August 28, 2025 • 46 mins
A challenge in American innovation has been growing for years. As manufacturing shifted overseas and fewer students engaged with science, many companies began noticing a talent gap in STEM and STEAM fields.
In this conversation with co-host Greg Costantino, George M. Davison discusses his decade-long effort to address that gap by developing a practical invention education system now reaching schools across more than half the United States.
The approach blends creativity from nature and the arts with structured innovation methods and real-world production skills. The results are clear: students who once struggled find new ways to succeed, top performers take on fresh challenges, and collaboration thrives through three-person invention teams.
Already, classrooms are seeing higher engagement, with some students even licensing their ideas and bringing products to market. Many of these efforts come to life in the Invention Contest, where students showcase their creativity, pitch their prototypes, and gain real-world experience in innovation.
Step by step, this program is helping to strengthen the nation’s pipeline of future innovators. Just as science labs once laid the foundation for new industries, Inventionland Education is preparing today’s students to develop the ideas and solutions that will shape tomorrow.
For more information about the innovations that are shaping tomorrow's world, head to https://tomorrowsworldtoday.com/
To keep up-to-date with the latest in innovation, technology, sustainability, and more connect with us on social:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
George M. Davison (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome to another
edition of Tomorrow's WorldToday.
Now in this edition, we'regoing to flip the tables because
Greg Constantino who you knowbecause he's on the Discovery
Channel's Tomorrow's World Todayshow with me as co-host he's
going to take charge today andhe's going to start asking me
the questions.
So, greg, have at it.
Greg Costantino (00:22):
All right, George.
Well, thanks a lot.
I'm super happy to be here andget to talk to you about all of
the stuff we're going to talkabout today.
Tell me about your positionwith the invention contest and
the system.
George M. Davison (00:33):
Well, that's a decade of work.
We started a long time agostarting to think about how we
could inspire our youth to getmore into the field of science
and invention, in particular.
In that field and when I was ayoung person, I really enjoyed
the science fairs and I knowthat most of the kids in my
(00:54):
neighborhood really they enjoyedit as well, and it really
pushed me over time into thefield of science because I like
the idea of wondering how thingscome to be.
And so that probably tied backto a point in my life that I saw
starting to disappear.
And then, in addition to that,all the work that we were doing
(01:19):
in building and making productsa lot of that work and factory
work was being outsourced toplaces overseas, and when I saw
that start to happen, Iimmediately concluded that, hey,
that's a serious problem forthe field of invention, because
we invent a lot of things insystems inside factories that
(01:42):
make things.
So if all the manufacturing isgoing to go somewhere else, the
pace of innovation is going toslow down, which in turn leads
to less opportunity for our nextwave of youth coming up in
America.
So I said, no, we're going todo something about that.
We then went about thinkingabout well, how could we make an
(02:03):
impact to inspire our youth sowe can maintain a dominant
position in the field ofinnovation and invention, like
we have for the last hundredyears?
And so we developed a coursewaresystem that goes into the
public schools K through 12.
And we have specific breakdownselementary, middle school and
(02:24):
high school and at the very endthey have an invention contest
that they put on in their school.
So not only do we take the kidsthrough the principles of how to
get there, and we teach themhow to develop ideas and how to
do good in the world, and that'swhere you find opportunity.
We then realized, well, we haveto teach the teachers how to do
(02:46):
this, and so we started doingthat.
And then at the end of thecourse there's this contest, and
then the judges get through alittle training system so they
understand how to judge, and soyou can actually build a
(03:12):
methodology of getting throughall the kids with their
inventions within a reasonableamount of time.
So that's basically how it allgot started.
My role is basically creatingand leading this initiative to
try and get it to not only be ina regional space around our
(03:33):
area, which is where it wasfirst prototyped, here in
Pittsburgh and then perfectedover 10 years.
But now to take it on anational level and eventually
we'll see it might go global,because we have some kids
overseas now doing it too.
Greg Costantino (03:48):
Great.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout how you got here.
How did you know?
You mentioned the science fairswhen you were a kid and how
exciting that was to you.
What about your personaldevelopment and your
professional development, andwhat led you to this place?
George M. Davison (04:00):
Well, you know, I was blessed when I was
younger with some mentors my BoyScout master.
He was just somebody that wasfull of wonder and curious about
a lot of things.
He was a builder maker.
He'd tear engines apart.
He was a guy who believed thatif somebody else can figure
something out, I can figure itout too.
(04:22):
And if somebody else couldbuild this, I could build it too
.
So life around him was alwaysinteresting because he was
curious, which then was put intoall the kids in our Cub Scouts
and then up through the ages.
But you know other things, othermentors came into play.
You know that started to pushme into the science field.
(04:44):
But when I was in chemistryclass I really excelled in that
area and I really enjoyed theexperiments and doing all the
lab work.
And I went to college going inpre-med.
So I had a very heavy scienceinfluence in my earlier days in
college and then, with a lotmore thought around that, I
(05:06):
realized you know, I'm not sosure I want to spend all my time
in a hospital.
So I started to wonder is thisreally right for me?
Because I was just inside thesewhite starch labs night and day
.
And so some other thoughts camein I said you know what?
We have a long history ofbusiness in our family, so over
(05:26):
time we just basically combinedscience and business into you
know now what we do today.
Greg Costantino (05:32):
Right.
Did this kind of lead you intothis career in inventing?
Tell me how that happened.
George M. Davison (05:37):
Yeah, that is kind of how it happened.
When you decide to be involvedwith research and development
and inventing, you basicallylearn how to sharpen your
observational skills and alongwith that, you really need to
care about others more than youcare about yourself.
So you'll notice, if you goback through time and you look
(06:01):
at inventors that are, you know,the Louis Pasteur, the Edisons,
anybody and everybody that youmight think of as an inventor
they tend to put themselvessecond and they're looking out
at how can we help other people,not deal with this problem.
And if we could make thatproblem go away or make it so
(06:21):
it's not such a big problem,that would free people up to be
able to go do better things intheir lives.
You know, maybe even in thehealth field, you know, if you
can solve medical challengesright, so it's really I'd say
it's a very good life.
You're chasing noble causes thatare there to help others.
(06:42):
Some noble causes are smallerright, like if you're just
fixing something that maybe youknow, maybe it's easier to take
out the garbage versus you'resolving a huge health issue for
a lot of people in the world.
But regardless, the mindset is,you know, applicable toward
corporate America and you know,they're always trying to make
(07:05):
better products because they'recompeting on that front.
And then you've got government,right.
You've got all these governmentlabs that are out there.
They employ many, manythousands of research and
development people and they'retrying to also create new things
like new forms of energy, newpretty much everything.
And so to me, that field, thefield of R&D and invention, is
(07:28):
exciting, and chasing theunknown has always been
attractive to me.
Greg Costantino (07:33):
Well, you mentioned Edison and Pasteur.
Are there any other inventorsthat come to mind that inspired
you when you were a kid?
George M. Davison (07:39):
Well, I actually yeah, I'd say I'd put
them.
There's three in particular andthey flow in accordance with
our courseware, really.
And in the invention contestit's inventing and then it's
making, and then it'sstorytelling was one of the most
(08:05):
prolific inventors over timewith the light bulb and a lot of
other ones.
And then Henry Ford, when hestarted to invent a new frame
for his car that was much easierto manufacture and that you
could assemble a car much morequickly.
So that's manufacturing andthere's all sorts of patents
around that.
And then, in the realm ofstorytelling, walt Disney and
(08:29):
Walt was an inventor too.
Most people don't know that hewas not only a great storyteller
, but there are inventionsrelated to Walt as well.
So it's inventing, making andstorytelling.
Those are the three mentors forme anyway Edison, ford and
Disney.
Greg Costantino (08:44):
How do you think this all comes together
into what might be your purposetoday?
George M. Davison (08:50):
Well, I think I've been given an opportunity
to identify a problem and theyouth that we are trying to grow
into the next part of the world.
Let's say where are we goingwith science and what are the
demands Now?
For example, when we do thisshow Tomorrow's World?
(09:12):
Today, I get to be in spaceswith presidents and CEOs of some
of the largest corporations inthe world and I kept hearing the
same thing over and over and Ifinally said I'm going to do
something about it.
But one person in particular,denise.
(09:33):
She's one of the divisionalpresidents at Caterpillar
Corporation and she said to mewe can't find enough STEM
science, technology, engineering, math or STEAM science,
technology, engineering, art andmath people to hire, so they're
having a hiring crisis.
And I found that to be, youknow, like, okay, I'm paying
(09:58):
attention, right, I'm listening.
And then I heard it again andagain and again and then I
realized, well, we actually havea real big problem if the HR
departments of all these majorcorporations don't have people
to hire.
So that, lets us look at thatand say, all right, that's a
serious problem.
(10:19):
Now, can we chase a noble cause?
Where's the noble cause here?
We chase a noble cause.
Where's the noble cause here.
Well, young people are.
You know, how can we havereally interesting lives for
them to live and make a goodlivelihood for themselves?
Well, when corporations arehiring in these departments,
they're in demand.
(10:39):
These are high-paying jobs, andso that's a good thing.
Even on our show too, we've hadthe nuclear labs, the
government nuclear lab people,and you know those are very high
paying jobs too in the field ofscience and invention.
So you know, I think overallthe recognizing, being able to
(11:02):
be in the right position at theright time and recognizing the
need for more people in thisarea was a big thing for us and
so our role.
I look at it as how can we notonly maintain the pace of
innovation in this country, buthow can we accelerate that pace
(11:22):
and stay way ahead of the restof the world?
Greg Costantino (11:28):
Right?
Well, that leads us right intowhat I wanted to talk about next
, which is invention, landeducation.
Now, how is that working andhow is that being utilized
across the United States toreach that goal?
George M. Davison (11:34):
Well, as of now, we're in well over half the
country with our courseware,and so we have challenges.
The challenges are you know,you're in the field of inventing
and making and storytelling.
So when you, when you start tolook at that space, you say well
, how are the teachers in theteacher colleges, how are they
taught in order to teach?
(11:55):
Well, yes, there is curriculumin the teacher colleges to teach
math in all sorts of levels andin English, et cetera, et
cetera, sorts of levels andEnglish, et cetera, et cetera.
But the art of invention is nottaught.
So you do have a challenge inidentifying who can teach this
type of technology and you needto be ready to release the reins
(12:18):
, because they have to beskilled in several areas.
And then you basically releasethe reins on the learners
Because they're chasing theirown ideas in this course, and
what happens is you get a shift,and it's a major shift, so that
, yes, they're learning math,they're learning science,
(12:38):
they're learning English.
Well, english isn'tstorytelling, english is writing
, which you need in this courseYou're going to make in the
manufacturing and making of yourprototypes.
You're going to have to do some.
You're going to have to use a3D printer, maybe, or a laser
cutter, you're going to have tocut a piece of wood at a certain
angle.
You're going to do a math,you're going to have to figure
(12:59):
out the math right, and then, inthe earlier stage of inventing,
you're using your observationalskills and your thinking skills
to try and figure out problems.
So the challenge, though, ishaving really good teachers who
can let, go and let, and they'rebasically a support system to
the students, and then theyelicit help from other teachers
(13:23):
in the school.
So it's hey, you know, we'regoing to have the math teacher
to help come in and figure out,maybe some of the angles on cuts
we need to make.
What's the formula, themathematical formula to do this,
so that Sally or Joe canactually make that prototype or
model that they're trying tobuild.
And so, and because it's thekids' thoughts and ideas and
they're applying themselves, youdon't.
(13:43):
And because it's the kids'thoughts and ideas and they're
applying themselves, you don'thave to tell them to do their
homework.
They do this work, and actually, there's a new problem, and the
new problem is you can't getthem to stop, because they're
working on their idea and theystart to see it come to life.
So, before you know it, theschool bell is ringing and they
(14:05):
don't want to go.
So then they show up afterclass or after school and the
parents?
Some of the comments we hearback from them are you know, I
love what my kid's doing andthey're like working on this
stuff over the weekends whereyou know before they were just
sitting down behind a screenplaying video games.
Greg Costantino (14:22):
Right, right.
Well, how does the nine-stepprocess that you've created?
How does that work into howyou're teaching the teachers to
teach?
George M. Davison (14:30):
So that was part of the system to try and
truncate it into these ninebasic principles of how
invention works.
So, after doing inventing Idon't know if you're aware of
this or not, but we have, I havea lot of inventions in the
market and a lot of patents andthat type of thing.
(14:51):
This is not theory, this isreal world application.
So I took, I took a lot of themore successful products and I
reverse engineered them and Isaid, okay, what are the
repeatable things that we'redoing again and again and again
and again to get to this outcome?
And we took those and wecompressed them into these nine
(15:13):
basic steps.
Of course, there's more thannine steps, but in order to make
it comprehensible, we had toput it into that format.
But also, you know, I'm not acurriculum writer.
So we ended up hiring verytalented curriculum writers who
came in and then they took allof our work and then they
(15:33):
reworked it into pass, all thedifferent state requirements and
that type of thing, which wasamazing to watch as well.
There's a real effort that youcould see over time from our
let's call them the schoolleadership people in this
country to try and you know makeeducation work, and right now
(15:56):
it's working and it's justgetting innovated now.
So before we were more of alike, you used to see all the
classrooms and it was all thetables, all the chairs were
lined up like this and there wasa teacher's chair here in our
innovation labs.
You know that's shifting nowand it's the teacher roams the
(16:17):
kids are in.
They're at desks that havewheels because they're doing
inventing.
Sometimes, then they're doingmaking and then other times
they're getting ready to do alltheir storytelling as they
approach their invention contest.
So these labs have to bemanageable and moved around
accordingly, because sometimesthe projects have to go on the
floor.
They move around, there's allsorts of stuff going on, and so
(16:40):
a mobile room that is designedto inspire them and support them
in their initiatives is anotheradvancement that we've worked
on.
Greg Costantino (16:50):
That's awesome.
So let's shift gears a littlebit.
I have a sort of a differentkind of a question.
When you're dealing with thatmany people and they're all
working on a different invention, confidentiality is of the
utmost importance.
George M. Davison (17:20):
And that's well documented.
Over time.
We have things in ourcourseware, though, that teach
them that right.
So we have invention lab booksinnovation, we call them
innovation lab books, and theylearn the art of innovation,
security, right, and then.
So they learn about that too,which is kind of fun.
But when they go and theyrelease the idea out to their
(17:44):
class and then they release itas they do here on the show,
it's gone public at that point.
But they've learned theprinciples of going through the
process like it is inside aprivate institution In our
course, where they're taughtthat.
(18:04):
But they're learning and so ourhope is that they're learning
and disclosing which is fine fornow, learning and disclosing
(18:25):
which is fine for now, but intime, as a lot of our youth are
moved up into the corporateworld and the government world,
they've learned the principlesof inventing.
Because what I've seen overtime, you can create the
greatest invention in the world,but if you can't figure out a
way to get it into manufacturing, that's a serious problem.
That idea or that invention isgoing to stay in the inventing
stage forever until you figureout a way to get it manufactured
(18:45):
so it can scale.
And then, if you can figurethat out and then you can tell a
story, or if you can't tell astory In other words, if you
can't tell a story more thanlikely you're not going to get
the funding you need to launch acompany or to push that up into
the world to get it out toeverybody to benefit them.
So I, over time, have seen toomany inventions get stuck here
(19:10):
and so we learned over 36 years.
I've been working at this for36 years.
So what I saw was too manythings stalled here because they
couldn't get through themanufacturing process properly,
(19:32):
and so we would go back into theinventing phase with me.
So when I'm doing my inventing,I'm immediately looking at well,
let me think about that.
If I do it this certain way,I'm going to need tooling.
And then I'm going to need to,let's say, do injection, blow
molding as an example, like awater bottle or something, or
something.
Well, that's expensive, whereasif I go this direction, I might
(19:55):
not need tooling.
And so that's part of theconversation going on in the
mind as you select a directionon your invention.
But ultimately, once you getthrough those two, you have to
tell the story, to raise moneyor to manage the project into a
business, et cetera, et cetera.
You're going to talk to peopleabout it.
So these three things work inconcert in order to get the idea
(20:18):
either to a board of directorsto approve it or to start a
company.
So you're talking to aninvestor.
So you're going to make publicdisclosures.
What we're hoping is that ouryouth, when they're in K through
12, they're going to learn thissystem, and that is more
important at that stage, eventhough we've seen over the last
(20:41):
two years in our last coupleinvention contests, four teams
have had their inventionslicensed and two of them have
now been in the market andselling and those kids are
making royalties today.
Greg Costantino (20:55):
Yeah, that's awesome, and so this whole idea
of what you're talking about,those three things working
together in concert, kind ofleads me to my next question,
which is on our show we talkabout the four worlds.
George M. Davison (21:05):
Yes.
Greg Costantino (21:06):
So explain to me what the four worlds are and
how they all work together inthe same way that you just
described.
George M. Davison (21:20):
Yeah, I'd be happy to yeah.
So in tomorrow's world, todaywe have the four worlds.
We have the world ofinspiration, the world of
creation, the world ofinnovation and the world of
production.
So the first world, the worldof inspiration.
And if you do a lot ofinventing over time and you're a
creative person, you willnotice that you will withdraw
from the creative energy thatyou have if you don't get
outside into the natural world.
So we talk about how to manageyourself as a human being, and
(21:44):
we've studied this over timehere at Inventionland, where
we've watched fabulous inventors, very creative guys and gals
who are working nonstop onsolving problems and inventing
solutions, and we represent thatwith the open hand.
In other words, they're in sync.
(22:05):
Their mind is free and it'scoming up with solutions and
it's just really working reallywell.
And at times, though, they runinto problems, and then that
mind's not so free anymore andit's just really working really
well.
And at times, though, they runinto problems, and then the
mind's not so free anymore andit's getting locked up.
Eventually, it gets to thepoint where you know you've got
like the white on your knucklesand you're not getting any more
ideas out of that locked-upbrain.
(22:26):
And so what we do is we trainpeople on when to recognize that
you're like that, and ourmanagers recognize when people
are like that and they'll say,hey, you need to go out, go
somewhere, go outside, get outin nature, go down by the water
and the river, whatever, go,unlock yourself.
And so we use nature as anunlocker and we you'll see that,
(22:50):
like in tomorrow's world.
Today, when they post, they'reposting about everything from
what's going on in the naturalworld to how to kick your shoes
off and get in the grass, lookat the clouds.
You will unlock very quickly.
And so that is the world ofinspiration.
You need that in your life.
From there you can go to theworld of creation.
(23:14):
The world of creation is allabout traditional arts, right?
So traditional arts exist inschools, in many of the schools
today.
Right, that's painting, doingpottery, maybe doing some
stained glass clubs and thingsof that nature.
Baking is in there, cooking,gardening, those kinds of
(23:35):
traditional arts, right?
Traditional arts are very, veryimportant for the creative
human being.
It's also an unlocker, so thatif you're deep down the rabbit
hole in working in technologyand you want to release yourself
, if you haven't noticed, well,it's interesting that I get
unlocked when I'm over here andI'm creating a recipe for some
(23:56):
kind of new thing that I'mcooking.
Well, that's actually notunusual.
You're doing a creative art andso it's pulling you out and so,
knowing again, it's pulling youback to free yourself, right?
So when you're doingtraditional arts, it's a
creative expression that iswonderful.
In what you can create, I likewell, I used to take
(24:19):
blacksmithing classes and lotsof other types of art that I
enjoy and it brings happiness tome.
And then when I decide to goand immerse myself into the
innovation arts again, I'm ready.
So let's talk about that.
That's the world of innovation,and innovation arts can be
(24:40):
highly complex.
Just, traditional arts can bevery complex to master, right?
You don't see manyMichelangelos out there, but you
can enjoy yourself there andgive yourself that wonderful
feeling which gives you health.
Over here.
You're in this unknown world alot, you're going to fail a lot
(25:03):
and you have to learn.
How do I get back up?
I just tried this, like thiscourseware.
It was 10 years of incrementalmodifications to get it
perfected to the point where itcould work seamlessly for a
school out in Kansas as well asout in New York City, right.
So you know it took a lot offailure.
(25:27):
Get back up, listen to youraudience.
What are they telling you?
Where is it working?
Where is it not working?
And that'll wear you down overtime, because we all like to
think what we create is just sowonderful, but it's only
wonderful when others use it,and it doesn't require a lot of
work on their part to use yourservice or your product.
(25:50):
And so, making it simple toteach the art of invention and
innovation, making it simple todo this in these nine steps,
it's all part of that world ofinnovation that we were talking
about, right?
And so the last world, which isthe world of production.
So that is where you convertyour innovation into something
(26:14):
that can be then scaled andgiven to the public at a price
that they can afford.
Ok, so, and also, production,is it's repeatable and
sustainable, right?
So I might only have aprototype in the world of
innovation, and then again, Ihave to figure it out, get it
scaled and then I have to get itfunded.
So, over here in the world ofproduction you're talking about,
(26:38):
have you ever gone on a factorytour?
Yep, so if you can imaginefactory tours in between the
world of innovation, where theycame up with whatever it was
that they created as theirproduct, and then going and
building a 200,000 square footfactory.
Well, I guarantee you there'sprobably another 50 inventions
(26:59):
inside that building that makethis process come together.
So you get this thing out hereat the end, and along with that,
there's another process, andthat's the financial engineering
of production, right?
So you have to become businessliterate, so to speak.
And so that is our four worldsinspiration, creation,
(27:21):
innovation and production.
And they work as an ecosystemand you manage yourself and your
organization accordingly, andif you do that, you'll stay
healthy, you'll be happy withyour work for forever.
You just have to stay insidethat realm, right, and because
it can get very complex.
Greg Costantino (27:42):
So I guess, when we're talking about those
four worlds, where it leads usdirectly into STEAM and STEM,
and how that educational processmakes those four worlds
possible and how that all workstogether, because you have to
have all of those, all of thosedisciplines, in order to make
that work.
So tell me how STEAM and STEMis important in an American
classroom now.
George M. Davison (28:01):
Yeah.
So STEAM and STEM that's beenaround for probably a decade,
maybe even a little longer.
It called that STEM and STEAM.
But the art of applying STEMemand Steen right.
So everybody knows howimportant science, technology,
engineering, art and math are.
(28:22):
We've known that hundreds ofyears.
Right.
But sitting in the classroom andhaving it pushed at you versus
you applying that, it's atotally different learning
experience.
One is engaging, the other isbasically not.
(28:42):
Certain students can excel atyou know, book smart, stem and
STEAM.
What I find interesting is Alot of the students who they say
are you know, they're not thebest learners out there.
That's not true.
What's true is is they learndifferently and they learn.
(29:04):
My observation and I will provethis out over time my
observation is that STEM andSTEAM students are nonstoppable
when you get them into appliedSTEM and STEAM curriculums.
But they're not going to sit.
They're not going to sit allday long and read and make note
cards and read and make notecards.
(29:25):
No, they have too much energy.
They've got to get up and movearound.
But whenever you start gettinginto a maker, the making and
that interesting area for them,they thrive in that environment.
You can't stop them.
So it's interesting to watchbecause our kids they tend to
learn on a three-person team andit's usually broken into that
(29:47):
three pieces inventing, making.
So one's more inventing,another one's more making and
the other one's morestorytelling.
So if you think about it,storytelling is marketing, right
, you know, the making side ismore of you know in a factory
they like to get their handsdirty and whatnot and the
inventing side is more ofsomebody who wonders about how
things work in the world.
(30:08):
But when you take those threetype of our youthful people and
you get them to start workingtogether and brainstorming
together and then make a teamexercise, come together, what we
hear is that a lot of the kidswho are your C students are
getting the A's in that classand a lot of the kids who get
(30:28):
A's in all the other classes,like just the pure math class
they're getting the C's in thisclass.
So we're seeing a very uniquebalance and that's doing
something else that nobodyexpected, and that is we're
seeing a more collaborative,friendly environment in those
schools, because those kidsdon't usually connect and now in
(30:53):
this course they connect and sothen they see each other in the
hall and they're communicating.
It's just a wonderful likeanother ecosystem that's been
formed that nobody saw coming.
Greg Costantino (31:03):
Now, how is this going to work as we move
into the future, because youmentioned Denise from
Caterpillar and the fact thatthey're having trouble finding
the employees that they'll needin the future, but it sounds
like these are the kids that arebeing educated right now in
STEAM and STEM.
George M. Davison (31:17):
Yes, and so my projection is that in another
15 years, when we have enoughkids through this course, and
then probably more, like youknow, 15 years you're going to
see a major impact.
25 years we will easily havethe scale and the growth of
innovation that we want to seeinside of our corporations and
(31:41):
our government.
There will be no lack ofinnovators at that time.
Greg Costantino (31:46):
That's excellent.
So let's talk a little bitabout how you do your own
research for maybe a futureproduct that you might be
thinking about.
George M. Davison (31:53):
Yeah, well, it would start with what was the
observation?
What's the problem?
So the research for me, alwaysbegins with identifying problems
and after that the researchbegins with well, all right,
let's go see what's been done inthat field before.
So today's a little differentand it's changing so rapidly.
(32:13):
So, like we use a lot of AIright now right, and we weren't
using any AI a couple of yearsago but it makes suggestions and
it tells you about researchthat used to take us I mean, it
could take three months togather all the research that we
would want to gather on aproject.
I can get that in 30 minutesnow, and the sources that it's
(32:37):
drawing from are so good.
There's a lot of work involvedwith getting through it and then
you have to refine it, but theother thing that we found there
is that it also helps us to comeup with more ideas, which we
really like, and we also do alot of patent searches, because
(32:58):
the patent searches reveal whatother inventors have done in the
past, and it's not like youwant to do what they're doing,
but you could see how they solve.
They were thinking of solving acertain problem.
It might even be a totallydifferent industry.
So maybe something that theywere working on in the medical
field is now applicable towardsome kind of a mechanism that
(33:19):
holds something during surgery.
Maybe that same kind ofmechanism might be needed when
you're working on a car, and inthe automotive aftermarket we
could devise a tool.
It's totally different, butone's holding something and this
is also holding something.
But you know, that'sinteresting, right.
And then we would also studynature.
(33:40):
How does nature hold something,right?
So you would study the hand andyou would study animals, seeing
(34:00):
how it does things and taking alook at what we refer to as
crossovers, things from otherindustries that might be, let's
say, holding something.
And you take those, we takethose three, we kind of jam them
up into the same space and seewhat we get with it.
Greg Costantino (34:12):
Right, right.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout some of the future tech,
or well, what's seemingly futuretechnology but we're actually
using today, like 3D printing.
So how does AI and 3D printingall work together in some of the
newer processes of getting aninvention created?
George M. Davison (34:27):
Well, from the connection point between AI
and a 3D printer, there are somerelationships there already.
But like saying to AI, I wantyou to generate, let's say,
solidworks, cad, computer-aideddesign code to run my 3D printer
.
You know that is going to get alittle sketchy unless you're
(34:51):
going to let it just kind of runitself.
That's not how we would dothings.
Maybe in the future, if AI andCAD work a little closer
together, we'll see that.
But we want to work with AI togenerate the ideas.
Then our human minds theengineering side of our minds
(35:15):
we'll take a look at how we wantto design that and we'll work
with CAD, computer-aided designto make that.
Now we can look at that and wecan see the paths of how the 3D
printer will make it before itgoes.
What it doesn't do, which isvery dangerous, is that you can
make things in the 3d printerright that you can't make in
(35:40):
mass production right that's aserious problem.
a lot of people think thatbecause I made it in 3d printing
, I can make it in.
You know, I can stamp formillion of these things.
And that's not the case.
And we, we knew that 20 yearsago.
Our first 3D printers were huge, like you know.
You and I could stand insidethem.
(36:02):
Actually, 20 of us could standinside them.
That's how big they were andthey made these little tiny
parts Heck.
Now they're this big and youcan get really decent parts and
they're actually strong.
In the early days it wasn't likethat.
But that transition early on wesaid this is the most dangerous
(36:22):
thing ever.
We used to have to figure outall that engineering and then go
look at how it's going to bemanufactured.
Well, we noticed that somepeople in our office started
actually using the 3D printer tomake components that couldn't
be made other than inside thatmachine and we said, oh my gosh,
how many other people are goingto struggle with this?
And so today, you know what Iprefer is I prefer to look at
(36:47):
telling them hey, if you'regoing to put something into that
3D printer, you better makedarn sure it's going to be
stampable or injection moldableor that it matches up with these
processes.
Otherwise, yeah, you can make amodel as a demonstration, but
don't make the claim that thatwill translate to something
that's affordable to make.
(37:07):
Right, Right.
So, it's very we have to be verycareful with that, so that AI
to 3D printing is sketchy, right.
That has another level ofsketchiness to all this,
actually, until, and this doesexist today, so things are
changing, but you can massproduce 3D printing.
Okay, it's a little moreexpensive, right, but over time
(37:31):
you'll probably see that.
Greg Costantino (37:32):
Okay, well, let's talk about that.
What do you think has been thebiggest technological
advancement in your time withthe company?
George M. Davison (37:40):
Wow, that's a really good question.
I'd say that, with the bank ofwork that we've put in place
over 36 years, we have failedenough to know what not to do,
and that's really importantbecause it allows us to see
(38:00):
better ways of doing inventing.
So the inventing process iswhere I'd say our most important
work has been, and then theconversion of that to courseware
and then to create a systemthat is teachable, teacher,
(38:23):
trainable, judge, monitored andreward systems.
At the end, unbeatable system,will lead to what we know, we
created here, be adoptable toour youth, which will, in turn,
be embraced by industry becausethey'll be hiring these people
(38:45):
who understand how to thinkbetter, how to work with their
hands naturally and know how tospeak to others about it
naturally.
So you'll see more innovationget accepted and funded because
they will understand the valueof inventing, making and
(39:08):
storytelling when they go forthto bring it into the world.
Greg Costantino (39:12):
Do you think that this will all come into
play as far as the future oftechnology and sustainability as
we move ahead, as theenvironmental landscape changes?
George M. Davison (39:21):
Well, when you start.
If you want to push thesustainability, environmental
side of things, you know we canpush that really hard, and the
more you push that, that's anexciting field because there's a
lot of innovation, because youcould literally look at every
single system that exists in theworld today and say how can I
make that thing, that pump, useless energy?
(39:45):
You could chase that quest for10 years and maybe invent a new
kind of motor that will let youdo that or some way to create a
vacuum in a better way thatconsumes less energy, and that's
noble work.
So we're consuming less naturalresources along the way.
So, yeah, I mean the field ofsustainability is just full of
(40:08):
opportunity for innovation work.
Greg Costantino (40:11):
Well, as we get ready to wrap up, I have one
big question for you.
Okay, what do you think isgoing to be the next big
innovation in your industry?
Don't give away any tradesecrets.
George M. Davison (40:23):
Well, if I have my way, that it would be,
you know, a national inventioncontest that really puts on a
pillar our youth, so that we canbuild a mindset, a winning
mindset, that we will dominatethe innovation and invention
(40:45):
space indefinitely.
And so, you know, that's what Isee in the future.
It's going to take a lot ofwork.
We believe we have foundcertain routes to make that
happen, because it's a slowprocess.
To get schools to adopt thisprocess, right, there's a lot of
(41:08):
work.
You have to teach the teachers,you have to have an innovation
lab installed in your school,you have to have equipment.
I mean, if you can imagine backin the day, look your question,
I'm going to walk you back fora minute.
Over 100 years ago, andeverybody knows what science is
(41:28):
today, right, but at one timethere was no chemistry class,
right.
There were these people overthere in Europe, let's say.
They looked like wizards andyou don't even have pictures of
them.
We have these old oil paintingsof these masters who were
(41:49):
messing around with black powderand they were just
experimenting, right.
Until here in Pittsburgh,actually, this gentleman his
last name is Fisher he decidedhe was going to take the art of
what used to be called alchemy,and he was going to turn that
into a system where you could doscience, experimentation and
(42:14):
we're going to systemize thisright.
So he created the world's firstscience lab and brought about
tools like a beaker from Germany, a Bunsen burner, like all the
common instruments that you seein a chemistry lab today.
Well, 120 years ago that wasn'taround.
(42:36):
So if you said to him, what doyou think the future holds In
tomorrow's world?
What are we going to see, mrFisher?
He'd probably think, oh, I'mnot really quite sure, but in
reality his work is responsiblefor generating tens of millions
(42:56):
of jobs.
If you think about it, there areentire industries that revolve
around the field of science, andFisher Scientific was the most
basic building block of it all.
So they had to teach teachershow to teach chemistry and
(43:16):
science, and the corporationsneeded them because they needed
to do quality control right.
So something comes out of afactory.
You got to check it.
You got to put it into the lab,make sure it's doing what it's
supposed to be doing.
That's part of it.
Then you have pure R&D, becauseyou want to invent a new
product in the lab, right, andso he basically built this
(43:37):
infrastructure, which then ledothers to say, well, we got what
.
We have a pharmaceuticalindustry, we have a biotech
industry.
I mean, I could go on and onabout how many industries
blossomed out of that.
I wish I could tell you whatour students of the future, what
industries they're going toinvent.
(43:58):
But with this kind of mindsetof you can invent anything.
You can make anything better ifyou're willing to think that
way and work hard toward thatobjective.
I wish I could tell you whatall those kids who are going to
turn into adults are going toinvent, what industries they're
going to create, how many newjobs are going to come about in
100 years?
My only hope is that if it canbe as promising as what the
(44:24):
fishers did back then, we'vedone our job.
Greg Costantino (44:28):
Yeah, george, thank you very much.
This has been really great.
It was a great opportunity tocome and turn the tables.
George M. Davison (44:34):
Yeah, thank you, greg.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
Today.
Hello everybody and welcome to another
edition of Tomorrow's WorldToday.
Now in this edition, we'regoing to flip the tables because
Greg Constantino who you knowbecause he's on the Discovery
Channel's Tomorrow's World Todayshow with me as co-host he's
going to take charge today andhe's going to start asking me
the questions.
So, greg, have at it.
Greg Costantino (00:22):
All right, George.
Well, thanks a lot.
I'm super happy to be here andget to talk to you about all of
the stuff we're going to talkabout today.
Tell me about your positionwith the invention contest and
the system.
George M. Davison (00:33):
Well, that's a decade of work.
We started a long time agostarting to think about how we
could inspire our youth to getmore into the field of science
and invention, in particular.
In that field and when I was ayoung person, I really enjoyed
the science fairs and I knowthat most of the kids in my
(00:54):
neighborhood really they enjoyedit as well, and it really
pushed me over time into thefield of science because I like
the idea of wondering how thingscome to be.
And so that probably tied backto a point in my life that I saw
starting to disappear.
And then, in addition to that,all the work that we were doing
(01:19):
in building and making productsa lot of that work and factory
work was being outsourced toplaces overseas, and when I saw
that start to happen, Iimmediately concluded that, hey,
that's a serious problem forthe field of invention, because
we invent a lot of things insystems inside factories that
(01:42):
make things.
So if all the manufacturing isgoing to go somewhere else, the
pace of innovation is going toslow down, which in turn leads
to less opportunity for our nextwave of youth coming up in
America.
So I said, no, we're going todo something about that.
We then went about thinkingabout well, how could we make an
(02:03):
impact to inspire our youth sowe can maintain a dominant
position in the field ofinnovation and invention, like
we have for the last hundredyears?
And so we developed a coursewaresystem that goes into the
public schools K through 12.
And we have specific breakdownselementary, middle school and
(02:24):
high school and at the very endthey have an invention contest
that they put on in their school.
So not only do we take the kidsthrough the principles of how to
get there, and we teach themhow to develop ideas and how to
do good in the world, and that'swhere you find opportunity.
We then realized, well, we haveto teach the teachers how to do
(02:46):
this, and so we started doingthat.
And then at the end of thecourse there's this contest, and
then the judges get through alittle training system so they
understand how to judge, and soyou can actually build a
(03:12):
methodology of getting throughall the kids with their
inventions within a reasonableamount of time.
So that's basically how it allgot started.
My role is basically creatingand leading this initiative to
try and get it to not only be ina regional space around our
(03:33):
area, which is where it wasfirst prototyped, here in
Pittsburgh and then perfectedover 10 years.
But now to take it on anational level and eventually
we'll see it might go global,because we have some kids
overseas now doing it too.
Greg Costantino (03:48):
Great.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout how you got here.
How did you know?
You mentioned the science fairswhen you were a kid and how
exciting that was to you.
What about your personaldevelopment and your
professional development, andwhat led you to this place?
George M. Davison (04:00):
Well, you know, I was blessed when I was
younger with some mentors my BoyScout master.
He was just somebody that wasfull of wonder and curious about
a lot of things.
He was a builder maker.
He'd tear engines apart.
He was a guy who believed thatif somebody else can figure
something out, I can figure itout too.
(04:22):
And if somebody else couldbuild this, I could build it too
.
So life around him was alwaysinteresting because he was
curious, which then was put intoall the kids in our Cub Scouts
and then up through the ages.
But you know other things, othermentors came into play.
You know that started to pushme into the science field.
(04:44):
But when I was in chemistryclass I really excelled in that
area and I really enjoyed theexperiments and doing all the
lab work.
And I went to college going inpre-med.
So I had a very heavy scienceinfluence in my earlier days in
college and then, with a lotmore thought around that, I
(05:06):
realized you know, I'm not sosure I want to spend all my time
in a hospital.
So I started to wonder is thisreally right for me?
Because I was just inside thesewhite starch labs night and day
.
And so some other thoughts camein I said you know what?
We have a long history ofbusiness in our family, so over
(05:26):
time we just basically combinedscience and business into you
know now what we do today.
Greg Costantino (05:32):
Right.
Did this kind of lead you intothis career in inventing?
Tell me how that happened.
George M. Davison (05:37):
Yeah, that is kind of how it happened.
When you decide to be involvedwith research and development
and inventing, you basicallylearn how to sharpen your
observational skills and alongwith that, you really need to
care about others more than youcare about yourself.
So you'll notice, if you goback through time and you look
(06:01):
at inventors that are, you know,the Louis Pasteur, the Edisons,
anybody and everybody that youmight think of as an inventor
they tend to put themselvessecond and they're looking out
at how can we help other people,not deal with this problem.
And if we could make thatproblem go away or make it so
(06:21):
it's not such a big problem,that would free people up to be
able to go do better things intheir lives.
You know, maybe even in thehealth field, you know, if you
can solve medical challengesright, so it's really I'd say
it's a very good life.
You're chasing noble causes thatare there to help others.
(06:42):
Some noble causes are smallerright, like if you're just
fixing something that maybe youknow, maybe it's easier to take
out the garbage versus you'resolving a huge health issue for
a lot of people in the world.
But regardless, the mindset is,you know, applicable toward
corporate America and you know,they're always trying to make
(07:05):
better products because they'recompeting on that front.
And then you've got government,right.
You've got all these governmentlabs that are out there.
They employ many, manythousands of research and
development people and they'retrying to also create new things
like new forms of energy, newpretty much everything.
And so to me, that field, thefield of R&D and invention, is
(07:28):
exciting, and chasing theunknown has always been
attractive to me.
Greg Costantino (07:33):
Well, you mentioned Edison and Pasteur.
Are there any other inventorsthat come to mind that inspired
you when you were a kid?
George M. Davison (07:39):
Well, I actually yeah, I'd say I'd put
them.
There's three in particular andthey flow in accordance with
our courseware, really.
And in the invention contestit's inventing and then it's
making, and then it'sstorytelling was one of the most
(08:05):
prolific inventors over timewith the light bulb and a lot of
other ones.
And then Henry Ford, when hestarted to invent a new frame
for his car that was much easierto manufacture and that you
could assemble a car much morequickly.
So that's manufacturing andthere's all sorts of patents
around that.
And then, in the realm ofstorytelling, walt Disney and
(08:29):
Walt was an inventor too.
Most people don't know that hewas not only a great storyteller
, but there are inventionsrelated to Walt as well.
So it's inventing, making andstorytelling.
Those are the three mentors forme anyway Edison, ford and
Disney.
Greg Costantino (08:44):
How do you think this all comes together
into what might be your purposetoday?
George M. Davison (08:50):
Well, I think I've been given an opportunity
to identify a problem and theyouth that we are trying to grow
into the next part of the world.
Let's say where are we goingwith science and what are the
demands Now?
For example, when we do thisshow Tomorrow's World?
(09:12):
Today, I get to be in spaceswith presidents and CEOs of some
of the largest corporations inthe world and I kept hearing the
same thing over and over and Ifinally said I'm going to do
something about it.
But one person in particular,denise.
(09:33):
She's one of the divisionalpresidents at Caterpillar
Corporation and she said to mewe can't find enough STEM
science, technology, engineering, math or STEAM science,
technology, engineering, art andmath people to hire, so they're
having a hiring crisis.
And I found that to be, youknow, like, okay, I'm paying
(09:58):
attention, right, I'm listening.
And then I heard it again andagain and again and then I
realized, well, we actually havea real big problem if the HR
departments of all these majorcorporations don't have people
to hire.
So that, lets us look at thatand say, all right, that's a
serious problem.
(10:19):
Now, can we chase a noble cause?
Where's the noble cause here?
We chase a noble cause.
Where's the noble cause here.
Well, young people are.
You know, how can we havereally interesting lives for
them to live and make a goodlivelihood for themselves?
Well, when corporations arehiring in these departments,
they're in demand.
(10:39):
These are high-paying jobs, andso that's a good thing.
Even on our show too, we've hadthe nuclear labs, the
government nuclear lab people,and you know those are very high
paying jobs too in the field ofscience and invention.
So you know, I think overallthe recognizing, being able to
(11:02):
be in the right position at theright time and recognizing the
need for more people in thisarea was a big thing for us and
so our role.
I look at it as how can we notonly maintain the pace of
innovation in this country, buthow can we accelerate that pace
(11:22):
and stay way ahead of the restof the world?
Greg Costantino (11:28):
Right?
Well, that leads us right intowhat I wanted to talk about next
, which is invention, landeducation.
Now, how is that working andhow is that being utilized
across the United States toreach that goal?
George M. Davison (11:34):
Well, as of now, we're in well over half the
country with our courseware,and so we have challenges.
The challenges are you know,you're in the field of inventing
and making and storytelling.
So when you, when you start tolook at that space, you say well
, how are the teachers in theteacher colleges, how are they
taught in order to teach?
(11:55):
Well, yes, there is curriculumin the teacher colleges to teach
math in all sorts of levels andin English, et cetera, et
cetera, sorts of levels andEnglish, et cetera, et cetera.
But the art of invention is nottaught.
So you do have a challenge inidentifying who can teach this
type of technology and you needto be ready to release the reins
(12:18):
, because they have to beskilled in several areas.
And then you basically releasethe reins on the learners
Because they're chasing theirown ideas in this course, and
what happens is you get a shift,and it's a major shift, so that
, yes, they're learning math,they're learning science,
(12:38):
they're learning English.
Well, english isn'tstorytelling, english is writing
, which you need in this courseYou're going to make in the
manufacturing and making of yourprototypes.
You're going to have to do some.
You're going to have to use a3D printer, maybe, or a laser
cutter, you're going to have tocut a piece of wood at a certain
angle.
You're going to do a math,you're going to have to figure
(12:59):
out the math right, and then, inthe earlier stage of inventing,
you're using your observationalskills and your thinking skills
to try and figure out problems.
So the challenge, though, ishaving really good teachers who
can let, go and let, and they'rebasically a support system to
the students, and then theyelicit help from other teachers
(13:23):
in the school.
So it's hey, you know, we'regoing to have the math teacher
to help come in and figure out,maybe some of the angles on cuts
we need to make.
What's the formula, themathematical formula to do this,
so that Sally or Joe canactually make that prototype or
model that they're trying tobuild.
And so, and because it's thekids' thoughts and ideas and
they're applying themselves, youdon't.
(13:43):
And because it's the kids'thoughts and ideas and they're
applying themselves, you don'thave to tell them to do their
homework.
They do this work, and actually, there's a new problem, and the
new problem is you can't getthem to stop, because they're
working on their idea and theystart to see it come to life.
So, before you know it, theschool bell is ringing and they
(14:05):
don't want to go.
So then they show up afterclass or after school and the
parents?
Some of the comments we hearback from them are you know, I
love what my kid's doing andthey're like working on this
stuff over the weekends whereyou know before they were just
sitting down behind a screenplaying video games.
Greg Costantino (14:22):
Right, right.
Well, how does the nine-stepprocess that you've created?
How does that work into howyou're teaching the teachers to
teach?
George M. Davison (14:30):
So that was part of the system to try and
truncate it into these ninebasic principles of how
invention works.
So, after doing inventing Idon't know if you're aware of
this or not, but we have, I havea lot of inventions in the
market and a lot of patents andthat type of thing.
(14:51):
This is not theory, this isreal world application.
So I took, I took a lot of themore successful products and I
reverse engineered them and Isaid, okay, what are the
repeatable things that we'redoing again and again and again
and again to get to this outcome?
And we took those and wecompressed them into these nine
(15:13):
basic steps.
Of course, there's more thannine steps, but in order to make
it comprehensible, we had toput it into that format.
But also, you know, I'm not acurriculum writer.
So we ended up hiring verytalented curriculum writers who
came in and then they took allof our work and then they
(15:33):
reworked it into pass, all thedifferent state requirements and
that type of thing, which wasamazing to watch as well.
There's a real effort that youcould see over time from our
let's call them the schoolleadership people in this
country to try and you know makeeducation work, and right now
(15:56):
it's working and it's justgetting innovated now.
So before we were more of alike, you used to see all the
classrooms and it was all thetables, all the chairs were
lined up like this and there wasa teacher's chair here in our
innovation labs.
You know that's shifting nowand it's the teacher roams the
(16:17):
kids are in.
They're at desks that havewheels because they're doing
inventing.
Sometimes, then they're doingmaking and then other times
they're getting ready to do alltheir storytelling as they
approach their invention contest.
So these labs have to bemanageable and moved around
accordingly, because sometimesthe projects have to go on the
floor.
They move around, there's allsorts of stuff going on, and so
(16:40):
a mobile room that is designedto inspire them and support them
in their initiatives is anotheradvancement that we've worked
on.
Greg Costantino (16:50):
That's awesome.
So let's shift gears a littlebit.
I have a sort of a differentkind of a question.
When you're dealing with thatmany people and they're all
working on a different invention, confidentiality is of the
utmost importance.
George M. Davison (17:20):
And that's well documented.
Over time.
We have things in ourcourseware, though, that teach
them that right.
So we have invention lab booksinnovation, we call them
innovation lab books, and theylearn the art of innovation,
security, right, and then.
So they learn about that too,which is kind of fun.
But when they go and theyrelease the idea out to their
(17:44):
class and then they release itas they do here on the show,
it's gone public at that point.
But they've learned theprinciples of going through the
process like it is inside aprivate institution In our
course, where they're taughtthat.
(18:04):
But they're learning and so ourhope is that they're learning
and disclosing which is fine fornow, learning and disclosing
(18:25):
which is fine for now, but intime, as a lot of our youth are
moved up into the corporateworld and the government world,
they've learned the principlesof inventing.
Because what I've seen overtime, you can create the
greatest invention in the world,but if you can't figure out a
way to get it into manufacturing, that's a serious problem.
That idea or that invention isgoing to stay in the inventing
stage forever until you figureout a way to get it manufactured
(18:45):
so it can scale.
And then, if you can figurethat out and then you can tell a
story, or if you can't tell astory In other words, if you
can't tell a story more thanlikely you're not going to get
the funding you need to launch acompany or to push that up into
the world to get it out toeverybody to benefit them.
So I, over time, have seen toomany inventions get stuck here
(19:10):
and so we learned over 36 years.
I've been working at this for36 years.
So what I saw was too manythings stalled here because they
couldn't get through themanufacturing process properly,
(19:32):
and so we would go back into theinventing phase with me.
So when I'm doing my inventing,I'm immediately looking at well,
let me think about that.
If I do it this certain way,I'm going to need tooling.
And then I'm going to need to,let's say, do injection, blow
molding as an example, like awater bottle or something, or
something.
Well, that's expensive, whereasif I go this direction, I might
(19:55):
not need tooling.
And so that's part of theconversation going on in the
mind as you select a directionon your invention.
But ultimately, once you getthrough those two, you have to
tell the story, to raise moneyor to manage the project into a
business, et cetera, et cetera.
You're going to talk to peopleabout it.
So these three things work inconcert in order to get the idea
(20:18):
either to a board of directorsto approve it or to start a
company.
So you're talking to aninvestor.
So you're going to make publicdisclosures.
What we're hoping is that ouryouth, when they're in K through
12, they're going to learn thissystem, and that is more
important at that stage, eventhough we've seen over the last
(20:41):
two years in our last coupleinvention contests, four teams
have had their inventionslicensed and two of them have
now been in the market andselling and those kids are
making royalties today.
Greg Costantino (20:55):
Yeah, that's awesome, and so this whole idea
of what you're talking about,those three things working
together in concert, kind ofleads me to my next question,
which is on our show we talkabout the four worlds.
George M. Davison (21:05):
Yes.
Greg Costantino (21:06):
So explain to me what the four worlds are and
how they all work together inthe same way that you just
described.
George M. Davison (21:20):
Yeah, I'd be happy to yeah.
So in tomorrow's world, todaywe have the four worlds.
We have the world ofinspiration, the world of
creation, the world ofinnovation and the world of
production.
So the first world, the worldof inspiration.
And if you do a lot ofinventing over time and you're a
creative person, you willnotice that you will withdraw
from the creative energy thatyou have if you don't get
outside into the natural world.
So we talk about how to manageyourself as a human being, and
(21:44):
we've studied this over timehere at Inventionland, where
we've watched fabulous inventors, very creative guys and gals
who are working nonstop onsolving problems and inventing
solutions, and we represent thatwith the open hand.
In other words, they're in sync.
(22:05):
Their mind is free and it'scoming up with solutions and
it's just really working reallywell.
And at times, though, they runinto problems, and then that
mind's not so free anymore andit's just really working really
well.
And at times, though, they runinto problems, and then the
mind's not so free anymore andit's getting locked up.
Eventually, it gets to thepoint where you know you've got
like the white on your knucklesand you're not getting any more
ideas out of that locked-upbrain.
(22:26):
And so what we do is we trainpeople on when to recognize that
you're like that, and ourmanagers recognize when people
are like that and they'll say,hey, you need to go out, go
somewhere, go outside, get outin nature, go down by the water
and the river, whatever, go,unlock yourself.
And so we use nature as anunlocker and we you'll see that,
(22:50):
like in tomorrow's world.
Today, when they post, they'reposting about everything from
what's going on in the naturalworld to how to kick your shoes
off and get in the grass, lookat the clouds.
You will unlock very quickly.
And so that is the world ofinspiration.
You need that in your life.
From there you can go to theworld of creation.
(23:14):
The world of creation is allabout traditional arts, right?
So traditional arts exist inschools, in many of the schools
today.
Right, that's painting, doingpottery, maybe doing some
stained glass clubs and thingsof that nature.
Baking is in there, cooking,gardening, those kinds of
(23:35):
traditional arts, right?
Traditional arts are very, veryimportant for the creative
human being.
It's also an unlocker, so thatif you're deep down the rabbit
hole in working in technologyand you want to release yourself
, if you haven't noticed, well,it's interesting that I get
unlocked when I'm over here andI'm creating a recipe for some
(23:56):
kind of new thing that I'mcooking.
Well, that's actually notunusual.
You're doing a creative art andso it's pulling you out and so,
knowing again, it's pulling youback to free yourself, right?
So when you're doingtraditional arts, it's a
creative expression that iswonderful.
In what you can create, I likewell, I used to take
(24:19):
blacksmithing classes and lotsof other types of art that I
enjoy and it brings happiness tome.
And then when I decide to goand immerse myself into the
innovation arts again, I'm ready.
So let's talk about that.
That's the world of innovation,and innovation arts can be
(24:40):
highly complex.
Just, traditional arts can bevery complex to master, right?
You don't see manyMichelangelos out there, but you
can enjoy yourself there andgive yourself that wonderful
feeling which gives you health.
Over here.
You're in this unknown world alot, you're going to fail a lot
(25:03):
and you have to learn.
How do I get back up?
I just tried this, like thiscourseware.
It was 10 years of incrementalmodifications to get it
perfected to the point where itcould work seamlessly for a
school out in Kansas as well asout in New York City, right.
So you know it took a lot offailure.
(25:27):
Get back up, listen to youraudience.
What are they telling you?
Where is it working?
Where is it not working?
And that'll wear you down overtime, because we all like to
think what we create is just sowonderful, but it's only
wonderful when others use it,and it doesn't require a lot of
work on their part to use yourservice or your product.
(25:50):
And so, making it simple toteach the art of invention and
innovation, making it simple todo this in these nine steps,
it's all part of that world ofinnovation that we were talking
about, right?
And so the last world, which isthe world of production.
So that is where you convertyour innovation into something
(26:14):
that can be then scaled andgiven to the public at a price
that they can afford.
Ok, so, and also, production,is it's repeatable and
sustainable, right?
So I might only have aprototype in the world of
innovation, and then again, Ihave to figure it out, get it
scaled and then I have to get itfunded.
So, over here in the world ofproduction you're talking about,
(26:38):
have you ever gone on a factorytour?
Yep, so if you can imaginefactory tours in between the
world of innovation, where theycame up with whatever it was
that they created as theirproduct, and then going and
building a 200,000 square footfactory.
Well, I guarantee you there'sprobably another 50 inventions
(26:59):
inside that building that makethis process come together.
So you get this thing out hereat the end, and along with that,
there's another process, andthat's the financial engineering
of production, right?
So you have to become businessliterate, so to speak.
And so that is our four worldsinspiration, creation,
(27:21):
innovation and production.
And they work as an ecosystemand you manage yourself and your
organization accordingly, andif you do that, you'll stay
healthy, you'll be happy withyour work for forever.
You just have to stay insidethat realm, right, and because
it can get very complex.
Greg Costantino (27:42):
So I guess, when we're talking about those
four worlds, where it leads usdirectly into STEAM and STEM,
and how that educational processmakes those four worlds
possible and how that all workstogether, because you have to
have all of those, all of thosedisciplines, in order to make
that work.
So tell me how STEAM and STEMis important in an American
classroom now.
George M. Davison (28:01):
Yeah.
So STEAM and STEM that's beenaround for probably a decade,
maybe even a little longer.
It called that STEM and STEAM.
But the art of applying STEMemand Steen right.
So everybody knows howimportant science, technology,
engineering, art and math are.
(28:22):
We've known that hundreds ofyears.
Right.
But sitting in the classroom andhaving it pushed at you versus
you applying that, it's atotally different learning
experience.
One is engaging, the other isbasically not.
(28:42):
Certain students can excel atyou know, book smart, stem and
STEAM.
What I find interesting is Alot of the students who they say
are you know, they're not thebest learners out there.
That's not true.
What's true is is they learndifferently and they learn.
(29:04):
My observation and I will provethis out over time my
observation is that STEM andSTEAM students are nonstoppable
when you get them into appliedSTEM and STEAM curriculums.
But they're not going to sit.
They're not going to sit allday long and read and make note
cards and read and make notecards.
(29:25):
No, they have too much energy.
They've got to get up and movearound.
But whenever you start gettinginto a maker, the making and
that interesting area for them,they thrive in that environment.
You can't stop them.
So it's interesting to watchbecause our kids they tend to
learn on a three-person team andit's usually broken into that
(29:47):
three pieces inventing, making.
So one's more inventing,another one's more making and
the other one's morestorytelling.
So if you think about it,storytelling is marketing, right
, you know, the making side ismore of you know in a factory
they like to get their handsdirty and whatnot and the
inventing side is more ofsomebody who wonders about how
things work in the world.
(30:08):
But when you take those threetype of our youthful people and
you get them to start workingtogether and brainstorming
together and then make a teamexercise, come together, what we
hear is that a lot of the kidswho are your C students are
getting the A's in that classand a lot of the kids who get
(30:28):
A's in all the other classes,like just the pure math class
they're getting the C's in thisclass.
So we're seeing a very uniquebalance and that's doing
something else that nobodyexpected, and that is we're
seeing a more collaborative,friendly environment in those
schools, because those kidsdon't usually connect and now in
(30:53):
this course they connect and sothen they see each other in the
hall and they're communicating.
It's just a wonderful likeanother ecosystem that's been
formed that nobody saw coming.
Greg Costantino (31:03):
Now, how is this going to work as we move
into the future, because youmentioned Denise from
Caterpillar and the fact thatthey're having trouble finding
the employees that they'll needin the future, but it sounds
like these are the kids that arebeing educated right now in
STEAM and STEM.
George M. Davison (31:17):
Yes, and so my projection is that in another
15 years, when we have enoughkids through this course, and
then probably more, like youknow, 15 years you're going to
see a major impact.
25 years we will easily havethe scale and the growth of
innovation that we want to seeinside of our corporations and
(31:41):
our government.
There will be no lack ofinnovators at that time.
Greg Costantino (31:46):
That's excellent.
So let's talk a little bitabout how you do your own
research for maybe a futureproduct that you might be
thinking about.
George M. Davison (31:53):
Yeah, well, it would start with what was the
observation?
What's the problem?
So the research for me, alwaysbegins with identifying problems
and after that the researchbegins with well, all right,
let's go see what's been done inthat field before.
So today's a little differentand it's changing so rapidly.
(32:13):
So, like we use a lot of AIright now right, and we weren't
using any AI a couple of yearsago but it makes suggestions and
it tells you about researchthat used to take us I mean, it
could take three months togather all the research that we
would want to gather on aproject.
I can get that in 30 minutesnow, and the sources that it's
(32:37):
drawing from are so good.
There's a lot of work involvedwith getting through it and then
you have to refine it, but theother thing that we found there
is that it also helps us to comeup with more ideas, which we
really like, and we also do alot of patent searches, because
(32:58):
the patent searches reveal whatother inventors have done in the
past, and it's not like youwant to do what they're doing,
but you could see how they solve.
They were thinking of solving acertain problem.
It might even be a totallydifferent industry.
So maybe something that theywere working on in the medical
field is now applicable towardsome kind of a mechanism that
(33:19):
holds something during surgery.
Maybe that same kind ofmechanism might be needed when
you're working on a car, and inthe automotive aftermarket we
could devise a tool.
It's totally different, butone's holding something and this
is also holding something.
But you know, that'sinteresting, right.
And then we would also studynature.
(33:40):
How does nature hold something,right?
So you would study the hand andyou would study animals, seeing
(34:00):
how it does things and taking alook at what we refer to as
crossovers, things from otherindustries that might be, let's
say, holding something.
And you take those, we takethose three, we kind of jam them
up into the same space and seewhat we get with it.
Greg Costantino (34:12):
Right, right.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout some of the future tech,
or well, what's seemingly futuretechnology but we're actually
using today, like 3D printing.
So how does AI and 3D printingall work together in some of the
newer processes of getting aninvention created?
George M. Davison (34:27):
Well, from the connection point between AI
and a 3D printer, there are somerelationships there already.
But like saying to AI, I wantyou to generate, let's say,
solidworks, cad, computer-aideddesign code to run my 3D printer
.
You know that is going to get alittle sketchy unless you're
(34:51):
going to let it just kind of runitself.
That's not how we would dothings.
Maybe in the future, if AI andCAD work a little closer
together, we'll see that.
But we want to work with AI togenerate the ideas.
Then our human minds theengineering side of our minds
(35:15):
we'll take a look at how we wantto design that and we'll work
with CAD, computer-aided designto make that.
Now we can look at that and wecan see the paths of how the 3D
printer will make it before itgoes.
What it doesn't do, which isvery dangerous, is that you can
make things in the 3d printerright that you can't make in
(35:40):
mass production right that's aserious problem.
a lot of people think thatbecause I made it in 3d printing
, I can make it in.
You know, I can stamp formillion of these things.
And that's not the case.
And we, we knew that 20 yearsago.
Our first 3D printers were huge, like you know.
You and I could stand insidethem.
(36:02):
Actually, 20 of us could standinside them.
That's how big they were andthey made these little tiny
parts Heck.
Now they're this big and youcan get really decent parts and
they're actually strong.
In the early days it wasn't likethat.
But that transition early on wesaid this is the most dangerous
(36:22):
thing ever.
We used to have to figure outall that engineering and then go
look at how it's going to bemanufactured.
Well, we noticed that somepeople in our office started
actually using the 3D printer tomake components that couldn't
be made other than inside thatmachine and we said, oh my gosh,
how many other people are goingto struggle with this?
And so today, you know what Iprefer is I prefer to look at
(36:47):
telling them hey, if you'regoing to put something into that
3D printer, you better makedarn sure it's going to be
stampable or injection moldableor that it matches up with these
processes.
Otherwise, yeah, you can make amodel as a demonstration, but
don't make the claim that thatwill translate to something
that's affordable to make.
(37:07):
Right, Right.
So, it's very we have to be verycareful with that, so that AI
to 3D printing is sketchy, right.
That has another level ofsketchiness to all this,
actually, until, and this doesexist today, so things are
changing, but you can massproduce 3D printing.
Okay, it's a little moreexpensive, right, but over time
(37:31):
you'll probably see that.
Greg Costantino (37:32):
Okay, well, let's talk about that.
What do you think has been thebiggest technological
advancement in your time withthe company?
George M. Davison (37:40):
Wow, that's a really good question.
I'd say that, with the bank ofwork that we've put in place
over 36 years, we have failedenough to know what not to do,
and that's really importantbecause it allows us to see
(38:00):
better ways of doing inventing.
So the inventing process iswhere I'd say our most important
work has been, and then theconversion of that to courseware
and then to create a systemthat is teachable, teacher,
(38:23):
trainable, judge, monitored andreward systems.
At the end, unbeatable system,will lead to what we know, we
created here, be adoptable toour youth, which will, in turn,
be embraced by industry becausethey'll be hiring these people
(38:45):
who understand how to thinkbetter, how to work with their
hands naturally and know how tospeak to others about it
naturally.
So you'll see more innovationget accepted and funded because
they will understand the valueof inventing, making and
(39:08):
storytelling when they go forthto bring it into the world.
Greg Costantino (39:12):
Do you think that this will all come into
play as far as the future oftechnology and sustainability as
we move ahead, as theenvironmental landscape changes?
George M. Davison (39:21):
Well, when you start.
If you want to push thesustainability, environmental
side of things, you know we canpush that really hard, and the
more you push that, that's anexciting field because there's a
lot of innovation, because youcould literally look at every
single system that exists in theworld today and say how can I
make that thing, that pump, useless energy?
(39:45):
You could chase that quest for10 years and maybe invent a new
kind of motor that will let youdo that or some way to create a
vacuum in a better way thatconsumes less energy, and that's
noble work.
So we're consuming less naturalresources along the way.
So, yeah, I mean the field ofsustainability is just full of
(40:08):
opportunity for innovation work.
Greg Costantino (40:11):
Well, as we get ready to wrap up, I have one
big question for you.
Okay, what do you think isgoing to be the next big
innovation in your industry?
Don't give away any tradesecrets.
George M. Davison (40:23):
Well, if I have my way, that it would be,
you know, a national inventioncontest that really puts on a
pillar our youth, so that we canbuild a mindset, a winning
mindset, that we will dominatethe innovation and invention
(40:45):
space indefinitely.
And so, you know, that's what Isee in the future.
It's going to take a lot ofwork.
We believe we have foundcertain routes to make that
happen, because it's a slowprocess.
To get schools to adopt thisprocess, right, there's a lot of
(41:08):
work.
You have to teach the teachers,you have to have an innovation
lab installed in your school,you have to have equipment.
I mean, if you can imagine backin the day, look your question,
I'm going to walk you back fora minute.
Over 100 years ago, andeverybody knows what science is
(41:28):
today, right, but at one timethere was no chemistry class,
right.
There were these people overthere in Europe, let's say.
They looked like wizards andyou don't even have pictures of
them.
We have these old oil paintingsof these masters who were
(41:49):
messing around with black powderand they were just
experimenting, right.
Until here in Pittsburgh,actually, this gentleman his
last name is Fisher he decidedhe was going to take the art of
what used to be called alchemy,and he was going to turn that
into a system where you could doscience, experimentation and
(42:14):
we're going to systemize thisright.
So he created the world's firstscience lab and brought about
tools like a beaker from Germany, a Bunsen burner, like all the
common instruments that you seein a chemistry lab today.
Well, 120 years ago that wasn'taround.
(42:36):
So if you said to him, what doyou think the future holds In
tomorrow's world?
What are we going to see, mrFisher?
He'd probably think, oh, I'mnot really quite sure, but in
reality his work is responsiblefor generating tens of millions
(42:56):
of jobs.
If you think about it, there areentire industries that revolve
around the field of science, andFisher Scientific was the most
basic building block of it all.
So they had to teach teachershow to teach chemistry and
(43:16):
science, and the corporationsneeded them because they needed
to do quality control right.
So something comes out of afactory.
You got to check it.
You got to put it into the lab,make sure it's doing what it's
supposed to be doing.
That's part of it.
Then you have pure R&D, becauseyou want to invent a new
product in the lab, right, andso he basically built this
(43:37):
infrastructure, which then ledothers to say, well, we got what
.
We have a pharmaceuticalindustry, we have a biotech
industry.
I mean, I could go on and onabout how many industries
blossomed out of that.
I wish I could tell you whatour students of the future, what
industries they're going toinvent.
(43:58):
But with this kind of mindsetof you can invent anything.
You can make anything better ifyou're willing to think that
way and work hard toward thatobjective.
I wish I could tell you whatall those kids who are going to
turn into adults are going toinvent, what industries they're
going to create, how many newjobs are going to come about in
100 years?
My only hope is that if it canbe as promising as what the
(44:24):
fishers did back then, we'vedone our job.
Greg Costantino (44:28):
Yeah, george, thank you very much.
This has been really great.
It was a great opportunity tocome and turn the tables.
George M. Davison (44:34):
Yeah, thank you, greg.
Well, everybody, that's anotheredition of Tomorrow's World
Today.
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