Our Second Task was to learn about three idea generation tools so that we could coach other group members as to how to use this tool. One of the tools that our group used was Random word I will try to give some information about this tool.

Random Word Technique When to use it Use it to stimulate open and divergent thinking and seek creative new ideas. Use it to re-ignite creative thinking when you are running out of ideas. Use it to get people out of a rut when their thinking is still rather conventional. Quick X  Long Logical X  Psychological Individual X  Group How to use it 1. Find a random word Find a random word that will be used as a stimulus for new ideas. You can do this in a number of ways, including: Look around you. What can you see? Can you see any words? What about things? What else is happening? Open a book at a random page. Run your finger around the page and stop at a random point. Look for a suitable word near your finger. Ask the people you are with to give you a random word. Select a word from a prepared list of evocative words (fire, child, brick, sausage, etc.) Good random words are (a) evocative and (b) nothing to do with the problem being considered. Ambiguity also helps. Nouns are usually best, but verbs and adjectives can also be used effectively. 2. Find associations Think about other things about which the word reminds you. Follow associations to see where they go. Think openly: associations can be vague and tenuous (this is creativity, not an exam!). When working with a group of people, you can write these down on a flipchart as people call them out. It can be useful (but not necessary) to leave a space after each associate for use in stage 3. 3. Use the associations to create new ideas Now create new ideas by linking any of the associations with your problem. Again, the linkage can be as vague as you like: what you want is ideas! Write the ideas either next to their associations from step 2 or on a separate page. If other people give ideas that trigger further ideas from you, then you can go off down that route to see where it goes. As a variant, you can do stages 2 and 3 together, finding an association and an immediate idea from this. Example I am seeking a way to reduce discomfort for passengers on trains. With a group of passengers, we look out of the window and see a school. Associations from school are learning, bullying, exams, playtime. Ideas include teaching the rail company how uncomfortable the seats are, taking a firm stance in this, giving marks for different trains and seats and having games on trains so passengers do not notice the uncomfortable seats. How it works Random Words works in particular by making you go elsewhere for ideas, and hence pushes you out of your current thinking rut. It uses the principle of forced association to make you think in new ways and create very different ideas.

Reference: http://www.creatingminds.org/tools/random_words.htm

Edward

Edward

Thank you to all the coaches who assisted our group throughout the course. I must say I learnt a lot of new things and met many interesting people. Our group did a good job and I say a big kudos to everyone who made the a success.  If you wondering if you should participate in Inno 58h I would say yes, because its a whole new experience that help equip you for the challenging working world outside studies. 

Edward

Starting the assignment

Finally, we received the assignment from Paroc. Our task is to create "New products using Building Demolition Waste or Building Site Waste from stone wool insulation products". Something like that we were already thinking after the visit in the company.

Our first workshop in the camp was about thinking "which are the questions we need to find answers to in order to create new products using Building Demolition Waste from stone wool insulation products?" We used Einstein's five questions method and after that, concentrated on the defining the needs of the company.

We came up with many questions and chose five that we considered the most important (as explained in the video):

1. What is our goal? What motivates the company?

– economic benefits

- environmental benefits, CSR

- improved customer service

 

2. What kind of products can be made of stone wool?

3. Who are the customers?  

4. Where is the production going to take place?

- at the site

- at Paroc factory

5. How are we going to commercialize it?

NEEDS:

- Paroc needs a competitive advantage to distinguish from its competitors -> offer service for customers to get rid of construction waste

- Paroc needs to minimize its landfilling costs -> invent how to use the waste

Our colleagues gave us good advice such as that the important thing for us is to  convince the customer that the quality of our recycled products is as good as of new products.

Aleksi, Edward, Elina, Amaia, Luigi & Javier

Welcome to the innovation camp!

This is our room...

Aleksi, Edward & Elina

The Tipping Point

- Aleksi

Book Read By Edward

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

The book is a mixture of tales, psychology, economics, marketing, epidemiology and more. The principle focus of The Tipping Point is how small changes, can bring about large effects. Instances such as marketing of Hush Puppies shoes, the broken windows theory, Paul Reveres Midnight ride, Word of mouth, Mass hysteria and more. 

Gladwell actually internments the spirit of human acquaintances and the human need to feel part of something. The book is really intended for anyone interested in looking at what moves people and how a small event can result in large response. From my perspective, the argument presented in the book proceeds with a very reasonably and was sufficiently developed and supported by the factual instances. 

 The fundamental argument presented in the books is: According to Gladwell, the tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold and subsequently spreads with incredible speed through society. Many social trends and phenomena follow the same elementary outline as epidemics; that they follow the same identical pattern because they are caused and sustained in much the same way; that the difference between trends that get past the "tipping point" and those that do not may often be one or more very small factors; and that if one wants to create any sort of social trend (whether that be buying a product or committing fewer crimes), it is important to attend to such very small factors.

Through his study, Gladwell found that epidemics have three characteristics in common. First, the thing that spreads the epidemic is contagious. In the case of a product or an idea, Gladwell refers to its sticky quality or ability to lodge in the cultural mindset. Second, small changes in the environment result in large effects on the spread of the epidemic. Third, at some identifiable point the trend tips and causes a dramatic change - an epidemic. Factors that lead to this tipping include key people or promoters and the contexts in which they operate, among other things.

In Gladwell's terminology, stickiness is a characteristic of ideas that are memorable, catchy, and inescapably applicable to a particular situation. In technology education there is no sticky phrase. But from my perspective, I think Gladwell is an insightful observer whose understandings here are original, thought-provoking, and even worthwhile.  

Edward

Visit at Paroc on the 28th of November

Me, Aleksi and Edward went to Parainen to visit Paroc facilities and hear about their business and products. Our Spanish team members were not able to come, so we went just the three of us. We were warmly welcomed and the days started off with a presentation of the company. Our innovation task was not yet revealed to us but we received a lot of information on how Paroc operates and what kind of products they produce. This will certainly help us to think about solutions for their current challenges.

After the presentation and the breakfast, we went for a guided tour inside the factory where stone wool is manufactured.

Paroc is able to reuse part of the waste generated in the process. The fluffy material which is produced in the beginning of the process that we saw surrounding the machines on the floor are partly reused and the rest goes to landfill. Apparently, this is not a big amount of waste because it weighs so little. On the other hand, the extra side edges cut off from compressed stone wool that are generated in the cutting process are entirely recycled. They are shredded and reintroduced to the process. The same thing is done to material that is somehow damaged in the process and cannot be sold as end product. This minimizes the waste treatment and material costs.

However, biggest challenges that Paroc is facing at the moment are related to the treatment of waste. Landfilling costs are becoming higher in all countries where Paroc is operating because of tightening environmental legislation. Even more expensive than landfilling fees are the costs generated from toxic waste that has to be sent to special waste treatments plants. One of Paroc's goals is to create zero-waste plants and they already have one in Sweden. The innovation assignment was not revealed to us yet but I assume it has to do with reusing waste generated in the production, maybe about inventing how to use the dust created in the process because for now, Paroc doesn't have a use for it. The task could also be about optimizing a reverse logistics system for collecting the construction waste from customers because Paroc considers it to be a great competitive advantage, when it can organize a collection of such waste for its customers. In any case, when the innovation camp starts tomorrow, we will probably find out what our task is!









Elina

Outliers - the story of success. Amaia

The article I have chosen to write about is from the New York Times written by Andrew Revkin. This article sums up the problems the United States is going to face unless a solution is proposed to help global warming. This article states that a federal draft report is being written, and once finalized, it will become an official document of the United States government. The article sums up the problems that we are facing/going to face involving agriculture and human health. Global warming is impacting everyone in this world, whether they realize it or not. The strong points on agriculture are as follows: “The rising incidence of weather extremes will have increasingly negative impacts on crop and livestock productivity.” This sums up that the weather patterns due to global warming are hurting our land and food security. Changes in the climate will “affect food processing, storage, transportation, and retailing” as said by the author. As for human health, “Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including weather events, wildfires, diseases transmitted by insects, food and water, and threats to mental health.” It was mentioned that the U.S. is already undergoing some of these problems in today’s society. 

This is relevant to what we have discussed in class based on the 11th Hour Video. The video made strong points about the effects global warming is/has made on the world already. If a solution isn’t prepared then the world, as we know it, will sooner or later come to an end.

blink book essay javier

Thin Slicing is a term used by psychologist and philosophers, but what does it mean? According to Malcolm Gladwell, “It’s the tendency that we have as human beings to reach very rapid, very profound and sophisticated conclusions based on very thin slices of experiences.” Blink is a book by Malcolm Gladwell explaining this theory of thin-slicing. In the book Gladwell tells us many different stories that have to do with thin-slicing. The book has examples of successful thin-slicing, examples showing how it works and what it accomplishes. It also has stories teaching us, the reader of thin-slicing and how it isn’t all that great and completely accurate as well. Some stories that can teach us lessons, which we can learn from not to make the same mistakes over and over. This book is about the unconscious mind and how we don’t know it but it affects us at every moment whether we notice or not. How the unconscious mind picks up patterns from small amount of information or experiences and we make snap judgments based on those patterns. Which most of the time we don’t notice, unless of course you have trained your mind to recognize these patterns, which there’s an example of in the book. All this thin-slicing has its pros and cons I believe Gladwell’s theory is correct; all his examples are backed up by his theory of thin-slicing. He gives evidence to how it works both positively and negatively. The theory of thin-slicing is that we have the ability as human beings to instantly identify specific patterns from within small amounts of experience or information, and we make instant or snap judgments based upon those patterns. What does this mean; it means that our unconscious holds on to information from previous events. From that information our unconscious recognizes certain patterns from the past and catches similarities in current experiences or events and reacts. This reaction although it may sound a bit complicated happens in mere seconds. 

Inno58h 3D printer workshop

Work done on the last workshop about the 3D printers:


3D Printer -> Consumer ->Service HUBs
                                       -> Sales reps./Agents
                                       -> Universities
                                       -> Diy/Fairs/Shows
                                       ->Publicity chandels -> Internet
                                                                        ->Print
                                       -> Elderly people/young
                 -> Business   -> Demos in companies
                                      -> Diversification of production
                                      -> Road shows/ Trade fairs
                                      -> Advertising/Industrial publications


Advantages: Cost effective



Amaia Gonalez.

IMPORTANT NOTICE!! TEAM MEMBERS TAKING PART IN THE VISIT IN PAROC ON THE 28TH OF NOVEMBER

The names of the team members taking part in the visit:

Aleksi LEINO (aleksi.m.leino@utu.fi)
Elina OJALA (ameoja@utu.fi)
Edward OFORI (edward.ofori@abo.fi)

Working on the blog on the 26th of November

We met with Aleksi, Edward and me on Wednesday to put content in our blog and modify its structure. Unfortunately, the Spaniards couldn't come all the way from Salo to meet with us so they posted their own content later on. We tried to divide the tasks so that the topics that are not covered at the moment, should have more content because it seems that circular economy is dealt with in many posts whereas some topics are not discussed at all.

   

Boys working hard on our blog














Since none of us has ever blogged before we had technical difficulties in making the blog. Luckily, we ran into on IT expert who helped us formulate the structure of the blog so that it is more reader friendly.

IT support guy :)












Elina, Aleksi and Edward

Preparing for the meeting in Paroc on the 28th of November

Me and Aleksi assume that all the Finns know what Paroc Oy manufactures or at least have heard of the company and seen its products wrapped in white and red packages in construction sites. For our international team members, Paroc's web site is a good starting point to get to know the company:

http://www.paroc.fi/

Here is the route planned for Friday:
http://reittiopas.turku.fi/#mapcenter%28kkj3*3240716*6706458%29from%28poi*Tuomiokirkko%2C%20Turku%29to%28address*Skr%C3%A4bb%C3%B6lentie%2014%2C%20Parainen%29timetype%28arrival%29time%280930%29date%2820141128%29mapzoom%281%29


Aleksi, Edward & Elina

Spreading Ideas

How to spread ideas

http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread

Javier tabernilla

Circular Economy

Circular economy

·        Increase recycling/re-use of municipal waste to 70% in 2030;

·        Increase packaging waste recycling/re-use to 80% in 2030 with material-specific targets set to gradually increase between 2020 and 2030 (to reach 90 % for paper by 2025 and 60% for plastics, 80% for wood, 90% of ferrous metal, aluminium and glass by the end of 2030);

·        Phase out landfilling by 2025 for recyclable (including plastics, paper, metals, glass and bio-waste) waste in non-hazardous waste landfills – corresponding to a maximum landfilling rate of 25%;

·        Reduce food waste generation by 30% by 2025;

·        Introduce an early warning system to anticipate and avoid possible compliance difficulties;

·        Ensure full traceability of hazardous waste;

·        Increase the cost-effectiveness of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes by defining minimum conditions;

·        Simplify the reporting obligations and lighten obligations affecting SMEs;

·        Harmonise and streamline the calculation of the targets and improve the reliability of key statistics;

·        Improve the overall coherence by aligning definitions and removing obsolete legal requirements

Javier tabernilla