Workshop/Collaborative Research: Charting a Course for Computer-Aided Bio-inspired Design Research; Palo Alto, California; March 20, 2011

该奖项的目的是举办为期一天的研讨会，旨在调查工程设计中被称为生物启发设计（BID）的新兴研究领域。研讨会的关键智力价值在于确定了BID未来的研究方向——特别是以问题为中心的研究方向，如复杂系统设计和可持续性。另一个关键的智力贡献是确定了加入工程和生物（及相关）学科的基本障碍，以及克服这些障碍所需的相关研究方向。将这两个学科结合在一起至关重要，因为：i)每个社区的相关技术知识；ii)它们之间的文化差异发生在工程作为产生应用科学的解决方案和生物学作为产生纯科学的知识的发展中。本次研讨会将作为一种将研究人员聚集在一个地点的手段，以确定新兴领域的最新技术状况，并确定代表进一步探索潜力的关键知识差距。与会者将讨论关键问题：“我们如何将BID从点解决方案的努力转变为基本的方法和理论？”其他讨论点将集中在生物/自然可持续解决方案上，这些解决方案可能作为工程系统的模型进行探索。如果成功，该奖项将使生物启发设计（BID）新兴领域的研究人员能够奠定框架，使BID从具有特定点应用的一般概念转变为具有确定的问题，挑战和应对这些挑战的严格方法的完整研究领域。复杂工程系统的可持续性问题目前具有国家和全球的重要性，并将在BID的背景下进行探讨。在研讨会网站上持续的论坛与六个月后的后续研讨会相结合，使努力的余震效应以一种略微改变和成熟的形式影响到更多的人。最终报告将在传统学科范围内广泛分发，以实现最大的影响并为研究人员提供最大的指导。

The objective of this award will be to conduct a one day workshop with the aim of investigating the emerging research area in engineering design known as Bio-inspired Design (BID). The key intellectual merit of the workshop lies in identifying future research directions of BID -- specifically problem focused research directions such as complex system design and sustainability. Another key intellectual contribution is the identification of the fundamental impediments to joining the engineering and biological (and related) disciplines and the associated research directions needed to overcome them. Bringing these two disciplines together is critical due to: i) the relevant technical knowledge in each community; and ii) the cultural difference between them that has occurred through the development of engineering as a solution generating applied science and biology as a knowledge generating pure science. This workshop will serve as a means of gathering researchers in a single location to identify the state of the art in the emerging field and to identify critical knowledge gaps that represent potential for further exploration. The attendees will address the critical question: "How do we transform BID from point solution efforts to fundamental methods and theories?" Additional discussion points will focus on biological/natural sustainable solutions that could potentially be explored as models for engineered systems. If successful, this award will enable researchers in the emerging field of Bio-Inspired Design (BID) to lay the framework that allows BID to move from a general concept with point specific applications to a full research field with identified problems, challenges, and rigorous approaches to deal with those challenges. The issue of sustainability for complex engineered systems is presently of national and global importance and will be explored in the context of BID. The continuing forums on the workshop website combined with a follow-up workshop six months later allow an aftershock effect of the effort to reach additional individuals in a slightly altered and matured form. A final report will be widely distributed across traditional disciplinary lines in order to achieve the greatest impact and provide the greatest guidance to researchers.