Creating Strategic Alliances (By invitation)

Tenth Annual IBE Meeting

Creating Strategic Alliances

What should we do to create a "Nexus" of professional organizations that fosters growth at the frontiers of biology-inspired engineering?

In the decade of 1990's the idea of integrating biology and engineering to create the discipline of biological engineering matured from an interesting possibility into a reality.

Ideas of "bio" engineering in the practice of medicine received a big boost that created nearly 35 new biomedical departments and many interdisciplinary programs across the country.

The agricultural engineering discipline completed extensive discussions on the impact of modern biology on engineering for agricultural, food and biological systems. Nearly all departments added "bio" to their name in an effort to ensure the continued relevance of the field and curricula.

In mid-1990's, the Institute of Biological Engineering emerged with the object to encourage the development of biology-based engineering science that adds to the fundamental knowledge and principles ubiquitous across all designs and application domains.

Chemical engineers have been engaged in a robust discussion and recently established a society within AIChE and are adding "bio" to the names of their departments similar to what agricultural engineers did in the 1990's.

Mechanical engineers are actively seeking to incorporate the science of biology into their discipline. Similarly other societies are adding new programs and technical sessions with biology emphasis at their professional meetings. Societies related to biomedical engineering are also looking to apply their skills to the broader applications of bioengineering.

We are here because we are inspired by biology for designing systems and providing engineering support to other designers. We can learn from biological systems the insufficiencies of rigid boundaries and hard structures. We also learn from biological systems the value of networks formed from "links and connections" among participants in living systems. It would only be appropriate to seek to form institutions and cooperative/interdependent structures for biological engineering that are more consistent with organizations of successful living systems.

We believe that developing a network among "bio-"related science and engineering societies will lead to an unprecedented growth in work at the frontiers of biology-inspired engineering.

This session is to explore ways to build network of activities towards creating a nexus for biological engineering.