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>Return to October 2009 Newsletter
>Return to September 2009 Newsletter
Biomimicry Affiliate Institutions: Committed to integrating biomimicry into the classroom
“We’re ready to sign!” exclaimed Raúl de Villafranca, professor of architecture from Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) in Mexico City. UIA and Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD; Toronto) were the first two academic institutions to officially join The Biomimicry Institute’s newly launched Biomimicry Affiliate Program (BAP); we anticipate the third school, Arizona State University to join later this month.
The BAP is a program of affiliation, exchange, and collaboration between The Biomimicry Institute and college/university-level institutions committed to the development and integration of biomimicry into their classrooms. Bruce Hinds, Chair of Environmental Design and Professor of Design at OCAD, is a long-time biomimicry educator who was instrumental in getting the BAP off the ground. He says, "Our major interest is to build an affiliation of institutions to collaborate on design problems using biomimicry. We envision engineering, design, and business students working in teams across disciplines and institutions. The Biomimicry Affiliate Program should foster such collaboration.”
By building deep and long-lasting partnerships with academic institutions, The Biomimicry Institute intends to
- promote biomimicry-based educational and research activities
- advance the use of biomimicry concepts, tools, and principles in the development of sustainable and healthy technologies, designs, and systems
- conduct collaborative research to advance knowledge, methodology, and curricula related to the field of biomimicry
“We anticipate that the BAP will become the backbone of our university education program as it offers a strong opportunity to work closely with those institutions that are passionately committed to the principles of biomimicry and creative ways of approaching education. It is evident that the next generation will inherit humanity’s greatest challenges. Through our Affiliate partnerships, we endeavor to teach today’s teachers and students how to arrive at innovative design solutions to these challenges by showing them how nature solves the same challenges in regenerative, beautiful, and fascinating ways”, says Cindy Gilbert, The Biomimicry Institute’s Director of University Education.
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