Clinic Presentation: Rules Of Creative Engagement For An Engineering Research Project
Today, I gave a presentation at a high school in San Jose, CA. The context was as a “clinic” to set up students to participate in the Synopsys Championship (a regional science fair). I pulled in various lessons from my YCISL design thinking program. Writing my notes here because I have a feeling I will be doing this more and more.
The main idea usually behind these clinics is to introduce students to rules and procedures for entering the Synopsys Championship. This particular clinic was requested by a teacher to try to raise overall project “quality” among the students at the school level, and open opportunities for students to pursue competition at the Synopsys Championship.
I worked up a new slide set. It comprised 6 parts (1 slide each). There was just 30 minutes.
- ABOUT THE 2026 SYNOPSYS CHAMPIONSHIP
- 5 RESEARCH PHASES
- THE PLAN & APPROVAL
- EXAMPLE: A DRONE + ARDUINO ENGINEERING PROJECT
- LET’S FREE-FORM BRAINSTORM AN ENGINEERING PROJECT
- THE 8 SECRETS OF (RESEARCH) SUCCESS
I started with a slide about the 2026 Synopsys Championship. It set a target in time and place. Understanding that this would not be a “grab” for most of the students, I attached Tim Brown’s “Sketch Your Neighbor” exercise which is how I usually start YCISL workshops. In terms of EQ, this raised awareness of the other students in the room and pulled mindful focus on what was about to happen in the clinic.
Dipping our feet into engineering research projects, I showed a slide with the YCISL Simple Innovation Framework (adopted for the Sustainability Design Thinking course) with the fives phases of Ideation, Planning, Prototyping, Testing and Launch. This suggested an organized approach to the project work. Further, the idea of iteration as a required part of engineering research was highlighted.
The next slide referenced the Engineering Project Detailed Research Plan that is available for download from the Synopsys Championship website. A completed plan is a necessary submission for an entry application to be approved. Emphasis was on detail, process and due diligence. Boilerplate (necessary for the Open phase of the Gamestorming format that I like to use).
At the mid-point, we got to an example that called on creativity and the imagination. Using my own personal view, the example employed a drone and an Arduino; both devices that I have good experience as a personal hobby as well as in Synopsys Championship project review and judging. Before the presentation had started when I was alone in the meeting room (the Multipurpose Room), I noted various things that I dropped into this part of the presentation. First, I talked about how the room appeared suitable (safety, not FAA-regulated) for indoor drone flight tests given the wide open floor and high ceilings. I also noted a lot of scars on the ceiling panels and mentioned how drones may have been responsible for the damage; the teacher said it may be due to robotics! I felt very good about this improvisational moment with the hope that the students would note things around them as they planned and conducted their research.
The next slide focused on brainstorming…the engineering design of a water bottle. A condensed version of the YCISL Water Bottle Feature List exercise. The twist was having students to pick any topic from their science studies and include it as a feature. One student mentioned “friction” and another “kinematics.” It took just a moment of quiet eye contact after the topic was stated, but it was great to see the Aha! moment on their faces. We also did the sketch step including MVP and MVP+ annotations. This was a great way to approach Silicon Valley-style innovation design.
The wrap-up slide listed 8 attention-to-detail requirements. In a way, it included key gateway information for those students who had found the clinic ideation invigorating and now needed “permission” to dive in. The slide’s title “8 Secrets of (Research) Success” was connected to Richard St John’s “8 Secrets of Success” TED Talk which I said would further help with motivation and purpose.
I am optimistic about the outcome of this clinic.
