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Journalism of Courage
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will soon offer a course on biomimicry. It would be a full semester, elective course and would teach students to imitate nature as a source of inspiration to solve complex problems, the IIT-Madras informed.
“Biomimicry is the intersection of biology and engineering. You do not have to be either a biologist or an engineer to learn biomimicry, all you need is curiosity. Curious enough to look at a lotus leaf and ask the questions like How does a lotus leaf remain clean?”, the IIT said in an official statement.
Students can have multiple applications from one organism, and there are millions of such organisms that have evolved strategies over billions of years of adaptation to our planet. We can use these blueprints and recipes from nature to design and build solutions for our world, the IIT-Madras informed.
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The institute claims that ‘Shinkansen’ – the bullet train in Tokyo, Japan, are inspired by the kingfisher bird and Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe inspired by the termite mound.
IIT-Madras claims to be among the first institutions in India to offer a full-fledged course on biomimicry. The course will be taught by MS Sivakumar – dean of students, IIT-Madras, Shiva Subramaniam, CIO, Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT-Madras, Satyanarayanan Seshadri, department of applied mechanics, and Srinivasa Chakravarthy a professor at Department of Biotechnology.
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IIT-Madras has also claims to have created a community of biomimicry enthusiasts who are exploring opportunities in research, entrepreneurship, new products, processes, and systems. The Institute plans to hold a biomimicry challenge to provoke bold, sustainable ideas from young minds. The UN Sustainable Development Goals can provide students with challenges for which they can design solutions using biomimicry.
