The brainstorming deliverable is a significant portion of the individual component of your final grade. However, more importantly, this deliverable is critical because this early work defines your direction for the entire term! Shortcuts now lead to disappointment later. Remember the data from the September 11 class notes!

The ideas you generate will be pooled with ideas from your teammates and those proposed by potential customers at the idea fair. This idea generation process leads the product ideas your section will propose at the 3-ideas presentation.

Generate and select ideas:
Generate a list of wide-ranging ideas and simple 'doodle' sketches or annotations in your design notebook. Example sketches are on the right.

You should come up with at least 20 ideas. Once you have a sufficient number of ideas, pick your top 5 using an idea selection method of your choice. Consider the thoughtfulness of the ideas and the breadth of what you are proposing. Be sure to do some preliminary research to help ensure your top 5 ideas are technically feasible and not exactly like something already on the market.

All of the top 5 ideas that you choose should be ones that you would be happy pursuing over the rest of the term with your team. Additionally, you should do a preliminary check to make sure that a very similar product does not already exist.

Refine your top 5 ideas:
Prepare a simple annotated sketch to explain each of the 5 ideas, similar in style to the examples provided on the right (this type of sketching was taught in 2.00b or 2.670). Put each annotated idea sketch on a separate sheet of 8.5x11 paper or use a full page in your notebook. If you use sheets of paper you should tape them into your notebook.

Please make sure that your 5 idea drawings are understandable from at least 10 feet since you will be pinning them up in your lab meeting. You may want to review the sketching tutorials or printout the creativity strategy cheat-sheet.

Please review the detailed instructions on how to submit your brainstorming assignment.

Brainstorming sketches: Barry Kudrowitz, "An Exploration of Concepts in Projectile Toy Design", MIT MS thesis, 2005.