Innovative Design is Department Elective(DE) course taken by Dr.

Sachin Mandavgane of Chemical

Engineering Department. This course gives the students an opportunity to provide innovative solutions
to problems existing in the real world. In this course, the students are shown TED talks of renown
speakers which is great way of teaching students. Also the way of teaching is quite unconventional
where a problem is first identified in its orignality and then contraints related to it are defined. Then
begins the quest to find solution, subsequently finding ultra low cost and optimised solution.
One of the assignments given to us under the curriculum, was to identify examples of biomimicry.
Biomimicry basically means imitatinng ways of nature to devise solutions to existing problems. We can
learn a lot from nature. All the solutions to our problems are found in nature if we are able to see and
analyse the processes taking places in nature. From the inanimate flora to living fauna we can learn
something. One such example that I liked of biomimicry is the idea of making shock absorbing material
imitating woodpeckers.
Woodpeckers are known for their strong excavating capacity. This bird has a strong, pointed beak
which acts as a chisel. It uses this beak to find insects in the bark and also to create nooks in the barks of
trees. When the woodpeckers are boring these holes, the decelration experienced by its body is equal
to 1200 gravitational pull(Gs) nearly 22 times per second. To imagine how severe is this decelaration, a
car crash would deliver the equivalent of 120 Gs on the passenger. Now this leaves us wondering how
can such a delicate bird absorb such severe shocks?
This can be attributed to the specially designed body of woodpecker which include four structures
to absorb mechanical shock. The bird’s semi elastic beak, a spongy material behind brain and
cerebrospinal fluid all work in unison to extend the time over which this concussion occurs and
therefore inhibiting vibration. Based on this study of woodpeckers ability a wide range of shock resistant
material have been designed.