Session WS1-2: Bio-inspired design (BID) - Design Creativity (SIG)
Chairs: Amaresh Chakrabarti, Indian Institute of Science, India, Julie Linsey, Georgia Institute of
Technology, United States of America and Gaetano Cascini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
When: Monday, 27/Jul/2015: 9:30am - 12:30pm
Where: Room 6 small
Abstract
Bio-inspired design (BID) seeks to exploit biology for several different kinds of design such as sustainable
design, creative design, and complex system design. There are generally two approaches bio-inspired design:
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Solution-driven, where an interesting biological phenomenon inspires the search for potential
applications and
Problem-driven, where a given problem motivates the search for biological analogies that could help
solve the problem.
Research on methods that support biomimetic design in general falls under the two high-level categories:
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Methods to support search, retrieval, and representation of biological phenomena for design
Studies to better understand and therefore support the application of biological analogies to design
The two categories are related and affect each other.
In the last decade several BID approaches have been developed independently, by different entities, to
support different users with sometimes different purposes. The differences in the theoretical approaches and
levels of details achieved by BID approaches still confine their use for academic research and academic
education without being widespread among professionals in the business sector where design innovation is a
key priority, where basic research can become applied solutions and where multidisciplinary work, at the
core of any BID approach, is more likely to happen.
The ICED 2015 event could allow to bring forward the discussion among and between researchers and
practitioners about the challenges still to be solved in order to develop more coherent, user-friendly and
robust BID approaches, try to assess pros and cons of what is currently available and look for synergies in
order to improve it.
Scope of the Workshop:
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The workshop will be dedicated to BID approaches developers and practitioners and other experts in
design approaches in order to:
Identify main similarities and complementarities among BID approaches
Discussing pros and cons of BID approaches and identify possible paths for improvement
Identify barriers to the application of BID approaches outside the academic environment
Exchange experiences in BID approaches and facilitate networking
Promote BID approaches among people which are not familiar with them
Leverage collaborations for projects
Workshop programme:
The half-day (or 1 day) workshop foresees the following sessions:
1. Presentations on different approaches of BID. In particular:
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The Biomimicry Thinking approach developed by the Biomimicry Institute (TBI). While akin to a
methodology, Biomimicry Thinking is a framework that is intended to help people practice
biomimicry while designing anything. There are four areas in which biomimicry provides the greatest
value to the design process (independent of the discipline in which it is integrated): scoping,
discovering, creating, and evaluating. The Biomimicry Thinking approach considers both solutiondriven and problem-driven paths (the methodology is in line with the framework of the AskNature
database, also developed by the TBI)
The SAPPhIRE model developed by A. Chakrabarti et al. uses constructs: State change, Action, Part,
Phenomenon, Input, oRgan and Effect, to explain the causality of natural and engineered systems. It
can describe functionality using its constructs action, state change and input together. The use of
these constructs together and their links with functionality provides a richer description of
behaviour.
The DANE - Design by Analogy to Nature Engine developed by A. Goel at the Georgia Institute of
Technology. It is an interactive knowledge base design, which analyses the biological systems under a
Structure-Behaviour-Function (SBF) scheme.
The BioTriz approach developed by J. Vincent et al, a project aimed at extending TRIZ with
biological data. The BioTriz is a problem-solving method via a database of biological data of
functions, effects, and contradictions, to make biological information available for engineers.
2. Facilitated Discussions around the following questions:
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Which are the main barriers preventing widespread use of BID approaches? And how to overcome
them
Can BID approaches be “unified” or synergize?
How to develop a robust Biomimetics/Biomimicry ontology?
How far should we frame a bio-inspired creative design process?
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3. Optional Session on ASKNATURE
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AskNature was developed by the Biomimicry Institute. It is a free, publicly available database of
biological information and abstracts, most of which are drawn from peer-reviewed journals. The
website catalogues biological information by function in ‘‘strategy’’ pages to bridge the gap between
biology and fields like engineering, architecture, industrial design, chemistry, organizational
development, and more. Since its launch in 2008, the site has experienced rapid growth, recording
almost 1.8 M page views in 2012.
Being AskNature currently under review by the original developers, the scope of the session will be to
present the framework and operability of AskNature and to discuss needs for improvement in order
to better serve users.