BioInspired! So What? Now What!

Teacher: Tom McKeag

This is a course in innovation and problem solving using the framework of bio-inspired design. Bio-inspired design is a compelling method of both seeing and doing for problem-solvers of every discipline, and can be a powerful tool for promoting sustainability.

Course overview

Participants will be presented with a fresh lens for looking at the natural world. They will be offered examples of successful applications of biomimetic innovation from a surprising range of professions. Participants will practice techniques for discovery, analysis, ideation and implementation of creative solutions.

The course will run as a series of short design problem sets or charettes: by briefly introducing a theme, offering a case study and technique, and challenging participants to develop an innovative answer to a problem question. An example of a theme is “Surfing for Free”. How do organisms take advantage of universal physical phenomena to optimize metabolic pathways? From soaring birds, to drifting larvae to even prairie dogs, living creatures are getting by on the least expenditure of energy to maintain themselves. They are doing this at many different scales. Maybe we can design that way, too.

This course is experiential, and problem and team based, so many of the thematic introductions will be interactive rather than didactic. Participants can expect to work in small groups, carry a problem from questions to answers and back to questions, and be challenged to integrate a wide range of conceptual ideas into a coherent, innovative and tangible application. They will also be asked to present their ideas, at any stage, in an effective way using the most basic tools of communication.

Teacher

Tom McKeag is a licensed landscape architect and city planner who teaches at the California College of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. He founded BioDreamMachine, a California public benefit corporation dedicated to teaching K12 science through bio-inspired design. He writes a regular blog about bio-inspired design at www.greenerdesign.com and is an Education Fellow and member of the Educational Advisory Board of the Biomimicry Institute. Organizations that he has consulted to include the Marine Science Institute, HOK architecture firm, and the Center for Enviromental Education, Westchester, NY. Tom is an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts.

 Thanks to Mark Wallace for the pointer!