Students participated in the second-ever Biomimicry Challenge last weekend, held at the Center of Excellence in downtown Syracuse. The two-day event, sponsored by Herman-Miller, was dedicated to finding economically centered solutions that incorporated biomimicry to improve office environments. Syracuse University students from various majors, including engineering, architecture, industrial design and biology, spent Friday working in teams to create design plans and present their ideas on Saturday. Junior industrial design major Yenny Shim spoke with The Daily Orange about her experience at the event.

The Daily Orange: What design concept did you and your group come up with?

Yenny Shim: I was partnered up with another classmate (Shelby Zink), and she’s also an industrial design student, and basically we focused on incorporating ambience and color theory into the work environment. We created these sorts of vertical paper lantern panels, and we had a set of six and they were all different colors and they lined up and they created a sort of room divider. It was a way for the workers to get away from the cubicle and just relax and talk with their co-workers.

The D.O.: What do you think you learned from the weekend as a whole?

YS: That’s kind of hard to put into one sentence, but it made me consider, for future designs, especially within my major, that we have to consider making things sustainable and looking to nature for more efficient abilities.

The D.O.: Do you think you’d want to do it again next year?

YS: Yeah, I definitely would. It was just really interesting being able to collaborate with students from different majors and seeing how they go about their design process. I also thought it was a really good experience for students because, I mean, it’s pretty difficult to be presented with a design challenge and figuring it out in one whole day and then giving a presentation and present it to these speakers from all over who have been doing this as their profession for awhile. It was definitely good work experience.

The D.O.: Do you have any words of advice for anyone looking to get into biomimicry?

YS: I would tell anyone that’s interested to definitely partake in it because it gives you such a great perspective on the topic, and there’s just so much to benefit from it.

Published on March 25, 2013 at 12:08 am

Contact Kristin: klross01@syr.edu | @kriskross22