The Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) at Georgia Tech is a research and development team translating Nature's ecosystems - her organisms, materials, methods and sensory behavior - into sustainable models for the future.
About
- history of CBID, by Jeannette Yen, one of the founders and directors
- education vision and programs
- directors and members
Resources
- news items related to CBID and GaTech
- other universities and labs active in bio-inspired design
- additional organizations, groups and projects of special interest
- recent press releases
Research
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Biosensors:
"Studying animal sensation therefore can yield novel sensors, or develop sensors that efficiently gather particular information for a certain task in a specific environment. The limits on neural processing machinery and sensory structures make animal strategies particularly useful for autonomous systems."
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Biological Materials:
"Examining biomaterials provides insights into how to design materials that are differentially sensitive to forces along certain directions, which can reduce weight and material usage in structures. They also provide clues to materials that can channel light, sound or heat differentially along certain directions, yielding natural fiber optics, better insulating materials or acoustically absorptive materials. Understanding the principles that result in ground up manufacturing can help to develop these new materials based on common, non-toxic building blocks."
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Locomotory:
"... studying animal locomotion can help to develop more energy efficient vehicles by adopting useful shapes, movement kinematics or structures, or by reducing the need for complex mechanical control systems that add weight and consume energy."
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Biosystems:
"Biological systems span multiple scales and have many elements connected in complex ways. ... studying the properties of these systems may provide strategies for more efficient and sustainable transportation or energy distribution systems, produce principles that lead to more secure and robust information networks, or provide for adaptive behavior of groups (movement rules, task allocation) with a minimal number of simple rules and little organizational hierarchy. Such principles may contribute to better human systems ranging from transportation networks, city structures, or organizational/social networks."
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Cognitive Models and Computation Tools:
"Cognitive studies are required to understand the cognitive and social processes underlying biologically inspired design. The results of these cognitive studies are computational models and tools that support the transfer of biological knowledge to engineering domains, and vice-versa, and educational strategies that teach engineers and biologists how to operate in this interdisciplinary framework."
