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Image of
open human head with various objects belongs to IPOwatchdog.com
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By
Kenneth Nwachinemelu David-Okafor
Welcome to the fourth installment in this
serialized blog post.
The big question we began treating in the
third installment is: HOW DO YOU SOURCE GOOD IDEAS?
How did some people who have gone ahead do
it? Or even you perhaps, how did you do it the first time?
Various people have received great ideas
through all sorts of sources and agencies — by
accident, from technological exhibitions/demonstrations, from joint research
(through working collaborations), through imitation (Reverse engineering may be
considered here), by intuition, by studying local environment and observing
missing links, by thinking and pursuing hunches, from reading books and other
publications, through meditation and others. While some would not disclose how
they got their own ideas.
A prospective inventor in Nigeria might not readily
have access to the following three ideas’ sources but they are no less valid as
veritable source of "buildable" ideas. They are namely: a) Reverse Engineering,
b) University-Industry Collaborations, and c) National Science Festival/International
Technological Exhibitions/Demonstrations
Reverse Engineering
From a review of literature, Reverse
engineering is simply "trying to figure out how something works."
It is the process of discovering the
technological principles of a human (or non-human) made device, object or
system through analysis of its structure, function and operation.
It often involves taking something (e.g., a
mechanical device, electronic component, biological, chemical or organic matter
or software programme) apart and analyzing its workings in detail to be used in
maintenance, or to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing
without using or simply duplicating (without understanding) the original.
Reverse engineering is said to be
fundamentally directed to discovery and learning, as engineers learn the state
of the art by reverse engineering others’ products, and has been described as
the important supporting technology which digests and absorbs advanced
technology and shortens the cycle of product design development. It leads to
creation of new goods/products, new processes and new knowledge, which are
major sources of technical change.
The process is mainly undertaken with the
end aim of learning how to build a technology or make improvements to it and It
is one of the endorsed and legally acceptable means of extracting know-how or knowledge
for creation of innovation from a human-made artefact or product, even if the
intention is to make a product that will draw customers away from the original
product.
In its purest form, an innovator following
this path buys, begs, borrows, or steals a product or a system, takes it apart to
understand how it works, and duplicates it, usually making it better or
upgrading it. By doing this the innovator avoids the design and engineering
phase of independent, new or original innovation by using a design originated
by somebody else.
When a new product is created as a result of
reverse engineering, same is regarded as innovation as well and can be protected
by patent under intellectual property in order to generate profit which can be
reinvested to create more innovation or channeled into other sectors of the
economy to generally boost same.
It has therefore been seen as a source of
vast development of technology all over the world, and an economically proven
as well as legally acceptable way of boosting economic growth. Here, we recall,
that it is well known that one of the influential factors that could lead to
economic growth is the improvement of technology. This could increase
productivity with the same levels of labor, thus accelerating growth and development.
In under developed countries therefore,
reverse engineering is viewed as a short-cut method for access to technology,
its development and completion. By use of this method, underdeveloped countries
can decrease the technologic gap between themselves and industrial countries.
This is because it has been shown to be one of the fastest ways to discover
what is in a component, in order to improve on it and use the knowledge gained
there-from for further advancement of technology. It thrives where there is a
good working system that boosts Research and Development (R&D) and its
existence helps nations to develop new technologies, create opportunities and
improve their technological positions on the global scene.
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Black
and white sketch portrait of the famous inventor, physicist and engineer Nikola
Tesla Image source: wespenre.com
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University-Industry Collaborations
Individuals and countries can take advantage
of the opportunities which University-Industry collaborations present. Though
the university system in Nigeria, for a variety of reasons, is lagging here, yet
prospective inventors who get into higher education and graduate studies when
they travel overseas could chance upon this University-Industry linkage.
A review of literature indicates we are now
living in a time of global business activity and knowledge economy. Capital,
which was once the major constraint to growth, is now mobile on a global scale.
Natural resources can be shipped to anywhere they can be used in the most
efficient way. What really matters is the knowledge that enables a company to
differentiate and generate competitive advantage. The advent of digital
technology and biotechnology in the ’90s has amply demonstrated the way in
which the nature of competition today differs from the earlier paradigm.
A high number of new information
technologies originated from academic circles and venture businesses rather
than from the laboratories of large firms. An increased call for the value of
money and reduced time to the market added to the pressures on firms to use the
output of R&D that takes place outside laboratories of companies. All of
these forces came together to create growing incentives for firms to work with
universities for research and development.
From the perspective of the universities,
there is a growing interest to join forces with the private sector.
Universities are being called upon to make tangible contributions to society.
In many economies, governments are coming under the strain of allocating
limited resources over divergent requirements such as providing for the aging
population, combating environmental degradation, and maintaining education and
social welfare. The university is no longer a sacrosanct investment, free from
the critical evaluation of cost effectiveness. To work with industry is now a
very attractive option for universities, as the laboratories of the private
sector are often better funded and better equipped with research instruments.
The level and quality of their research is as high as those of universities. In
addition, students tend to wish to attend universities that have close working
relations, since such universities offer chances of finding good jobs after
graduation.
The experience of the United States has been
examined carefully across the world. The US industry lost its leadership
position largely to Japan during the ’80s, but revived since the middle of the
’90s. During the ’80s, the US introduced many measures to facilitate the
commercial use of scientific knowledge that was in the hands of the
universities. The Bayh-Dole act of 1980 was the best-known legislation for that
purpose. The Act permitted the universities to retain their new knowledge that
resulted from publicly funded research activities and where possible to
commercialize such knowledge through licensing to industry or to start-up
companies.
National Science Festivals/International Technological
Exhibitions
Science and technology history is replete
with science festivals, technological exhibitions and demonstrations.
I will not treat these exhaustively. Rather what
I would prefer is to whet your curiosity and give you fodder to explore;
knowledge is key.
According to the Encyclopaedia 2016, a science
festival is a festival that showcases science and technology with the same
freshness and flair that would be expected from an arts or music festival.
Events can be varied, including lectures, exhibitions, workshops, live
demonstrations of experiments, guided tours, and panel discussions. There may
also be events linking science to the arts or history, such as plays, dramatized
readings, and musical productions. The core content is that of science and
technology, but the style comes from the world of the arts.
The modern concept of a science festival
comes from the city of Edinburgh where in April 1989 the first Edinburgh
International Science Festival took place. Edinburgh's success led to the
development of science festivals in many other parts of the world. The British
Science Association restructured its annual meeting, originally established in
1831 as a discussion forum for scientists, to turn it into the British Science
Festival of today. The town of Cheltenham—famous for its jazz, music, and
literature festivals—added science to its portfolio with the creation of the Cheltenham
Science Festival in 2002.
The concept spread to Sweden in 1997 with The
International Science Festival in Gothenburg which is an annual festival in
central Gothenburg, Sweden with thought provoking science activities for the
public.
The spread of science festivals within the
United States is relatively recent. One of the earliest examples is Wonderfest,
an annual Bay Area science festival that began in 1998. Additionally, the
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
includes a number of public events. Focusing on one particular science, the
physics festival "Mastering the Mysteries of the Universe", was held
in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999 in association with the centennial of the American
Physical Society.
TO BE CONCLUDED
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