engineering

Inventionland

Inventionland is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Inventionland rather than just read about it. In short: Inventionland is a Pittsburgh-based immersive work environment and idea incubator. Inventionland was conceived by George Davison.

Key takeaways

Inventionland belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Inventionland to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Inventionland from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Inventionland is a Pittsburgh-based immersive work environment and idea incubator. Inventionland was conceived by George Davison. Nathan Field served as the executive creative coach, and Joey Warren acted as senior concept designer. According to George Davison, his intention in building Inventionland was to provide a creative work environment in which artists, graphic designers, industrial designers and others could design, develop and create prototypes.

Conception and Themed Sets Inventionland officially opened in 2006, having taken 18 months from design to construction. The interior renovation took one year and cost $5 million. Within Inventionland's 61,000 square-foot design facility are 16 themed sets, named and designed to reflect the new-product invention activity within. Some of the sets include:

Motor Speeday: industrial and automotive products Discover Pirate Ship: toy department Crafty Cottage: sewing Animation Attic: Creativity Cabin Nursery Noook: Baby products Pet Shack: Animal products Inventalot Castle Creation Cavern: hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking Brainpower Ballpark: sports Treehouse Inventron 54 Robot: consumer electronics Home Sweet Home: household products Home Health Innovations Concept Kitchen (giant cupcake): kitchen Animation Studio with one of the largest green screens in the tri-state area Inventionland also has three running waterfalls, lifelike trees and butterflies and grass-lined sidewalks. Its manufacturing capabilities include metalworking, woodworking, molding, laser cutting, prototyping, circuit board construction and more, which all take place in its production facility.

Honors and awards The January/February 2008 issue of I.D. Magazine recognized Inventionland as one of "40 Amazing-Looking Design Offices". Inventionland was also featured in the 2008 Ripley's Believe It or Not Annual, "The Remarkable Revealed". In 2011, Inventionland was the recipient of a Creative Rooms in Business Award, a regional Pittsburgh award given annually and sponsored by Pittsburgh Design, Art and Technology (DATA). In 2018, an article on Career Addict listed Inventionland as one of the top nine coolest offices in the world.

Inventionland TV Special On December 24, 2011, the History Channel aired Inventionland, a reality television special shot on location at Inventionland and starring George Davison. According to a company press release, Inventionland was produced for History by JWM Productions, and Jonathan Wyche served as the producer. Patrice Shannon edited the show, and the online editor was Brian Newell. The Inventionland TV debut featured three inventors, Milton Branch, Curt Whiteside and Jason Ramsey, who each developed a prototype for a new consumer product. The one-hour reality show explored whether the inventors' product designs would function in a usable manner and/or be suitable for licensing and merchandising. In the show, George Davison and five of his employees tested various designs of each of the three inventions in a variety of settings, including a NASCAR auto shop. Five Inventionland designers and builders were featured in the show (Jason Rogge, Jarrod Campbell, Clay Carlino, Lucky Swartz, and Curtis Wierman).

References

External links Official website 40.5017095°N 79.8705323°W / 40.5017095; -79.8705323

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Inventionland

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Inventionland claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Inventionland before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Inventionland ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Inventionland

In research: Inventionland appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Inventionland in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Inventionland is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2006 establishments in Pennsylvania, Buildings and structures completed in 2006, Buildings and structures in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Inventionland outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Inventionland in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Inventionland means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Inventionland out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Inventionland in simple terms?

Inventionland is a Pittsburgh-based immersive work environment and idea incubator. Inventionland was conceived by George Davison.

Why does Inventionland matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Inventionland?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Inventionland.