Engineering design is considered a creative field that involves many activities with the end goal of a new product that fulfills a purpose. Utilization of systematic methods or tools that aid in the design process is recognized as standard practice in industry and academia. The tools are used for a number of design activities (i.e., idea generation, concept generation, inspiration searches, functional modeling) and can span across engineering disciplines, the sciences (i.e., biology, chemistry) or a non-engineering domain (i.e., medicine), with an overall focus of encouraging creative engineering designs. Engineers, however, have struggled with utilizing the vast amount of biological information available from the natural world around them. Often it is because there is a knowledge gap or terminology is difficult, and the time needed to learn and understand the biology is not feasible. This paper presents an engineering-to-biology thesaurus, which we propose affords engineers, with limited biological background, a tool for leveraging nature’s ingenuity during many steps of the design process. Additionally, the tool could also increase the probability of designing biologically-inspired engineering solutions. Biological terms in the thesaurus are correlated to the engineering domain through pairing with a synonymous function or flow term of the Functional Basis lexicon, which supports functional modeling and abstract representation of any functioning system. The second version of the thesaurus presented in this paper represents an integration of three independent research efforts, which include research from Oregon State University, the University of Toronto, and the Indian Institute of Science, and their industrial partners. The overall approach for term integration and the final results are presented. Applications to the areas of design inspiration, comprehension of biological information, functional modeling, creative design and concept generation are discussed. An example of comprehension and functional modeling are presented.
Skip Nav Destination
ASME 2010 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
August 15–18, 2010
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Conference Sponsors:
- Design Engineering Division and Computers in Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4413-7
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
An Engineering-to-Biology Thesaurus for Engineering Design
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel,
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Search for other works by this author on:
Robert B. Stone,
Robert B. Stone
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Search for other works by this author on:
Daniel A. McAdams
Daniel A. McAdams
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Search for other works by this author on:
Jacquelyn K. S. Nagel
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Robert B. Stone
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
Daniel A. McAdams
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Paper No:
DETC2010-28233, pp. 117-128; 12 pages
Published Online:
March 8, 2011
Citation
Nagel, JKS, Stone, RB, & McAdams, DA. "An Engineering-to-Biology Thesaurus for Engineering Design." Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 5: 22nd International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology; Special Conference on Mechanical Vibration and Noise. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. August 15–18, 2010. pp. 117-128. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2010-28233
Download citation file:
101
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
A Design Alternatives Assessment and Management Approach
IDETC-CIE2003
Related Articles
Crossing the Lines
Mechanical Engineering (September,2004)
Disruptions of Progress
Mechanical Engineering (November,2005)
Inaugural Editorial
ASME Open J. Engineering (January,2022)
Related Chapters
Nam Pyo Suh: A Model for Multidisciplinary Engineering
Advances in Multidisciplinary Engineering
Pressure Waves for Diagnostics and Therapy
Pressure Oscillation in Biomedical Diagnostics and Therapy
Engineering Consultancy Services
Marketing of Engineering Consultancy Services: A Global Perspective