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Systems Organization

The natural world contains a myriad of systems, ranging in scale from landscapes and ecologies, to animal groups, to the intracellular. These systems often possess, to a remarkable degree, properties that are desireable in man-made systemsm such as:efficiency, effectiveness, resillience, robustness, adaptability, decentralization, autonomy, stability, multiplicity of functionality, and sustainability.

Project 1

Environmentally-conscious design and manufacturing

Reap | School of Applied Physiology | Georgia Tech

Project 2

Web Hosting optimization, based on foraging honey bees

Craig Tovey | School of Industrial and Systems Engineering | Georgia Tech

Project 3

Green Construction | Sustainable Urban Development

Chris Jarrertt | Elizabeth Dowling College of Architecture | Georgia Tech

Shape and Structure: from Engineering to Nature

by Adrian Bejan

Seemingly universal geometric forms unite the flow systems of engineering and nature. For example, tree-shaped flows can be seen in computers, lungs, dendritic crystals, urban street patterns, and communication links. In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan considers the design and optimization of engineered systems and discovers a deterministic principle of the generation of geometric form in natural systems.

It is time to invent moral reasoning of a new and more powerful kind, to look to the very roots of motivation and understand why, in what circumstances and on which occasions we cherish and protect life.... We are human in good part because of the particular way we affiliate with other organisms.... they offer the challenge and freedom innately sought.

E.O. Wilson