TRIZ course enhances thinking and problem solving skills of engineering students

Forty two engineering students at RMIT were enrolled in a course on the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), which was conducted over 13 weeks in semester 2, 2006. It was found that most of the students were unaware of any thinking and problem solving tools before the course. Results of the student surveys showed that students’ perceptions of their abilities in problem solving changed vastly as a result of the course. Many students believed that their thinking had changed as a result. Students reflected that they would have never expected themselves to come up with the ideas they thought of and suggested while conducting their final project, if they had not been formally taught the tools of problem solving. It was also found that this course on TRIZ thinking tools impacted students’ problem solving ability much more than the discipline-based courses.