Title:

Natures Systems as an Engineering Design Guide for Human Networks

Speaker:

Dr. Astrid Layton

Affiliation:

College Station, TX

When:

Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

MRDC Building, Room 4211

Host:

Dr. Emily Sanders
emily.sanders@me.gatech.edu

Abstract

The resilient and sustainable characteristics of Natures ecosystems are the result of millions of years of design iterations. These complex systems of systems are made up of interacting species that support their own needs while maintaining system-level functions. In this talk, Dr. Layton will discuss ecosystems as a relatively untapped source of design inspiration for improving the resilience and sustainability of our human-engineered networks. Adapting quantitative descriptors and analysis techniques from ecology for human designers enables desirable ecosystem characteristics to be used as optimization and design guides for everything from industrial resource networks to power grids. Ecological characteristics such as high levels of materials/energy cycling and a unique balance between redundant and efficient pathways offer novel routes to achieving traditionally at odds engineering goals like resilience, sustainability, and cost.

Biography

Dr. Astrid Layton is an assistant professor and Donna Walker Faculty Fellow at Texas A&M University in the J. Mike Walker 66 Department of Mechanical Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. Her research uses interdisciplinary collaborations to solve large-scale system problems, developing knowledge that supports designers and decision-makers. Dr. Layton is an expert on bio-inspired systems design, with a focus on the use of biological ecosystems as inspiration for achieving sustainability and resilience in the design of complex human networks/systems/systems of systems. She is the recipient of several awards including a 2024 NSF CAREER Award, the 2022 Texas A&M College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching, and the 2021 Best Paper Award in the Systems Engineering, Information, & Knowledge Management technical division of ASMEs International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC-CIE). She was elected to serve on ASMEs Design Theory and Methodology technical committee from 2020-23. She has also been a guest editor for journal special issues covering resilient systems, networks & graphs, and sustainable design and is an associate editor for ASMEs Journal of Mechanical Design.

Notes

Refreshments will be served.