Students seek solutions in nature's toolbox
The beak behind the bullet train. © Thinkstockphotos.com
EPFL students are preparing to compete in an international competition that calls on students to develop bio-inspired solutions on the theme of food systems. They’ve turned to EPFL’s Fusebox platform to crowdsource ideas from across campus.
Carbon dioxide filters that mimic our lungs, sustainable skyscrapers that draw on the architectural prowess of termites; our modern world is filled with examples of technologies inspired by nature. Seeking to tap into nature’s toolbox to compete in an international biomimicry design challenge, to be held in 2015, a group of students in environmental engineering have taken it upon themselves to form a team, promote the challenge, and recruit more members. To win the challenge, they will have to identify an issue related to food systems, and find an innovative solution inspired by biological systems or organisms present in Swiss ecosystems. The first step will involve scouring EPFL’s student body for ideas using the online Fusebox platform.
Biomimicry can help answer social and technical challenges by emulating strategies developed by living organisms, and several EPFL labs have long been implementing this approach. Genetic algorithms simulate evolution to solve computational problems in EPFL’s computer science labs, bio-inspired materials are a hot topic in materials science, and animal inspired robots, such as the robot that walks like a cat, have been prominently displayed in the press. But the skillset needed to glean solutions from nature is a special one, requiring interdisciplinary working skills and an extra dose of creativity.
Quizzing campus for ideas
To test themselves in this promising field of research, a small group of SIE Master students decided to organize EPFL’s participation in the international “Biomimicry Global Design Challenge”, hosted by the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute based in Montana, United States. To recruit motivated students and generate ideas in anticipation of the contest, the students are launching a new Fusebox challenge using EPFL’s social ideation platform.
The Fusebox challenge is funded by the EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering and will start on Monday, November 10th, under the title: “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature”. A top-level group of European biomimicry experts will guide the students through the idea generation and refinement process, and will select the most promising contributions. Whatever their field of expertise, EPFL and Unil students, professors and collaborators are all invited to join the Fusebox community and have take a first stab at biomimicry with the precious support of these experts.
To launch the Fusebox challenge and foster idea generation, two lectures on biomimicry will take place on Monday, November 10th, 18h15, in auditorium CM1. Two certified biomimicry professionals, Patrick Baumann from Biomimicry Switzerland and Alessandro Bianciardi, jury member for the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, will present biomimicry, using examples from a range of engineering fields, such as how woodpeckers can lead to a new generation of high-tech hammers!. A cocktail offered by ENAC will allow the participants to continue the discussion with the two guest speakers.
For more information on the project, please contact: [email protected].