BIO-INSPIRED IDEATION: LESSONS FROM TEACHING DESIGN TO ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Biologically inspired design uses inspiration of natural systems to develop solutions for design and engineering problems. We experienced teaching bioinspired method to engineers in the context of problem solving course in Fall of 2012. The aim of this study was to investigate and understand the perception of bioinspired design by engineering students and to provide insight into problem driven and solution driven approaches as a type of design ideation pedagogic method. This paper provides the detail of analysis of ideas and summarizes our main observations: 1) Difficulties to follow problem driven approach rather than solution driven; 2) Distinct preference of inspired ideas for product, process, service and system domains.