← Innovation & International Collaboration Division

Innovation Hub & Open R&D Center

Fosters breakthrough innovations in geoscience technologies through interdisciplinary collaboration and rapid prototyping, running design-thinking workshops, ideation sprints, and proof-of-concept development in dedicated makerspace facilities.

⚙️ GeoVerse System Administration Division 🖥️ AI & Computing Sciences Division 🔬 Basic Sciences Division ⚡ Intelligent Geophysical Exploration Division 🛢️ Resource & Energy Engineering Division 🌍 Applied Geoscience Solutions Division 💼 Economics, Policy & Strategy Division 🎓 Education & Training Development Division 🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration Division

Technology Transfer & Commercialization Center Innovation Hub & Open R&D Center Startup Incubation & Entrepreneurship Center International Partnership & Cooperation Center Horizon Scanning & Tech Intelligence Center

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⭐ Center Chief

Thomas Edison

Center Head

💡 Prolific inventor, industrial research lab

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1926–2006

Frank Bass

Researcher

💡 Created the Bass diffusion model, the standard mathematical model for forecasting the adoption rate of new innovations, foundational to innovation metrics

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1888–1966

Alex Faickney Osborn

Researcher

💡 Invented brainstorming, the foundational structured group-ideation technique used in nearly all modern innovation and hackathon methodologies

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1897–1987

J. P. Guilford

Researcher

💡 Founded the psychological study of creativity, introducing the concept of divergent thinking that underlies modern ideation and innovation-metrics research

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1927–2022

Robert H. McKim

Researcher

💡 Co-founded Stanford's Product Design Program and pioneered "visual thinking" pedagogy, the direct forerunner of modern design thinking methodology

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1876–1958

Charles F. Kettering

Researcher

💡 Founded General Motors Research Corporation and pioneered the corporate industrial research laboratory as an engine of continuous applied innovation

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1912–1990

Taiichi Ohno

Researcher

💡 Created the Toyota Production System, the origin of lean manufacturing principles that directly underlie modern lean startup and lean innovation methodology

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1895–1983

Buckminster Fuller

Researcher

💡 Pioneered "design science" and prolific independent prototyping (geodesic dome, Dymaxion designs), embodying the maker-culture ethos of DIY invention and rapid physical experimentation

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1913–2004

C. West Churchman

Researcher

💡 Co-founded operations research as a discipline and articulated "the systems approach," a holistic methodology for tackling complex innovation and design problems

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1930–1997

Donald Schön

Researcher

💡 Founded organizational learning theory and the concept of the "reflective practitioner," describing how innovators learn by reflecting-in-action during design and prototyping work

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1928–2016

Yoji Akao

Researcher

💡 Created Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a structured method for translating customer needs directly into engineering and design specifications

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1910–1990

Kelly Johnson

Researcher

💡 Founded Lockheed's Skunk Works and its 14 rules of rapid, small-team, autonomous engineering, the model for modern rapid-prototyping and proof-of-concept development

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1925–2006

Arthur David Hall III

Researcher

💡 Wrote the first comprehensive methodology for systems engineering, providing a structured process for developing complex innovative systems from concept to deployment

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1915–1989

Kaoru Ishikawa

Researcher

💡 Developed the fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram and popularized quality circles, foundational tools of total quality management and continuous-improvement (kaizen) culture

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1926–1998

Genrikh Altshuller

Researcher

💡 Created TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), a systematic methodology for solving engineering contradictions derived from analyzing hundreds of thousands of patents

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1904–1972

Henry Dreyfuss

Researcher

💡 Founded human factors industrial design, establishing anthropometric and ergonomic principles for designing products around real human users

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center

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1904–1985

Lawrence D. Miles

Researcher

💡 Created Value Analysis/Value Engineering at General Electric, a systematic method for maximizing product function relative to cost, core to innovation-metrics and impact evaluation

🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration DivisionInnovation Hub & Open R&D Center