Extraterrestrial engineering

70 years ago, an MIT professor came up with a unique technique to spark innovative thinking in his students. Product design professor John E. Arnold’s dreamed up a fake alien species supposedly discovered 1,000 years in the future, so his students could design products for them. The aim was for the students to face problems they wouldn't normally encounter, and come up with, quite literally, 'out of this world' solutions. Christina Couch sums up the exercise and its fascinating results.