MAJOR: Computational Tools for Enhancing Creativity in Biologically Inspired Engineering Design

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Intellectual Merits: Analogy is a fundamental process of creativity. By definition, biologically inspired design is based on cross-domain analogies. This project is developing a computational model of creative analogies in biologically inspired engineering design, and building an interactive environment for enhancing biologically inspired design innovations. For a creative analogy to occur (e.g., design of nano-scale super-hydrophobic coatings inspired by the self-cleaning mechanism of lotus leafs), there must be significant similarity between the target problem and the source case at some deep level. For a creative analogy to work well, analogical transfer must take into account both the deep similarities and the dissimilarities between the target and the source. The hypotheses are that creative analogies in biologically inspired engineering design are ? enabled by knowledge of deep similarities in the abstract teleological mechanisms of biological and engineering systems, ? constrained by knowledge of deep dissimilarities between the physical structures in biological systems and the physical structures available to realize an abstract teleological mechanism in an engineering system, ? use an organizational schemata for the design cases that captures the relationships between teleological mechanisms and the physical structures in a biological system, ? use knowledge of specific design cases of biological systems (for problem understanding) and knowledge of general design patterns that capture their abstract teleological mechanisms (for solution generation), and ? use multimodal representations for the design cases in which the physical structures are represented both visually and verbally.The computational model accounts for both problem-driven and solution-driven biologically inspired design, compound analogies in the design solution, and interactions between the process of problem decomposition and the processes of analogical retrieval, mapping and transfer. An interactive environment provides access to specific design cases of biological systems as well as general design patterns that capture the abstract teleological mechanisms of biological systems. It will organize knowledge of design cases in a drawing/shape, structure/behavior/function schemata that captures the relationships between the teleological mechanisms and the physical structures in a biological system, and uses multimodal representations in which the physical structures are represented both visually and verbally.The PIs are evaluating an interactive tool through in vitro and in vivo studies. In particular, they are conducting controlled experiments that vary the design problem and access to knowledge as independent variables, and measure reduction in cognitive errors and improvement in quality of design innovations as the dependent variables. Improvement in the quality of innovations will be measured in terms of the amount of problem evolution, the number of analogies in the design solution, and the degree of correctness and completeness of the design and its explanation.At present, there are few computational models of biologically inspired design and few tools for supporting it. Although biological inspired design is promising, its practice today is ad hoc. By systemizing knowledge of the processes of biologically inspired design, and by developing computational models of creative analogy and computational tools for supporting analogy based design, this research has the potential for transforming the practice of biologically inspired design.Broader Impacts: Biologically inspired design is an important and increasingly wide spread movement in many areas of engineering design ranging from robot design to technologies for environmentally conscious sustainable development. This research will contribute to multiple design domains in engineering. This research is based in part on cognitive studies conducted in classes on biologically inspired design, and the proposed interactive tool has the potential to revolutionize teaching and learning of biologically inspired design.