Genius and Invention

A Northumbria University academic will give a talk at the Royal Institution in London this Saturday (8 June).

Kapsali, a specialist in Biomimetics at Northumbria’s P3i research group in London, will reveal how she looks to nature and biology to inform man-made design at the Genius and Invention family fun day.

Dr Kapsali is also Technical Director of spin-out company, MMT, which owns the patent rights to an innovative new textile technology inspired by pine cones which sees textiles alter their structure, allowing wearers to stay drier and more comfortable. This work will form the basis of her talk at the Institute.

She said: “Nature shows us that you can achieve advanced, complex behaviours combining simple materials in clever structural composites. The driver behind this is survival; organisms in nature rarely exist in environments with surplus resources, therefore those that fail to optimise the use of raw materials simply do not survive.

"Although, in time, we will probably run out of the resources we currently rely on to fabricate the stuff around us, we have the luxury of inhabiting a surplus world with the ability to seek out and develop alternative ways of making things. There is much we can learn as designers from nature’s lean operation.”

Dr Kapsali also recently featured in a BBC educational series, The Imagineers, which was aimed at inspiring young people to take up engineering as a career.

For more information about the talk, visit the Royal Institution

Date posted: June 5, 2014