A condom for fire hoses. A grenade that eats oxygen. A transmitter to help firefighters navigate a smoke-filled room. Only the last one won $10,000.
Three College of Engineering students created FireSite, a radio-like guide that lets firefighters \see"" through smoke. The students, who won the 2005 Schoof's Prize for Creativity this February, say any of us can come up with creative a ideas that can make a difference.
""Be open-minded about any idea. It's the wild ones that make money,"" said Chandler Nault, a mechanical engineering senior and the hands-on, practical man of the team.
The team-with Nick O'Brien as the creative man and Mitch Nick the motivator-credits its team dynamic, hard work and creativity for its success.
""We all had our own drive,"" O'Brien said. ""That's the creative process. You need diversity."" O'Brien, a sophomore chemical engineering and theater major, organized the team's brainstorming sessions.
""We had Play-doh and Koosh Balls-toys to get our minds thinking outside the box,"" Nault said. ""We were forced to be open to get as many ideas as we could. The goal is ideas, not what works.""
Bassam Shakhashiri, a UW-Madison chemistry professor and director of the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy, said this competition shows humans' innate creativity.
""The fact that they participated is a manifestation of the human desire to do creative work,"" he said.
The team of engineering students collaborated with Madison Fire Station No. 1 to invent something to make the firefighters' jobs easier, O'Brien said. ""We knew this had more significance. We were creating an actual product to help people and save lives,"" he said.
Shakhashiri said many students on campus do not want to be creative, preferring to watch TV or sit in front of the computer.
Creativity, he said, needs discipline. ""Creativity goes beyond inspirational, beyond motivational. It addresses and deals with difficult problems that haven't been solved.""
Shakhashiri said it is difficult to even define creativity. Creativity, for instance, is original, but not all originality is creative.
""I think about the great composers,"" he said, ""Did they hear the tunes in their mind? Did they hear the noises of every instrument in the orchestra?""
""More people have the ability to be creative than they think,"" O'Brien said, ""They're just too frightened to step out of their boundaries.""
Nault recommends simplicity to help translate the creative idea into a practical product.
""Anytime you build anything, go to the shop, RadioShack, Target,"" he said, ""Work with what you know. I think that's what bogs engineers down. Keep it simple, stupid.""
This creative experience, O'Brien said, has changed the teammates' lives.
""We've established ourselves in engineering,"" he said, ""We've gone beyond just going to class.""
