User:Norbert

I have been involved with the Biomimicry Guild since late 2002, working on communications strategies and more recently education programs. Biomimicry "is a new science that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems." (Janine Benyus)

While team-teaching Biomimicry at the Ontario College of Art and Design, I sensed that students grasped the concepts of Biomimicry but struggled with applying those concepts in the design process due to their limited biological background and lack of access to biological expertise.

For a University of Toronto workshop on Bio-Inspired Design, I tried to relate the concepts to the specific design language of the students (engineers). I challenged students to re-think their problem statements by using the Life's Principles (from Janine's Book Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature). I then presented a preliminary spreadsheet of "Patterns in Nature" to provide the students with potential solution paths that they might otherwise not have considered. The positive response from the students led to the "Patterns for Nature" project.

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada