Biohaviour

Even when things may seem completely chaotic in the natural world, over time, order is restored and a new balance found. Ecosystems settle into a peaceful rhythm. It may be that this underlying chaos is needed to create the true order of things in nature, or maybe, underlying this are very simple rules that drive everything. It is this simple thought process that has brought about Biohaviour. With the generous support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering, the first Biohaviour project -"In Search of Design Genes"(EPSRC Ref. EP/N005813/1)- started in November 2015 as part of its exciting "Design the Future" programme. Biohaviour aims to bottle nature's laws to create new engineering design processes that will allow engineers and designers to create new, innovative and exciting bio-inspired products. Our hypothesis is that by reimagining design as a series of elemental rules and growth mechanisms that react to environment and stimuli, the design of complex systems will be simplified, and emergence could be used as a tool for innovation beyond conventional paradigms.