Breakthroughs don't come from nowhere.
They come from elsewhere.
What does a kingfisher have to do with the world's fastest train?
How did origami inspire NASA's solar arrays?
↓
History's greatest breakthroughs
came from unexpected connections.
Kingfisher's beakShinkansen bullet train
But these moments of insight were rare.
Unpredictable. Uncontrollable.
Like trying to catch lightning.
Our Framework
S
Search
Discover solutions from unexpected domains that keyword search can't find
M
Map
Translate distant inspirations into actionable concepts for your problem
A
Adapt
Extract transferable principles and apply them with your domain expertise
R
Refine
Explore branching possibilities and iterate toward breakthrough solutions
T
Test
Identify evidence paths, potential partners, and feasibility signals early
Built on a decade of peer-reviewed research at CMURead our white paper→
What if you could capture lightning?
A decade of peer-reviewed research into how breakthroughs actually happen.
Now we're making them repeatable.
Now we're building
the power grid.
Analogical Engines turns serendipity into a system.
An AI platform that helps R&D teams escape fixation and discover non-obvious solutions from unexpected domains.
As seen in
Selected Articles
Is AI rewiring our minds? Scientists probe cognitive cost of chatbots
Washington Post
June 2025
AI, the brain, and the crowd: Research explores new ways for humans and tech to work together
GeekWire
June 2024
How To Set Your Company Up For Consistent Innovation
Forbes
April 2019
Where Disruptive Ideas Come From
Axios
February 2019
Comparative Thinking: Are Analogies the Engine of Innovation?
ZDNet
February 2019
Can CMU Researchers Create a 'Search Engine' to Make Scientific Discovery More Efficient?
Pittsburgh Business Times
February 2019
What's One Way To Spur Innovation? CMU Researchers Say Teach Computers To Understand Analogies
NPR · WESA
August 2017
Crowdsourcing May Have Just Helped Close the Analogy Gap for Computers
ZDNet
August 2017
AI Draws Parallels Between Fields You Never Knew Were Connected
Digital Trends
August 2017
AI, Crowdsourcing Combine to Close Analogy Gap
Phys.org
August 2017
To Spur Innovation, Teach A.I. to Find Analogies
Futurity
August 2017
Researchers Devise a Way for AI to Boost Innovation
IdeaConnection
August 2017
Creative Ideas Mined with Crowdsourcing, Neural Nets
TechNewsLit
August 2017
This AI Can Hunt Down Old Solutions to New Problems
TechRadar
August 2017
Crowd-augmented Cognition
NSF
May 2016
Coming Soon
From the researchers at
