Engineering to inspire

Sell Your Idea!

You’ve got your idea. You’ve submitted it.

More importantly, you’re a Create2011 finalist!

So what next?

Apart from garnering votes (very, very important if you want to win that 4-day trip to Nokia Singapore and Beijing!), Create2011 finalists must create prototypes and present them to our judges!

That’s actually three different posts: one on garnering votes; another on prototypes (which our CoTs will be mentoring); and finally on presentation.

Last week, our guest writer Ong Yizhen wrote a rousing post on how to do up and present your idea to kick ass (like our favourite non super-powered hero).

Kick Ass movie trailer

But what would rock the Creators of Tomorrows’ boat? We’ve polled them for their responses and found that it’s a mixed bag of acting and tips.

Got a problem? Tell us at creators.of.tomorrow@gmail.com and we’ll help you out!

On Kick-Ass Presentations

We’ve talked about how to articulate engineering ideas last week. Now that the first hurdle has been jumped over, let’s deliver a kick-ass presentation on your idea!

First, relook into the previous article and revise those 3 steps.

Got a swanky name for your idea?

Got your lists out?

Translated them for the layman?

Good!

Now, since you have a great idea, now it’s time to do up a presentation that is clear and concise:

On Articulating Ideas

Or “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

As theoretical physicist, philosopher and author, Albert Einstein said: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Ideas are simple. They are the combustion of certain molecules to create this incredible euphoric sensation when they start to take shape and form.

But ideas will remain as ideas if they are stuck in your head.

So how do you translate your ideas into words, pictures or something that can be explained simply enough for people to understand? I agree that engineering ideas can be complicated and complex. But that doesn’t give you the excuse: “Oh it’s an engineering term. You wouldn’t understand.”

Read the following carefully – they will help you to get your point across, pitch your ideas to your friends, clients and reduce the number of politely bewildered faces whenever you try to convey your ideas.

1) Give a title to your idea

It creates a reference to your idea. And give a simple and catchy too! Articulating ideas also means reaching out to your readers or listeners in the best way that attracts their attention!

2) Create lists

Everybody loves lists. A simple Pro/Cons list will help you when you are expressing your ideas. It will also help you in your thought process on how well formed your idea is.

3) Speak to the layman

Not everybody knows your fancy engineering lingo or the fabulous formulas that you are so used to working with. This also doubles up as a way of testing if you know and understand your idea well enough to translate it into a simpler way. (Yes, back to Einstein’s quote again)

Follow these three steps when articulating your idea in a proposal or a presentation or whatever. But if you find these all too long winded – just remember K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

By Ong Yizhen

Take the Create2011 engineering challenge and tell us your vision of Future Mobility to win the grand prize of: A Nokia Experiential Journey in Beijing and Singapore! Check out our Facebook fanpage for exciting contests & giveaways!

Create2011 Help File: Let’s talk Design

When we say “to design”, we usually mean “to look good”, “to make pretty”, or “to decorate”, rarely do we think “to plan”, or “to devise”.

That’s also design, and Wikipedia defines design as “planning that lays the basis for the making of every object or system…it means applied arts and engineering” (Wikipedia).

Thus design is an integral part of engineering. Like the rest of this series, we’ve gotten our Creators’ of Tomorrow take on design and engineering.

So to design or not to design? To design, of course!

But really, shouldn’t we be asking “how to combine design with engineering?”

Create 2011 Help Files: On teamwork

You’ve got a bright idea for Create2011. So does your teammate.

Here’s the problem: you both think that your own idea’s better than the other… So how do you resolve it?

Or what if your teammate isn’t doing any work?

Or what if you just don’t have the time to work together?

They are problems that every team will face. In fact, you might just be having a teamwork crisis right now! But working in teams is a big part of doing engineering. In fact, engineering projects are just too large-scale for anyone to do on their own.

While we realise there might problems, just talking about it doesn’t solve it. That’s why we got the Creators of Tomorrow to weigh in on how to work better as a team.

Got a problem? Tell us at creators.of.tomorrow@gmail.com and we’ll help you out!

Create 2011 Help Files: Idea Starters

Last week, the Creators of Tomorrow weighed in on “How do I know if my ideas are good?”

We know it’s not easy dreaming up of things from scratch. So for this week, we’ve pulled out some ideas from Create2011’s Data Visualiser to kickstart the brain-storming process.

Here they are in no particular order:

“nothing is connected, everything becomes wireless and portable.”

- dawn teow

“a super environmentally friendly car“

- chelsea

“A combination of infrastructure, communications, transportation and technology. “

- Michelle

“Technology and transportation gadgets! “

- Amanda Tan

“flying cars“

- Jordan C

“Something very large can be very capable and easy to carry. “

- Yu Tian

“Anything we need invisibly moves around us“

- Hu Jing

“GPS to be projected on to the Windscreen of cars to guide us without lookin away“

- Xander

“Future cars will run on sea water, no more oil wars“

- David.H

“A rejuvenating machine to perk me up within minutes when i am exhausted“

- Charlene C

“Super computer packed into a watch“

- Zach

Hope it helps! And add on to the ideas at Create2011!

Create 2011 Help Files: How do I know if my ideas are good?

It’s easy to know if we made it in school. Our report cards have A’s, B’s, C’s on them. Problem is: it gets thorny outside of school where standards (e.g. 90 marks = A) become somewhat fuzzy and arbitrary.

That includes the Create2011 Engineering Challenge.

We’re looking for “a brilliant idea related to the theme of Future Mobility, one which can improve the way we play, think, live and connect.”

But how do we know if our ideas are “brilliant”?

The judges will tell us…if we make it to the finals. But we’ll need some way of deciding before then; to see if we’re “on track” or not.

So for this instalment of the Create2011 Help Files, the Creators of Tomorrow tell us what they think makes a brilliant idea.

Note: These are some ways to help you judge if your ideas are good. Tell us what you think about them in the comments…