Judges huddle to review one of the submissions.
Fourteen diverse student teams at Southern Methodist University recently took part in an immersive biomimicry design experience inspired by the Biomimicry Institute’s Student Design Challenge. SMU’s two-day design challenge was part of the third annual Engineering and Humanity Week (April 6-12), a conference focused on ending global poverty. This year’s conference theme was “WATER: Ripple Effects” and the students were challenged to imagine biomimetic solutions for water access in a refugee camp setting in Ali Addeh, Djibouti.
The biomimicry challenge was the result of a partnership between conference organizers and BiomimicryTX, a regional network of biomimicry practitioners and advocates. The Biomimicry Institute was engaged to provide students with online resources a few weeks in advance of the challenge and BiomimciryTX members Linda Paisley, Puja Batra, and Kathy Zarsky provided valuable on-site training, mentoring, and judging for the two-day experience.
In addition to BiomimicryTX, other mentors and judges included faculty from various disciplines at SMU, refugee and humanitarian experts from the University of Oxford and the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the organization 20 Liters. Also on hand to lend their expertise via Skype were Tim McGee, a senior biologist with IDEO and Denise DeLuca, director of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation.
Outcomes
“With only a limited timeframe to digest the enormous diversity of biological models and systems, it was wonderful to witness how well the student teams managed to discover and emulate the design concepts,” said Zarsky, a Certified Biomimicry Specialist and one of the judges. “Strategies to extract, distribute, filter, and collect water were all explored, as well as process-oriented solutions of behavior change and social organization.”
The winning concept, “Branching Out.”
The winning team, “Branching Out,” examined the way trees create positive water potential through capillary action and evapotranspiration. Their adaptation mimicked the biological pump by creating a higher-water potential siphon that then moves the water to low-water potential distribution points.
The second place team looked at these same strategies but with a slightly different design concept. They suggested employing an evaporative device mounted to the siphons to facilitate water flow. This team also introduced a rainwater collection membrane inspired by the Namibian desert beetle to the camp’s existing cisterns as well as the design of an anaerobic digester.
Two teams were selected to share third place, one focused on behavioral adaptations influenced by self-organizing and emergent leadership, and the other on water extraction and filtration using readily available biological resources–including human hair.
Zarsky summed up the challenge by noting,
“The experience broadened everyone’s world perspective. Even with the very real and tragic constraints of water access, distribution, and purification, the students designed nature-inspired models that were hope-filled and hugely motivational.
BiomimicryTX extends its deepest gratitude to the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity for inviting us to participate in such a humbling and humanizing challenge. We’re especially hopeful about replicating this type of collaboration again in the future here and elsewhere.”
