Baldwin Wallace University
IN-47: Innovation A

Northeast Ohio is recognized as the biomimicry research capital of the world as it is home to the only Ph.D. program in biomimicry in the United States at the University of Akron, has powerful supporters in NASA and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, ongoing R&D into the topic at multiple Fortune 500s in the region, and is home to a powerful biomimicry network led by Great Lakes Biomimicry (GLBio). Founded in 2010 as the first Affiliate Partner of the international organization Biomimicry 3.8, GLBio has attracted Biomimicry Ph.D. Fellows from across the globe, raised over $2 million in Fellow stipends, received $425,000 of in-kind support from service partners, partnered with over 30 agencies, businesses and schools, and invested more than 33,000 volunteer hours into the organization. Dr. Ven Ochaya, a professor of Business at BW, is the founder of biomimicry courses at BW at both the undergraduate and MBA level and serves on the board of directors of Great Lakes Biomimicry (GLBio).

Three years ago, Dr. Franklin Lebo, Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Sustainability Program Assessment Coordinator, assumed responsibility for these biomimicry courses and took this partnership with GLBio to the next level by requiring multidisciplinary student teams in the courses to develop innovative biomimetic products and present those ideas to a panel of GLBio representatives at the end of the semester in a "Shark-Tank" format. Students are then required to compete in the "IdeaLabs" Competition hosted by Lauchnet which is a regional intercollegiate competition of new inventions.

To ensure BW's biomimicry teams are best prepared, Dr. Lebo also partnered with the founder of the new Engineering program at BW, Dr. Helen Muga. Together, Drs. Lebo and Muga have redesigned the curriculum to emphasize the importance of bringing sustainable and engineering design thinking to Nature's Principles. As a result of this collaboration, Drs. Lebo and Muga decided to propose the creation of a new Sustainability in Engineering Minor and developed joint learning outcomes that satisfy both the Sustainability Program's expectations for sustainability related content along with ABET's (https://www.abet.org/) national accreditation standards. This included developing unique learning outcomes melding the two fields. Please see the attached documentation for clarification of the details including our newly developed assessment rubric for the minor. This minor was subsequently approved by vote of the faculty in the FA20 semester and is now part of BW's academic catalog as a regular offering to students.