TRIZ Fundamentals 2012: Summary

Another annual course "TRIZ Fundamentals" is over. It was 2-week course which lasted 80 hours in Enschede, the Netherlands organized jointly by the University of Twente and ICG Training & Consulting.

The total class of 34 persons included B.Sc and M.Sc students from the universities of Enschede and Eindhoven, as well as several experienced guests from the US and Indonesian academy and industry. During each course we allow a limited number of external participants to join the course.

These two weeks provided a really "full immersion" TRIZ experience. Although we started each day at 09:00 and were supposed to finish about 18:00, sometimes students were working till 24:00. And our team of instructors was also busy every night with evaluating student works.

In addition to lectures, each day the participants were split to 11 groups, and each group worked on the following assignments with their own selected problems:

• Formulation of Contradictions and Ideal Final Result
• Root-Conflict Analysis (RCA+)
• Contradiction Matrix and Inventive Principles
• Function Analysis and Trimming
• 76 Inventive Standards
• Value-Conflict Mapping
• Functional Evolution
• Evolutionary Potential Analysis and Trends of Technology Evolution.
• Ideas Evaluation and Landscaping

We also spent a day on solving a problem with ARIZ. The problem was proposed by a student, so it was a bit of a challenge.

Last two days the groups were performing a final assignment which included going through a full xTRIZ process: from problem definition to ideas evaluation and landscaping. This assignment included working on real problems, including problems brought by several participants. Some groups still have to finish their final assignments next week - no problem with that.

Each assignment project was evaluated by me, Tom Vaneker, and Wessel Wits every evening, thus in total we had to check over 100 submitted projects. Most of the time the techniques were used correctly, and many novel and exciting ideas were generated. The marks students got were quite high. As a result everyone obtained a certificate of a TRIZ Practitioner; and B.Sc and M.Sc students obtained 3 European Credits.

But for some students it is not over yet. Those who are interested can continue their formal TRIZ education by doing a TRIZ project at an industrial company or by doing a TRIZ-based research project later this year. These activities will be supported by the University of Twente.

I believe that the course went very well, and I am quite sure knowledge learned and skills gained will remain with most of the participants.

"This course changed the view I see the world", said one of the students during a closing discussion. This is the best evaluation of the course I love to hear.

Some video highlights from the course: http://youtu.be/DQum7BG6DTY (you can also watch it in HD quality).