I-Corps: Information Services for Biologically Inspired Design

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Taking inspiration from nature to solve design problems has the potential to lead to major advances in almost every conceivable sphere of design and innovation. Thus, there is a growing global movement of designers interested in the practice of biologically inspired design (BID). However, the adoption and growth of the movement is limited by the fact that most designers are novices in biology. This causes two major issues: (i) slow, tedious search for biological analogues relevant to design problems, and (ii) slow, inaccurate and imprecise understanding of biological systems. Thus, there is a need for (a) information systems that provide access to biological knowledge from a design perspective, and (b) interactive tools that support the process of making biological analogies in conceptual design. Over the last several years, researchers have developed a suite of tools centered around an approach to semantically representing, indexing, retrieving, assessing, and delivering biological information relevant to design problems. This approach can form the basis for providing a range of information services to BID professionals and contribute to the growth of the movement. BID not only offers innovative solutions, but it can also help drive trends in sustainable design. Since nature does not take the "heat, beat, and treat" approach often taken by human produced technologies, innovation that mimics biological systems fosters sustainable design. Thus, in the long term, researchers believe that this project can help lead to measurable progress in sustainable design. The practice of BID is becoming widespread, encompassing emerging disciplines like biotechnology, robotics, nanotechnology, synthetic biology, etc. Thus, researchers expect that these information services can potentially accelerate the growth of emerging technologies in all these disciplines.