PHYSICS SEMINAR

Ed Sickafus
President of Ntelleck, LLC

Wednesday, February 28, 2001
Willet Science Center Lecture Hall

"Unified Structured Inventive Thinking --
Solving CorporateTechnical Problems
with Speed, Efficiency, and Profit"

Abstract:  USIT is a new tool for solving technical problems in the pre-engineering stage. It is a methodology that uses structure to guide the process, devices to generate unusual perspectives, and constraints to force creative thinking. It demands discipline which produces efficiency through speed and multiple solution concepts. USIT has been in use in the Ford Motor Company since 1995 with over 1000 engineers and scientists trained by 2000. USIT is an offspring from the Russian methodology known as TRIZ; however, it differs from TRIZ in several ways, most noteworthy is the relative simplicity and ease of learning and practicing USIT. An overview of USIT will be given with references to corporate experiences.

(See http://ic.net/~ntelleck for more information.)

Ed Sickafus is the author of "Unified Structured Inventive Thinking – How to Invent", he is recently retired from the Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory where he was a corporate scientist for 33 years. He did basic research in surface physics, and managed several research departments including the physics department. He is now president of Ntelleck, LLC and, with Ford Motor Company permission, teaches USIT to non-Ford interests.