Towards an open TRIZ multilingual database

Background: TRIZ (Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) is an innovation methodology widely accepted in various countries. To facilitate the practical application of this methodology in problem-solving, scientific, and engineering effects databases have been developed in recent years.

Problem: In this context, it was found that databases adhering to the principle of freedom of information are predominantly unilingual, restricting access to specific groups based on their language, culture, and socio-economic situation. Additionally, there is no standardization in the structure of these databases, and usability and coverage aspects are not fully met by any analyzed database. 

Approach: To address the identified gaps, two databases maintained by different consulting institutions were selected. After extracting and organizing the data, an integration process was conducted to identify redundancies and expand solution models into a single open repository. To become multilingual, the unified TRIZ database was integrated with Wikipedias in different languages. The database construction process was automated through algorithm implementation. 

Conclusions: According to the achieved result and initial assessments by experts in technological information, the TRIZ multilingual database represents the first step towards democratizing access to the TRIZ methodology, in line with frugal innovation and open science.