Biologically Motivated

Description

“Biologically Motivated” seeks to pose new questions and solve problems by looking to the diverse ways that organisms adapt and survive. This interdisciplinary graduate group brings together students from the College of Biological Sciences with students from the School of Architecture in the College of Design and the Department of Art within the College of Liberal Arts. We anticipate that this initial group will expand to engage with engineering and computer science students and faculty, as well as other groups interested in using bio-inspired approaches. In bringing together these diverse fields, this group hopes to provide an opportunity for students of biology, design, and art to learn from and engage with potential peer collaborators from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

This group will provide an environment where biological inspiration can be used to develop approaches to address grand challenges. This interdisciplinary graduate group will initially use discussion groups and symposia to link students and faculty between biology, architecture and art. We will build on existing courses within each field to design interdisciplinary, collaborative courses where faculty and staff from all three disciplines can work together using bio-inspired approaches in design. Eventually, we would like to see a clear structure of various courses forming the curriculum for an interdisciplinary degree program.