Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

July 2020 Issue: Connectivity and IoT In Motion And Automation

By Editor Design World | July 6, 2020

Share

Why can’t we have innovation all the time?

Recently, while listening to the excellent Freakonomics Podcast, one of the guests provided some great insight into our current situation. Marshall Burke, an Associate Professor at Stanford University explained that many times it takes an outside event to force society to move in directions that it had been technologically ready for, but not psychologically ready for.

“Certain economic historians point to these critical junctions in history where it wasn’t slow change but something specific happened that set entire countries or entire economies on a different course,” Burke said in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. “One idea is that these sorts of large-scale events could be critical junctures that cause us to change our behavior in ways that slow-moving changes in technology or slow-moving changes in preferences never do.”

We’ve seen countless examples of engineers being innovative over the past few months. Manufacturing facilities have been reworked to produce ventilators or frontline PPE. Design teams have discovered (or rediscovered) Zoom meetings and the like. Engineers have refined processes to make them more efficient. Creativity has reigned.

I had a fascinating interview with Deborah Jennings-Conner, who is UL’s Director of Global Life and Health Sciences Regulatory and Testing Assurance recently, and she hit on many of these points, too.

“It seems when we’re in a normal situation, if someone has a new idea or a new idea about a product or a process, we can find 20 or 30 ways to say, ‘we could never do that.’ Or we might look at it next year,” she said. “But in this crisis situation, both at UL and what I’ve seen around the world, we have managed to quickly move forward on innovative, creative ideas and we have found a way to say yes. Not that we’re cutting any corners, not that we’re doing what we shouldn’t be doing, but we’ve managed to say yes to doing things the right way.”

One of Jennings-Conner’s colleagues would tell her, “Make the right way the easy way.” And she pointed out that if we can have all of this incredible innovation in a crisis situation, why can’t we have that innovation all the time? We’re all looking forward to the day when we are finally past the COVID-19 crisis. But once we are on the other side, let’s make constant innovation the default setting, and not just the crisis setting.

Paul J. Heney – VP, Editorial Director [email protected]


Filed Under: DIGITAL ISSUES

 

Related Articles Read More >

August 2022 Special Edition: Motion Systems Handbook
August 2022 Issue: Selecting regenerative resistors to harvest servomotor energy
July 2022 Issue: A look at the top 10 programming languages
June 2022 Special Edition: Test & Measurement Handbook

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Industrial disc pack couplings
  • Pushing performance: Adding functionality to terminal blocks
  • Get to Know Würth Industrial Division
  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard

Design World Podcasts

July 26, 2022
Tech Tuesdays: Sorbothane marks 40 years of shock and vibration innovation
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • Subscribe!
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings