Focus on Function - Do not limit your creativity for the sake of artificial aesthetics or personal reservations. If it's ethical and helpful - consider it
Fresh Eye Approach - When you have been working exhaustively on a problem for an extended period of time, take a break. Take a step back from the project and do something else. When you come back you will frequently have new insights
Don't Put the Cart Before the Horse - While you can discover something by accident, frequently trying to plug a problem into a solution is a lot less effective than trying to fit a solution into a problem
Brute-force searching for a theorem is impractical due to the large duration of time required to reach the optimal solution
Elimination of infeasable and unwanted soltuions is extremely useful during projects. An alaysis of the characteristics of the kept and eliminated solutions can be used to articulate the most impactful qualities of each proposal.
Acquiring Technical Knowledge
Science is the foundation of technical knowledge
The protection of intellectual property is paramount for an innovator (after innovating of course!)
Copyrights, trademarks, and patents are the hallmarks of protecting intellectual property
Objective of a Patent
To explain the importance of scientific and technical knowledge in the practice of engineering
To distinguish between the three distinct types of property: real, personal, and intellectual
To distinguish between utility, design, and plant patents
To define principal criteria (novelty, non obviousness, and inventor-ship)
Trade Secrets
valid only while those in the know keep them secret
Ex - WD-40, Coca-Cola formula, Google Search Algorithm, KFC original recipe, Listerine, Twinkies Filling, etc...
Can be maintained as the most powerful form of keeping confidential knowledge confidential
Abstraction and Modeling
To obtain a conceptual perspective of the problem and its possible solutions by using models
models including computerized simulations are important to organize data, structure our thoughts, transform an unfamiliar problem to a set of recognizable sub-problems, and can help minimize hazards on dangerous projects
Models are first and foremost purposeful representations of reality
Models should allow for reliable evaluation and refinement mathematically
Models can be Iconic, Analogical, and Symbolic
Sharding - a method for distributing a database into smaller more manageable parts called shards
One good example of mathematical modeling is the Friis Transmission Equation which given two transmission antennas with gain G, wavelength lambda, and distance R, the ration of the power at the receiving antenna to the output power of the transmitting antenna - This models the transmission with no additional reflection or absorption
Occam's Razor - A model should not become more complex than is absolutely necessary and should not go into more detail than is required to accurately model the subject