Biomimicry— the art of emulating nature into human engineering.
Emma Winter, 16, an incoming senior at Valencia High School, did just that, submitting her design through the Biomimicry Institute, and placing third in an international competition behind teams from South Korea and Beijing.
Winter’s submission, “Rain Net,” entailed a leaf shape that would capture excess water.
“I learned about biomimicry after learning about the Japanese bullet train … I got involved into the whole concept of using nature to create science solutions and the lessons we could use. I entered this project completely on a whim,” Winter said.
While Winter had only four weeks of planning and executing, starting on March 8 and completing it on March 28, compared to other competitors who spent months cultivating their submissions, Winter had been inspired by the California atmospheric rivers during the past couple of winters.
“I started this as my passion project — I made a net that was inspired by a plant to capture water more quickly. I wanted to design a possible prototype for something that could be used to collect rainwater faster and prevent flooding and surface water buildup,” Winter said. “I submitted an 11-page research document that had pictures of hand-drawn models. I also had to make a video.”
According to Winter, the hardest part was not the creation of her project, but instead choosing the topic.
“The hard part was picking an idea. I started researching the environmental problems we have in California, and you see habitat fragmentation, flooding, solar radiation. It was hard narrowing it down. The easier part was I drew a lot of models for my project and I got to explore different structures of a leaf xylem.”
Nature is not only visually compelling to Winter, but also resourceful in finding ways to solve society’s issues.
“I think when you look at nature, it makes me really inspired and really in awe of the world around us,” Winter said. “I think that nature offers us a lot of solutions, and by looking at it more closely, we can study and learn from it to change problems that we face in our society.”
