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

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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.