BIOMIMETICS AS PROBLEM-SOLVING, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION TOOL

Engineering sketching, as taught in our first-year design course, exists somewhere between writing and formal drawing as a means of formulating ideas. In our third year of teaching engineering sketching assignments were given several additional components: the visualization of engineering concepts, sustainable product design and biomimetics. This was done for a number of reasons: Students were given the opportunity to integrate knowledge from other first year engineering courses; Students were challenged to think spatially, socially and philosophically (but not always in that order); Students who were not necessarily strong artists felt they could make up for this in the ‘additional component’ category;  First year students seem to have a great interest in the study of structural biology as it applies to engineering design. Now in our fifth year, this paper discusses biomimetics, the abstraction of good design from nature, the transfer of technological ideas from nature to artificial applications, and the resulting student projects.