Editor | On 07, May 2007

By Katie Barry, Ellen Domb and Michael S. Slocum

Editors Katie Barry, Michael Slocum and Ellen Domb were together in April at the Altshuller Institute’s TRIZCON2007. Ellen presented the history of The TRIZ Journal (and the celebration of its 10^th anniversary) showing how TRIZ was used to solve the challenges of starting a new journal, attracting authors and readers and sponsors, and mastering the technology of online publication. We challenge our readers to follow our example: if you have used TRIZ to solve a real business problem, write an article! We plan to publish several of the papers presented at TRIZCON – look for them to appear in coming issues.

Ellen Domb, Michael Slocum and Katie Barry at TRIZCON2007

Rather than publishing a report following TRIZCON, this year we experimented with live commentary. If you missed the conference (or even if you were there) be sure to read Katie Barry’s commentaries that cover as many sessions as she was able to attend. (Katie is planning to post live commentaries from this week’s Front End of Innovation conference, so if you are interested in innovation in all of its many forms, be sure to keep checking the commentary section Wednesday, March 9^th-Friday, March 11^th.)

This month we have a mix of returning and new authors:

• Abram Teplitskiy, the author of our monthly Student Corner articles, has teamed with Roustem Kourmaev and Igor Endovtsev on Improving Lift/Pump Stations WithTRIZ. The paper is an education in how sewage systems measure and transfer their “products.” The TRIZ principles of making multiple uses of existing resources (such as using gravity to operate a siphon) are well-used by lift/pump stations.
• Hande Argunsah and Professor Donald Coates from the College of Technology at Kent State University have documented a student’s use of TRIZ as a powerful systematic method for a technology graduate student to approach a difficult problem regarding fuel cell research. TRIZ in Industrial Technology Education proposes using TRIZ outside the problem identification and problem solving realm. We look forward to the reactions of students and faculty in other program in letters to the editor and posts in the discussion forum.
• Jahau Lewis Chen is a new contributor representing the Taiwan TRIZ Association. His article shares the Association’s logo, reports on their successful first conference and announces their call for papers for their second conference.
• Val Kraev continues his popular series of TRIZ lessons with Inventive Standards and S-Field Modeling. We published a five-part series on the 76 standards in 2000 (February, March, May,Juneand July) so it is time for a refresher. Val has a series of new examples and, as ever, some challenges for those of you who are expanding your TRIZ knowledge with these lessons.
• Abram Teplitskiy returns with this month’s Student Corner, The Applications of Shape Memory Alloys. Thermal and ferromagnetic metallic alloys and thermally-activated plastic materials used in a wide variety of medical, consumer, and technological applications are presented– we can all learn TRIZ lessons about applying “smart” materials to solve problems. Reminder to parents and teachers: we welcome reports from those who have applied The TRIZ Journal lessons to their own schoolwork.

Until June, happy TRIZ reading!