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Design Computing and Cognition '12 pp 41–57Cite as

Evaluating Methods for Bioinspired Concept Generation

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Abstract

Bioinspired design, the practice of using biological organisms and systems to inspire the design of engineering systems, has traditionally been performed without the use of systematic tools or methods to aid the designer. In recent years however, several tools have been developed to help designers effectively use bioinspiration for engineering design. These methods include BioTRIZ, functional modeling, biological keyword searches, and online repositories such as Asknature.org. This paper briefly reviews some of these methods and presents the summary of three studies that offer empirical examinations of those methods. In two studies the methods are taught and used by groups of graduate-level engineering students. The successes and difficulties that the students encountered using the bioinspired design methods are discussed and evaluated. Additionally, a third controlled study examines a group of undergraduate mechanical engineering students with no formal training in ideation methods. The students were given one of two design problems and instructed to either generate ideas or to generate ideas while considering how nature might solve the problem. This controlled study allows a quantitative analysis of ad hoc approaches to bioinspired design.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation NSF EEC 1025155. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Michael W. Glier, Joanna Tsenn, Daniel A. McAdams & Julie S. Linsey

Authors
  1. Michael W. Glier
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  2. Joanna Tsenn
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  3. Daniel A. McAdams
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  4. Julie S. Linsey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael W. Glier .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    John S. Gero

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Glier, M.W., Tsenn, J., McAdams, D.A., Linsey, J.S. (2014). Evaluating Methods for Bioinspired Concept Generation. In: Gero, J. (eds) Design Computing and Cognition '12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9112-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9112-0_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9111-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9112-0

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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