CAREER: Resilient Engineering Systems Design Via Early-Stage Bio-Inspiration

弹性对于工程系统来说是至关重要的，但是在系统设计的早期阶段，专门针对弹性的综合方法和广泛接受的指导方针是缺乏的。该学院早期职业发展计划（Career）奖支持旨在通过在生物启发设计、系统工程和工程设计的交叉点工作来解决这些差距的研究，以建立定量工具，在可用信息最少的情况下解决系统弹性问题。将研究生物生态系统的特征，以确定它们在早期设计阶段指导系统设计者更好地响应和恢复的能力，包括涉及目标和/或随机干扰的情况。最终，该项目将开发知识和方法，以确保人类系统能够承受干扰，特别是对供应水、电或药品的关键基础设施系统至关重要，通过防止潜在故障和代价高昂的停机时间。来自生态学家、工业界和学术界专家的协作反馈将确保跨学科工作保持每个领域的关键特征。该项目的其他成果还包括“像工程师一样走路”计划，该计划邀请所有年龄和能力的参与者在当地公园进行工程灵感寻宝活动，由生物灵感工程设计专家和自然中心主持人领导。以自然为主题的散步，将聚焦于“自然的系统”和“自然的弹性”等主题，将鼓励参与者将自己视为向自然学习的设计工程师。该项目将通过培养跨学科的沟通技巧和对基于stem的设计的早期兴趣和兴奋，推动美国未来的劳动力，同时也以一种相互联系的方式向公众传授自然和工程知识。该项目的长期目标是增强系统设计过程中早期弹性的整合，使设计人员能够做出积极的选择，以创建更具可持续性和弹性的系统，这些系统可以承受中断并有效地恢复。该项目的研究目标是为工程系统设计中的生物灵感评估提供定量工具，将有效的生物灵感应用于系统恢复，并从有效的生物生态系统原理中制定实用的设计工具，以实现系统弹性。生态网络分析将提供一种定量方法，从有弹性的生物生态系统（如食物网）中提取理想的特征，并将其应用于人类工程系统。我们感兴趣的是这些特征如何提高系统的稳健性和恢复性，这将通过各种案例研究类型和临界水平进行测试，包括供应链、水分配网络、电网和工业资源网络。最有益的生物系统特征将进一步研究，以产生基本的工程原理，如拓扑与权重对自然系统特征的影响。对目标干扰与随机干扰的研究将为寻求系统级弹性的工程设计师提供更多的见解，了解这些生物系统特征在哪些方面最有价值。该项目的研究目标与项目的教育目标相结合并得到加强：在学生通常自我排斥STEM之前，创造和培养对工程的兴趣；告诉公众自然和工程是如何联系在一起的；并为有智力和发育障碍的学生创造STEM机会和包容性。对教育推广活动的评价也将提供重要的文件，以便利用自然来增加各年龄段以及代表性不足和服务不足群体对工程的兴趣。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Resilience is critical for engineering systems, but comprehensive methods and widely accepted guidelines tailored specifically for incorporating resilience in the early stages of system design are lacking. This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award supports research which aims to address these gaps by working at the intersection of bio-inspired design, systems engineering, and engineering design to establish quantitative tools for addressing system resilience when minimal information is available. Biological ecosystem characteristics will be investigated for their ability to guide system designers in the early design stages towards better response and recovery, including situations involving targeted and/or random disturbances. Ultimately, the project will develop knowledge and methods to ensure that human systems can withstand disturbances – especially important for the critical infrastructure systems that supply our water, power, or medicines – by safeguarding against potential failures and costly downtime. Collaborative feedback from ecologists, industry, and academic experts will ensure that the interdisciplinary work maintains each domain’s critical features. Additional deliverables from this project include a “Walk Like an Engineer” program, which engages participants of all ages and abilities in engineering inspiration scavenger hunts through local parks, led by both a bio-inspired engineering design expert and a Nature Center host. The themed nature walks, which will focus on topics such as ‘Nature’s Systems’ and ‘Nature’s Resilience’, will encourage participants to see themselves as design engineers learning from nature. The program will advance the United States future workforce by nurturing interdisciplinary communication skills and early interest and excitement in STEM-based design, while also teaching the public about nature and engineering in a connected manner. This project supports the long-term goal of enhancing the early integration of resilience into the system design process, allowing designers to make proactive choices to create more sustainable and resilient systems that can withstand disruptions and recover effectively. The research objectives of this project are to provide quantitative tools for assessment of biological inspiration in engineering system design, extend the use of effective bio-inspiration into system recovery, and formulate practical design tools for achieving system resilience from biological ecosystem principles found to be effective. Ecological Network Analysis will provide a quantitative method for extracting desirable traits from resilient biological ecosystems (e.g., food webs) and applying them to human engineered systems. Of interest is how these traits can improve a system’s robustness and recovery, which will be tested using a variety of case study types and criticality levels, including supply chains, water distribution networks, power grids, and industrial resource networks. The most beneficial biological systems traits will be further investigated to generate fundamental engineering principles, such as the impact of topology versus weights on nature’s systems characteristics. A study of targeted versus random disturbances will provide additional insight into where these biological systems characteristics have the most value for engineering designers seeking system-level resilience. The project’s research objectives are integrated and enhanced by the project’s educational objectives: to create and foster engineering excitement before students typically self-exclude from STEM; teach the public about how nature and engineering can be connected; and create STEM access for and inclusion of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Evaluation of the educational outreach activities will also provide important documentation for the use of nature to increase interest in engineering at all ages, as well as in underrepresented and underserved groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.