increase creativity metrics such as quantity and variety of design, and provide designers and engineers with a new lens for examining problems. Inspirational BID can take place in an afternoon workshop, or over the course of a month or two. Inspirational BID often uses case studies, design ideation exercises, hands-on engagement with biology, and scientific articles to provide exposure to the possibilities and potential of BID. Clients typically leave with a collection of new ideas and problem approaches, a renewed connection to nature, and a new tool in their designer toolkit. Inspirational BID provides biom* practitioners with a method for demonstrating the promise of BID, while providing a low barrier to entry, and requiring little specialized knowledge. Deep BID, by contrast, focuses on converting bio-inspired design concepts into technical engineering designs and working prototypes. Deep BID relies on systematic engineering design processes to apply technical and scientific understanding of both the problem domain and the biological source material to create specifications for designs. Deep BID projects take place over the course of six+ months, require six figure R&D investment, and advanced technical capabilities in terms of both infrastructure and human resources. Deep BID translates technical engineering
principles of biological systems into validated engineering specifications, providing biom* practitioners with sound engineering justification for continued investment in developing these technologies and products. Deep BID requires much higher time, human resource, and capital commitments from an organization, as well as interdisciplinary expertise. While these activities are vastly different undertakings, they are rarely distinguished. Additionally, the end point of one is not the starting point of the other. That is, there is a chasm between inspirational BID and deep BID that most clients cannot cross on their own. In some respects, inspirational BID is no different than any other conceptual design process in that the leap from conceptual design to prototype is fraught with challenges and pitfalls. However, unlike other design processes, borrowing from the domain of biology has its own unique set of challenges that layer onto the already difficult process. These difficulties can include: an incomplete understanding of the underlying biological source of inspiration; radically different manufacturing processes and materials; orders of magnitude difference in performance scale; and environmental factors and interactions. It is incumbent on the biom* community to develop methods and expertise to
Zygote Quarterly 25 | vol 1 | 2019 | ISSN 1927-8314 | Pg 47 of 118
