PUMA and MIT Design Lab have been conducting research in the field of biodesign since June 2017. Biodesign is the practice of using living materials such as algae or bacteria to create products. It makes possible a football jersey made from the silk of a spider or a shoe box grown from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. PUMA Biodesign explores the new frontiers of biological design and fabrication to bring advances in science and biotechnologies closer to our daily lives through sport products.

Four initial experiments that derived from that study were exhibited at this year’s Milan Design Week. The four initial projects include a Breathing Shoe, which is a biologically active shoe that enables personalised ventilation by growing its own air passageways to keep the foot cool; Deep Learning Insoles, which collate realtime biofeedback by using organisms to measure chemical phenomena that indicates things like fatigue; Carbon Eaters, which is a microbially-active t-shirt that responds to its environment to change its appearance and inform the wearer about air quality; and Adaptive Packaging, a biologically programmable material that can change its shape and structure to become a new type of alive, biodegradable and adaptive packaging. See the videos here.

By Kristina de Verdier on 17 May, 2018 In bio design, fashion, Innovation, MIT, packaging, Puma, smart, sport, Technology

A computer program allows the designer to experiment and fine-tune shapes and patterns in a simulator. Once the desired response emerges digitally, the structure is fabricated. Via Frame.

By Kristina de Verdier on 23 August, 2017 In air, Design, Innovation, MIT, origami, packaging, products, structural

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group have managed to make shape-shifting pasta, edible origami 🙂 Why? To package and ship pasta more efficiently for example. But of course they have many examples of culinary potential for this technology.

The researchers have created flat sheets of gelatin and starch that, when submerged in water, instantly sprout into three-dimensional structures, including common pasta shapes such as macaroni and rotini. The researchers presented their work in a paper this month at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2017 Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. They describe their shape-morphing creations as not only culinary performance art, but also a practical way to reduce food-shipping costs.

“We did some simple calculations, such as for macaroni pasta, and even if you pack it perfectly, you still will end up with 67 percent of the volume as air,” says Wen Wang, a co-author on the work and a former graduate student and research scientist in MIT’s Media Lab. “We thought maybe in the future our shape-changing food could be packed flat and save space.”

By Kristina de Verdier on 30 May, 2017 In edible origami, efficient, flat pasta, Food, Innovation, MIT, packaging