviour types in an intra-organisational online ideation contest. Based on a survey with 75 employees of a specialty chemicals company, we determined the degrees of personality severity of two main factors — creativity and proactivity. Creativity seems to enhance the number of submitted ideas while proactive people's ideas seem to have greater chances of being pursued by the company. Four different personality combinations arise out of the empirical analysis that show specific performance types and are clustered into different activity roles, such as the follower, the proactive promotor, the creative innovator and the intrapreneur. Some of them refer to existing innovation roles. This novel combination of crowdsourcing performance and innovative behaviour delivers new insights that enrich current understanding on the characteristics of internal crowds.

Advanced high strength steel tube diagrid using TRIZ and nonlinear pushover analysis

The goal of this study is to provide engineers and designers with a good indication of TRIZ methodologies and evaluate new high performance steel diagrid details to resolve the problematic aspects of steel diagrid structures such as the concentration of stress at the ends of the tube contacted to cap plates. The present steel diagrid is a new trend of structural systems nowadays for free-formed tall buildings, to which high performance steel with tensile stress of 800MPa and a low yielding ratio can be applied.TRIZ is a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature. This study confirms that the TRIZ process can be a strong idea generation tool for developing structural details to improve the behaviors of existing structures. Finally, the effectiveness of the new structural diagrid detail information is presented in this study using actual nonlinear static pushover analysis.

A learning factory: Enhancing societal needs awareness and innovation through manufacturing class

The manufacturing course is a common course in most Mechanical and Industrial Engineering programs around the world. In this course, various aspects of product design and manufacturing process selection are discussed. Students are occasionally given the opportunity to utilize and fabricate some parts by using the discussed manufacturing technologies. To bring further appreciation to the course, the Manufacturing Course in Qatar University has added innovation and entrepreneurship with active learning. Instead of teaching the course material in one daunting block, the faculty (mentor) used a “Just in Time Teaching” strategy by integrating engineering theory and product design within a business plan. The students were divided into groups, and each group had to address a societal need within Qatar. The students were given sessions about idea generation tools and creativity techniques. Once the problem had been identified and formulated, these groups were advised and coached to prepare a comprehensive business plan that included selection of materials, manufacturing processes, organizational structure, marketing of the product, market segmentation and penetration, break-even analysis and economic analysis, as well as environmental issues. From the course assessment and student course outcomes surveys, it was found that the interest and learning curve for students increased drastically for this manufacturing course compared to previous approaches. Besides Cite this article as: Hamouda AMS, Tarlochan F. A learning factory: Enhancing societal needs awareness and innovation through manufacturing class, Engineering Education Letters 2015:7

Physical Models and Design Thinking: A Study of Functionality, Novelty and Variety of Ideas

Engineering idea generation is a crucial part of new product development, and physical modeling is a widely used tool. Despite the physical models’ popularity in the idea generation process, little is known about their effects on design cognition. The existing literature provides contradicting guidelines about their use in the design process. Product design firms call for the frequent use of physical models, but some studies suggest that physical models induce design fixation. The psychological literature indicates that physical representations, by supporting designers’ mental models of physical phenomena, might lead to more feasible designs. The advantages and disadvantages of physical models as idea generation tools need to be clarified to help designers decide when and where to implement them. Based on prior studies and anecdotal evidence, two hypotheses are tested: (1) physical models supplement designer’s mental models and (2) physical models induce design fixation. Two between-subject idea generation experiments with novice designers are conducted to evaluate these hypotheses. In the first pilot experiment, the participants generate ideas in three conditions: sketching only, building, and building and testing. This study is followed by a second experiment, in which a new condition called constrained sketching is added. In each condition, participants use the representation implied by the name of the condition. The percentage of ideas satisfying all design requirements indicates the physical models’ effect on the designers’ mental models. Novelty and variety are used as metrics for design fixation. The percentage of functional ideas quantified shows significant variation across the sketching and building conditions, whereas novelty and variety show no differences. These results support the argument that physical models supplement novice designer’s mental models. No evidence of fixation is observed, which contradicts the results of the prior observational studies. Hypothesized reasons for the apparently contradictory results are also presented.