The Wrong Question

The setup is simple. Put an airplane on a conveyer belt. Run the belt backwards as the airplane “drives” forwards. Does the airplane take off?
The question has caused a big controversy on some corners of the ‘net, and is now the subject of the upcoming Mythbusters episode. But it is the wrong question, and it [...]

Read Full Post »

It Must Get Done

We’ve been watching a lot of the Food Network recently, not necessarily for the recipes, but for the entertainment. One program that is quite interesting is Dinner: Impossible. The premise of the show is that the star, Robert Irvine, gets put in impossible situations, and has to cook a gourmet meal in a limited amount [...]

Read Full Post »

Thinking Outside the Box and the Issue of Constraints

The phrase “Think outside the box” has been a buzzphrase for more than a decade, it would seem. People who don’t remember the original problem posed that lead to the coining of this phrase toss the phrase around as if it applied in every case. The original problem was to connect a set of nine [...]

Read Full Post »

Asking the Right Question

I’m reading Scott Berkun’s book, “The Art of Project Management” to prepare for my project management class. I don’t know that it would ever make a good textbook, but as supplementary reading, the insight, examples, and advice he gives is exceptional.
I’m reading in Chapter 5, “Where Ideas Come From,” and it struck me, my freshman [...]

Read Full Post »

Engineering Problem Solving

This course is our first-year course in programming and problem solving. Problem solving as a subject area seems to have fallen away as a fad started by ABET 2000 in the mid-1990’s. I have had other faculty tell me that I should “focus on problem solving, and forget the programming.” My response is “How do [...]

Read Full Post »