Biosystems

Biological systems span multiple scales and have many elements connected in complex ways. Examples include networks of self-regulating circulatory vessels, social insect colonies, or ecological communities. These systems often exhibit surprising complexity and perform well under a large range of conditions, even though individual interactions may be based on simple rules (e.g. foraging in bee colonies). In addition, the organization of connections appears to allow some biological systems (e.g. ecosystems) to resist disruptions caused when individual elements (e.g. a species) are removed or added to the system. Since most biological systems function to exchange information, materials (or both), studying the properties of these systems may provide strategies for more efficient and sustainable transportation or energy distribution systems, produce principles that lead to more secure and robust information networks, or provide for adaptive behavior of groups (movement rules, task allocation) with a minimal number of simple rules and little organizational hierarchy. Such principles may contribute to better human systems ranging from transportation networks, city structures, or organizational/social networks.

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

CBID is an interdisciplinary center for research and development of design solutions that occur in biological processes. Founded in 2005, It is one of more than 100 interdisciplinary research units funded at Georgia Institute of Technology