Additional Resources for Those Interested in Design Thinking and Frugal Engineering

As a holder of a BS in Electrical Engineering, I was pleased that three of this week’s readings focused largely on engineering and product development and how social entrepreneurs are utilizing it to solve social issues. “Products for the other 3 billion,” “Design Thinking,” and “The Importance of Frugal Engineering,” each highlighted how understanding the customer and focusing on low-cost methods and inputs can lead to the successful and profitable creation of products and services fit for solving key issues of the developing world. Rather than rehash the arguments stated in those articles, the aim of this post is to focus on additional readings that can provide additional information to students interesting in learning more about these areas.

• Frugal Engineering: History: Patton, Phil. “The Meek Shall Inherit the Market.” The Design Observer Group. 4 October 2010. http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=18948 
• Support/Adoption: “Global Automotive Industry — Frugal engineering holds the key.” The Hindu Business Line. 6 May 2009. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/05/06/stories/2009050650010800.htm 
• Design Thinking: Proponents: Merholz, Peter. “Why Design Thinking Won’t Save You.” Harvard Business Review – Blogs. 9 October 2009. http://blogs.hbr.org/merholz/2009/10/why-design-thinking-wont-save.html
• Adoption: Martin, Roger. “Design Thinking Comes to the US Army.” The Design Observer Group. 3 May 2010. http://www.designobserver.com/changeobserver/entry.html?entry=13478
• Support: Rodriquez, Diego. “Why Design Matters.” Bloomberg Business Week. 1 February 2010. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2010/id20100127_150531.htm
• History/Detailed Explanation: “Video: Tim Brown urges designers to think big.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. July 2009. http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_urges_designers_to_think_big.html 

In addition to reading the aforementioned information, interested parties may benefit from attending the upcoming TechBridgeWorld Conference hosted here at CMU on November 11. The conference will focus on the TechBridgeWorld research group’s work developing products and solutions for the world’s developing community. Indeed, design thinking, frugal engineering, and more largely, social innovation is a large part of the group’s focus. Thus attending the event will be beneficial to both students interested in design thinking and/or frugal engineering and to the entire Foundation of Social Innovation and Enterprise class. Those interested can find more information here: http://www.techbridgeworld.org/Interactive2010/