Design Inspiration

[alb4h]

Originally Posted by Levansic

There is nothing wrong with research, and most students have probably already found those videos. I guess I'm a bit of a purist on brainstorming and the value of ignorant thought. Seeing how someone else tackled a similar task, leads you down the same road, except without the information learned from blind alleys along the way.

How many bio-mimicking throwers will be aborted in the brainstorming stage, because the inventor watched those videos, and decided to put their ideas down?

I love how you state this - the value of ignorant thought.
I totally agree with you. It doesn't mean that you don't do research when the time is right, but scouring the internet for examples of how it's been done is not engineering or inventing. Invention is hard work and you have to be willing generate wacky ideas and try things out and fail. When I see the 'design and build in 3 days' and cad and build a chassis in a day efforts during the build season I have a lot of mixed feelings. Seeing how professional engineers quickly go through a process is not a substitute for doing it yourself and I believe is a hindrance to that design process for many students.

Ann