BioInspired! So What? Now What!

"Description

AI has provided computational approaches to design processes and the representation of design knowledge. Design of materials, products, buildings and other artifacts have long been a focus of artificial intelligence research and application. Artificial intelligence representations and reasoning models have been influenced and inspired by design cognition resulting in AI methods as the basis for computer-aided design and decision support in many contexts. ‘Design for X’ has become a way of changing design thinking so that downstream concerns are considered early in the design process.

Imperatives for environmental and societal sustainability are challenging designers to think beyond Design for X and more broadly to consider factors that had been previously given little attention. Life cycle costs should be considered along many dimensions, including energy requirements during manufacture and use phases, and material loss and environmental damage at the end of a product’s life. In fact, a long-term vision for the field of AI and sustainable design is cradle-to-cradle design, so that products are not designed to be thrown away or recycled in very limited ways, but products are designed and built that enables full reuse, with nothing thrown out and nothing degraded.

Our presumption is that the increased complexity of design necessitated by a desire for very long-term planet sustainability requires application of and advances in artificial intelligence. AI and design is established already, with conferences and journals. The purpose of this symposium is to focus on the challenges of sustainable design and the role that AI plays in achieving sustainability.

Topics

Paper topics include, but are not limited to:

 

• AI applications in sustainable design of chemicals, materials, products, appliances, buildings, communities, etc.
   
• Computational and cognitive models of sustainable-design thinking.
   
• Biologically-inspired and evolutionary models of sustainable design.
   
• Collaborative design and collective intelligence for sustainable design.
   
• Games and simulation for teaching and embedding sustainable design.

Virtual Participation

This Symposium intends to support virtual participation for a limited number of participants using internet-based virtual technology. Please inform the co-chairs by email as early as possible if you would like to be considered for virtual participation. "

Thanks to Ashok Goel (GaTech/CBID) for the pointer!