After a year's absence, BioInspired! has been re-launched with a new sponsor, Georgia Tech's Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID). Whereas the previous newsletter was intended for a broad audience, this newsletter will focus on promoting the practice of bio-inspired design. It will ask provocative questions that explore fundamental issues, helping to strengthen the discipline.
The Bio-Inspired Design (BID) Community will promote the practical application of bio-inspired design, emphasizing the ‘challenge to biology’ approach. The objective is to foster more effective and efficient methods for developing solutions based on natural principles. The goal is to encourage the conscious application of principles that support and promote solutions facilitating sustainable human behavior and leading to successful products, services and systems initiatives.
Interest in bio-inspired design is accelerating. Biomimicry is regularly on the agenda of high profiles events such as Bioneers, Green Build and UN conferences ranging from climate change to biodiversity. BIONIS (the Biomimetics Network for Industrial Sustainability) has been actively "promot[ing] the application of Biomimetics (Design Inspired by Nature) in products and services and its use in education and training' since 2002. The journals Bioinspiration & Biomimetics and the Journal of Bionic Engineering are dedicated to the field. A steadily growing number of courses are available from The Biomimicry Institute and universities, including the Biomimicry Professional Certification Program.
Although our designs have been inspired by nature for millennia, the discipline of bio-inspired design itself is relatively new. We do not have sufficient examples to develop reliable, efficient and effective processes, nor do we have a general theory that links the domains of biology with those of technology (Vincent, Biomimetics: its practice and theory). Although we currently have a surplus of questions, the combined knowledge and expertise of the BID Community can help explore the issues and find answers. Please 'pitch in' using the forums linked to each question!
The Advisory Group needs your input! The BID Community will only be successful if it serves the needs of its members. This is your opportunity to tell us what you want the BID Community to become.
