Kent State University’s Environmental Science and Design Research Initiative highlights our work in environmental sustainability, including from perspectives of science, art, and design. For the 2019/2020 academic year, we chose Biodesign as the theme of much of our programming because it spans these diverse fields and highlights an innovative approach to solving environmental problems.
Biodesign combines the approach of design thinking with knowledge and tools of biological systems. However, biodesign also goes further than this, advocating for integration of life into the technology that humanity relies on day-to-day. Living organisms are envisioned as incorporated into fabrication processes, products, and built and urban systems.