Biologically Inspired Design

The research issue is how might an interactive design assistant support generation of new ideas in engineering design by analogical retrieval and mapping of biological designs.

Project members

Swaroop Vattam
Michael Helms
Vivek Menon

Technical Report

Biologically-Inspired Innovation in Engineering Design: A Cognitive Study

Research Directions

Classroom Observation

This includes the direct observation of students in the biologically inspired design class, student meetings outside of the classroom, and analysis of student journals, assignments, and presentations from the period of August through December 2006. A technical report detailing classroom findings was published April, 2007.

SBF Theory and Analogical Transfer

SBF Theory and theories of Analogical Transfer both inform and provide fertile ground for the development of theories of Biologically-Inspired Desgin. As these theories develop in the context of biologically inspired design, we will include them here.

Interactive Design Systems

Using SBF as a framework for an interactive design system, our system will assist designers integrate biolgical design concepts. The direct benefits to the design community of such a system include faster time to design, integration of biologically inspired concpets into traditional design, and a wider range of design concept exploration resulting in more innovative and creative solutions.

Last modified 12 April 2008 at 8:45 pm by Goel

Ashok K. Goel

Faculty

Students

Research

Publications

Presentations

Alumni

Internal

Classification Learning by Reflection

Story Construction in Intelligence Analysis

Learning Mental Models