Bioinspired Design: A Practice in Making Analogies

Engineer Aimy Wissa and biologist Marianne "M" Alleyne explained bioinspired design, which draws solutions to human problems from nature. Each described her path into the field (Wissa born in Egypt, Alleyne raised in the Netherlands) and their collaboration, then presented research: feather-inspired deployable structures to stabilize unmanned aerial vehicles, and replicating cicada-wing nanopillars for superhydrophobic, antimicrobial surfaces. They discussed teaching interdisciplinary classes that break academic silos, led an audience brainstorming exercise, and closed by linking biodiversity loss to lost design inspiration.