Collaborative Research: Enhancing the Pedagogy of Bio-Inspired Design in an Engineering Curriculum

这位2020年的工程师不仅要提供技术上的独创性，而且要适应不断发展的环境，同时能够在一门学科的狭窄限制之外运作，并以解决未来复杂问题为伦理基础。为了培养未来工程师的能力，本科教育不仅要培养学生应对跨越学科边界的工程挑战，还要培养学生跨越技术和非技术边界进行沟通、传递知识和协作。在这些能力方面培训工程师的一种方法是在工程课程中教授仿生学或生物灵感设计，这既与专业实践相关，也是构建复杂、跨学科问题的情感纽带。这项研究旨在解决本科生在多学科设计创新方面的培训需求，方法是创建教学资源，让学生接触到在自然界中可以找到的丰富的设计实例，并为发现和知识转移过程奠定基础，以便这些自然设计可以被用来启发工程解决方案。预计这项研究将产生将提高学生学习、STEM素养、跨学科思维和创新能力的知识。随着更多的工科学生接受多学科设计创新的培训，他们将创造出为社会带来可持续未来的解决方案。以生物为灵感的设计支持思想的多样性和包容性，并将吸引不同背景的女性和少数族裔学生攻读STEM领域。

The engineer of 2020 is not only expected to offer technical ingenuity but also to adapt to a continuously evolving environment while simultaneously being able to operate outside the narrow limits of one discipline and be ethically grounded in solving the complex problems of the future. To address the competencies of the future engineer, undergraduate education must train students not only to address engineering challenges that transcend disciplinary boundaries, but also to communicate, transfer knowledge, and collaborate across technical and non-technical boundaries. One approach to train engineers in these competencies is teaching biomimicry or bio-inspired design in an engineering curriculum, which offers relevance to professional practice as well as an affective hook to frame complex, cross-disciplinary problems. This research aims to address the need for undergraduate student training in multidisciplinary design innovation through the creation of instructional resources that provide exposure to the abundance of design examples that can be found in nature, and scaffolding the discovery and knowledge transfer processes such that those natural designs can be used to inspire engineering solutions. The research is expected to produce knowledge that will improve student learning, STEM literacy, cross-disciplinary thinking, and capacity for innovation. As more engineering students are trained in multidisciplinary design innovation, they will create solutions that result in a sustainable future for society. Bio-inspired design supports diversity and inclusion of ideas, and will attract women and minority students with diverse backgrounds to pursue STEM fields.