Talia Moore: A Taxonomical System for Bio-Inspired Design Strategies
This event has passed.
Skootr: A robotic mechanism with articulated metal and plastic arms navigating across a rocky terrain. image / Talia Moore
Design Tech Public Lecture Series
Abstract
Humans have frequently looked to natural phenomena to inspire the design of art, structures, and mechanisms. However, there are as many different ways to learn from nature as there are words for this concept: bioinspiration, biomimicry, and biodesign, to name a few. In this talk, I propose a taxonomy for categorizing distinct biodesign approaches and use examples from my own research to illustrate each strategy. In particular, I describe how bio-inspired approaches can be used to symbiotically further biological inquiry while advancing robotics.
Biography
Talia Y. Moore is an Assistant Professor of Robotics and of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she is also affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Zoology. She received her Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 2016 and a B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She aims to symbiotically bridge robotics and biology, so that her work in each discipline informs and advances the other. The Society awarded her the Carl Gans Young Investigator Award for Integrative and Comparative Biology for distinguished contributions to the field of comparative biomechanics and the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
