Exploring the Use of Category and Scale to Scope a Biological Functional Model

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Biological System ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Functional Model ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Functional Representation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Biological Category

The natural world provides numerous cases for analogy and inspiration in engineering design. Biological organisms, phenomena and strategies, herein referred to as biological systems, are, in essence, living engineered systems. These living systems provide insight into sustainable and adaptable design and offer engineers billions of years of valuable experience, which can be used to inspire engineering innovation. This research presents a general method for functionally representing biological systems through systematic design techniques, affording conceptualization of biologically-inspired, engineering designs. Functional representation and abstraction techniques are utilized to translate biological systems into an engineering context. Thus, the biological system information is accessible to engineering designers with varying biological knowledge, but a common understanding of engineering design methods. Functional modeling is typically driven by customer needs or product re-designs; however, these cannot be applied to biological systems. Thus, we propose the use of biological category and scale to guide the design process. Mimicry categories and scales, in addition to answering a design question, aid the designer with defining boundaries or scope when developing a biological functional model. Biological category assists with framing the information in the right perspective, where as, biological scale deals with how much detail is required for an adequate representation of the biological system to utilize the information with a chosen engineering design method. In our case, the engineering design method is function-based design. Choosing a category serves to refine the boundary, but, like scale, its consideration might prompt the designer to consider the same biological system in a new and unique way leading to new ideas. General guidelines for modeling biological systems at varying scales and categories are given, along with two modeling examples.

Function-based, biologically inspired concept generation

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn K.S. Nagel ◽  
Robert L. Nagel ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Biologically Inspired ◽  
Modeling Methodology ◽  
Functional Representation ◽  
Engineering Designs

AbstractThe natural world provides numerous cases for inspiration in engineering design. Biological organisms, phenomena, and strategies, which we refer to as biological systems, provide a rich set of analogies. These systems provide insight into sustainable and adaptable design and offer engineers billions of years of valuable experience, which can be used to inspire engineering innovation. This research presents a general method for functionally representing biological systems through systematic design techniques, leading to the conceptualization of biologically inspired engineering designs. Functional representation and abstraction techniques are used to translate biological systems into an engineering context. The goal is to make the biological information accessible to engineering designers who possess varying levels of biological knowledge but have a common understanding of engineering design. Creative or novel engineering designs may then be discovered through connections made between biology and engineering. To assist with making connections between the two domains concept generation techniques that use biological information, engineering knowledge, and automatic concept generation software are employed. Two concept generation approaches are presented that use a biological model to discover corresponding engineering components that mimic the biological system and use a repository of engineering and biological information to discover which biological components inspire functional solutions to fulfill engineering requirements. Discussion includes general guidelines for modeling biological systems at varying levels of fidelity, advantages, limitations, and applications of this research. The modeling methodology and the first approach for concept generation are illustrated by a continuous example of lichen.

Evaluating the impact of Idea-Inspire 4.0 on analogical transfer of concepts

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Siddharth ◽  
Amaresh Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Biological System ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Knowledge Bases ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Function Decomposition ◽  
Engineering Design Problems ◽  
Biological Domain ◽  
Biological Concepts ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe biological domain has the potential to offer a rich source of analogies to solve engineering design problems. However, due to the complexity embedded in biological systems, adding to the lack of structured, detailed, and searchable knowledge bases, engineering designers find it hard to access the knowledge in the biological domain, which therefore poses challenges in understanding the biological concepts in order to apply these concepts to engineering design problems. In order to assist the engineering designers in problem-solving, we report, in this paper, a web-based tool called Idea-Inspire 4.0 that supports analogical design using two broad features. First, the tool provides access to a number of biological systems using a searchable knowledge base. Second, it explains each one of these biological systems using a multi-modal representation: that is, using function decomposition model, text, function model, image, video, and audio. In this paper, we report two experiments that test how well the multi-modal representation in Idea-Inspire 4.0 supports understanding and application of biological concepts in engineering design problems. In one experiment, we use Bloom's method to test “analysis” and “synthesis” levels of understanding of a biological system. In the next experiment, we provide an engineering design problem along with a biological-analogous system and examine the novelty and requirement-satisfaction (two major indicators of creativity) of resulting design solutions. In both the experiments, the biological system (analogue) was provided using Idea-Inspire 4.0 as well as using a conventional text-image representation so that the efficacy of Idea-Inspire 4.0 is tested using a benchmark.

A Systematic Approach to Biologically-Inspired Engineering Design

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel ◽  
Robert B. Stone
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Biologically Inspired ◽  
Design Methodologies ◽  
Functional Representation ◽  
Engineering Designs ◽  
Engineered Systems ◽  
Biologically Inspired Design

To facilitate systematic biologically-inspired design, a design methodology that integrates with function-based design methodologies has been formalized. The goals of this methodology are to go beyond the element of chance, reduce the amount of time and effort required for developing biologically-inspired engineering solutions, and bridge the seemingly immense disconnect between the engineering and biological domains. Using functional representation and abstraction to describe biological systems presents the natural designs in an engineering context and allows designers to make connections between biological and engineered systems. Thus, the biological information is accessible to engineering designers with varying biological knowledge, but a common understanding of engineering design methodologies. Two approaches to validation are presented. One examines current biologically-inspired products either in production or in literature to see if the systematic approach to biologically-inspired design can reproduce the existing designs. The second investigates needs-based design problems that lead to plausible biologically-inspired solutions. This work has demonstrated the feasibility of using systematic design for the discovery of innovative engineering designs without requiring expert-level knowledge, but rather broad knowledge of many fields.

Fostering Diverse Analogical Transfer in Bio-Inspired Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel ◽  
Linda Schmidt ◽  
Werner Born
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Biological System ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Analogical Transfer ◽  
Design Inspiration

Nature is a powerful resource for engineering designers. The natural world provides numerous cases for analogy and inspiration in engineering design. Transferring the valuable knowledge and inspiration gained from the biology domain to the engineering domain during concept generation is a somewhat disorganized process and relies heavily on the designers’ insight and background knowledge of many fields to make the necessary leaps between the domains. Furthermore, the novice designer approaching biology for inspiration tends to focus heavily on copying the visual attributes of a biological system to develop a solution that looks like the biological system rather than explore at deeper levels to uncover relationships that lead to the development of true analogies. There are now well-known methods for teaching bioinspired design in engineering and the majority of methods prescribe the use of analogies in order to facilitate knowledge transfer, however, guidance in analogy formulation to foster the creative leaps is missing or ill defined. Thus little is known about how students use biological systems for design inspiration. This paper proposes categories for analogical knowledge transfer in bio-inspired design to foster and characterize diverse analogical knowledge transfer. The proposed analogy categories are used to describe the behavior seen in an engineering class. Results indicate that (1) single biological system provides multiple analogies that result in different engineering inspiration for design; (2) biological information from multiple categories is transferred during concept generation; and (3) non-physical characteristics may inspire more sophisticated engineering inspiration than those based on physical characteristics alone. Overall, the analogy data classification has resulted in a better understanding of analogical knowledge transfer during bio-inspired design and leads to best practices for teaching bio-inspired design to engineering students.

scholarly journals BOLD Coherence Reveals Segregated Functional Neural Interactions When Adapting to Distinct Torque Perturbations

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 2107-2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Tunik ◽  
Paul J. Schmitt ◽  
Scott T. Grafton
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Adaptive Responses ◽  
Response Preparation ◽  
Target Capture ◽  
Neural Processes ◽  
Neural Interactions ◽  
The Right ◽  
Level Analysis

In the natural world, we experience and adapt to multiple extrinsic perturbations. This poses a challenge to neural circuits in discriminating between different context-appropriate responses. Using event-related fMRI, we characterized the neural dynamics involved in this process by randomly delivering a position- or velocity-dependent torque perturbation to subjects’ arms during a target-capture task. Each perturbation was color-cued during movement preparation to provide contextual information. Although trajectories differed between perturbations, subjects significantly reduced error under both conditions. This was paralleled by reduced BOLD signal in the right dentate nucleus, the left sensorimotor cortex, and the left intraparietal sulcus. Trials included “NoGo” conditions to dissociate activity related to preparation from execution and adaptation. Subsequent analysis identified perturbation-specific neural processes underlying preparation (“NoGo”) and adaptation (“Go”) early and late into learning. Between-perturbation comparisons of BOLD magnitude revealed negligible differences for both preparation and adaptation trials. However, a network-level analysis of BOLD coherence revealed that by late learning, response preparation (“NoGo”) was attributed to a relative focusing of coherence within cortical and basal ganglia networks in both perturbation conditions, demonstrating a common network interaction for establishing arbitrary visuomotor associations. Conversely, late-learning adaptation (“Go”) was attributed to a focusing of BOLD coherence between a cortical–basal ganglia network in the viscous condition and between a cortical–cerebellar network in the positional condition. Our findings demonstrate that trial-to-trial acquisition of two distinct adaptive responses is attributed not to anatomically segregated regions, but to differential functional interactions within common sensorimotor circuits.

scholarly journals Establishing Analogy Categories for Bio-Inspired Design

Designs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquelyn Nagel ◽  
Linda Schmidt ◽  
Werner Born
Keyword(s):  
Analogical Reasoning ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
Design Pedagogy ◽  
Biological Inspiration ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
Behavior Learning ◽  
The Common

Biological systems have evolved over billions of years and cope with changing conditions through the adaptation of morphology, physiology, or behavior. Learning from these adaptations can inspire engineering innovation. Several bio-inspired design tools and methods prescribe the use of analogies, but lack details for the identification and application of promising analogies. Further, inexperienced designers tend to have a more difficult time recognizing or creating analogies from biological systems. This paper reviews biomimicry literature to establish analogy categories as a tool for knowledge transfer between biology and engineering to aid bio-inspired design that addresses the common issues. Two studies were performed with the analogy categories. A study of commercialized products verifies the set of categories, while a controlled design study demonstrates the utility of the categories. The results of both studies offer valuable information and insights into the complexity of analogical reasoning and transfer, as well as what leads to biological inspiration versus imitation. The influence on bio-inspired design pedagogy is also discussed. The breadth of the analogy categories is sufficient to capture the knowledge transferred from biology to engineering for bio-inspired design. The analogy categories are a design method independent tool and are applicable for professional product design, research, and teaching purposes.

scholarly journals Aplikasi Pelaporan Kelebihan Jam Mengajar Jurusan Akuntansi PNP

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Sukartini ◽  
Firman Surya ◽  
Welsi Haslina ◽  
Yusnani ◽  
Ulfi Maryati
Keyword(s):  
Design Method ◽  
Application Development ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Database Application ◽  
Microsoft Access ◽  
Implementation Stages ◽  
The Right ◽  
Short Time ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Selection Of

This study aims to create a database application program that is able to process data on lecturer course activities and generate reports on the calculation of teaching fees periodically during the pandemic which requires lecturers to report lecture activities online. The system design method approach used is prototyping, namely by creating a program that most closely resembles user needs in a relatively short time. The prototype was generated using the Microsoft Access 2010 database application. The selection of microsoft access to create a prototype was based on the availability of complete facilities in Microsoft Access to design table relations, input forms, query processing, reports and the visual basic programming language for applications. Google Forms used to receive lecture data input online. The application development stages consist of design, testing and implementation stages. This application has succeeded in providing the right solution for the Padang State Polytechnic Accounting Department during the pandemic in calculating and reporting lecture activities and lecturers teaching fees.

scholarly journals PUSAT KREATIVITAS ANAK DI PONTIANAK

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 398
Author(s):  
Adilla Chairiah ◽  
Lestari Lestari ◽  
Irwin Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Design Method ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Circular Shape ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Future ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Child Friendly ◽  
The Right

Children are the future successors of the nation who must be equipped with supporting knowledge and education. One of the factors that influence the development of children are children’s creativity. Creativity is important for children because creativity is useful as a human need to be creative, creativity allows children to express themselves and thoughts in solving problem and many more. Creativity activities in schools are limited, namely 4-5 hours due to strict curriculum (Kemendikbud, 2012). The facilities that support the development of children's creativity in Pontianak is quite limited. This condition shows that Pontianak needs facilities that support the development of children's creativity, namely the Child Creativity Center in Pontianak. The design method starts from identifying the problem by looking at the issues, data collecting consists of primary data and secondary data, and then the data is analyzed which produced pre design drawing. The emphasis on the design is child-friendly which includes aspects of safety, comfort, freedom and stimulates children's potential. This concept produces a mass building design with a circular shape that has been transformed. The use of the right colors, shapes, materials and dimensions is the core of the design of the Children's Creativity Center in Pontianak.

Thermal loading of concrete bridges

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm J. S. Hirst
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Computer Model ◽  
Parametric Study ◽  
Structural Engineering ◽  
Thermal Loading ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Concrete Bridges ◽  
Frequency Distributions

This paper presents the results of a parametric study into the thermal loading of concrete bridges by solar radiation. All results were obtained using a computer model calibrated from field measurements. The model computes the loading parameters from the bridge characteristics and the standard daily records of the weather bureau. The design method given uses an effective thickness concept to find the effects of a wearing course on the temperature profile of the underlying bridge. Thermal loading depends on climate and is extremely variable. Histograms are presented, which show the frequency distributions of the loading parameters for sample bridges at three Australian sites covering a range of climatic regimes from tropical to temperate. Key words: bridges, concrete, loads, temperature, solar radiation, structural engineering, design chart.

Exploration of the Dynamics of Neuro-Cognition During TRIZ

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Milovanovic ◽  
Mo Hu ◽  
Tripp Shealy ◽  
John Gero
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Cognitive Activation ◽  
Solution Generation ◽  
Engineering Parameters ◽  
Medial Pfc ◽  
The Right ◽  
Support Engineering ◽  
Structured Approach

Abstract The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) method and toolkit provides a well-structured approach to support engineering design with pre-defined steps: interpret and define the problem, search for standard engineering parameters, search for inventive principles to adapt, and generate final solutions. The research presented in this paper explores the neuro-cognitive differences of each of these steps. We measured the neuro-cognitive activation in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of 30 engineering students. Neuro-cognitive activation was recorded while students completed an engineering design task. The results show a varying activation pattern. When interpreting and defining the problem, higher activation is found in the left PFC, generally associated with goal directed planning and making analytical. Neuro-cognitive activation shifts to the right PFC during the search process, a region usually involved in exploring the problem space. During solution generation more activation occurs in the medial PFC, a region generally related to making associations. The findings offer new insights and evidence explaining the dynamic neuro-cognitive activations when using TRIZ in engineering design.

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