1. As the result of our project :
Inventing from Biology
Dr. Julian Vincent, Dr. Adrian Bowyer, Dr. Olga Bogatyreva, Dr. Nikolay Bogatyrev, Ms. Anja-Karina Pahl.
The Centre for Biomimetics and Natural Technologies, Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
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In October 2001 we began a project, funded by EPSRC, the main goal of which was to make whole data from biology suitable for using in technology. We believe that technology can greatly benefit from inclusion of solutions from the billions of years of evolution in the natural world. So, we decided to create a database of biological “inventions”.
In industry and society some set of methods and procedures for making the knowledge transfer between biology and engineering more reliable and manageable are urgently required. We consider that the most relevant methodology to play the role of this bridge is Russian method of TRIZ - the acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, or a new, integrated methodology.  TRIZ was originally developed within the physical and chemical domains of matter (mechanics, geometry, electrical and chemical regularities). More recent applications occurred in management, advertising and business consulting. However TRIZ developers mostly avoided the vast area of biology. This field comprises numerous subsets or levels, e.g., biosphere, landscape, biocenosis, population, individual, organ-systemic, organ, tissue, cellular, organelle, etc. At the University of Bath, we are expanding the existing TRIZ framework to incorporate biological data and biomimetic thinking. All our efforts lead to design of biological effect database and the recipe for biomimetic invention.
You are welcome to try our DATEBASE and to send you opinion to
As the result of our project :
We have uncovered some important teleological issues (with respect to the purpose of actions) and epistemological issues (about the limits of actions), which have not previously been addressed by the TRIZ system (please, see this paper).
Developed the recipe for knowledge transferring from biology to engineering
On the base of synthesis of TRIZ and General System Theory we designed a tool for innovation facilitating and present it in our workshops. If you want to attend, please, contact Ms. Anja-Karina Pahl