Identify and Strive for the Ideal- Learn from Edwin Land

I had an interesting discussion with students in my IED/ sophomore design class yesterday.
I urged them to determine what would be ideal for the user and then commit to doing that, without knowing how they would do it, or even if it was possible.
I said that this was the time and place to develop the courage to take risks... and if they followed all the right steps, worked dilligently and documented their work, they would receive a good grade, even if they failed to achieve the ideal.

The students were working on the design of an inexpensive means to purify water for people in the developing world. I asked, "What functions are missing in existing designs? Look at your Brita filter. What is the assumption... Water that comes out of the filter is safe to drink."

But there is no means to actually verify this. How about designing a device that-
1) Indicates that the water is safe
2) Does not allow water to come out unless it is safe.
Isn't this what is really needed?

My first engineering job was at Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Edwin H. Land, the brilliant leader of Polaroid, insisted on aiming for the ideal solution, even though to many of us, that seemed to be impossible. I left Polaroid in 1960, but several years later, when the SX-70 came out, I was amazed to see that it did things that had never been done before. Polaroid engineers found that Land was right and that they could achieve the ideal, even though it was impossible.

Think of all the good that we could do for people in need, if we all learned Dr. Land's lesson.