TAKING CARE OF THE PLANET: DESIGNING WITH BIOPOLYMERS

Educating designers and engineers about more sustainable design practices has been a challenge. The courses included in Product Design Engineering need to explain the fundamentals of materials science, their applications in design, and take into consideration the recent achievements in this field. New materials and technologies are evolving rapidly; however, classroom teaching is becoming insufficient in catching up on these developments. It is necessary to explore alternative materials, such as biopolymers, to replace synthetic materials and composites by reducing the spectrum of material family and find new and better solutions for design with an ecological conscience. Hence, it is crucial to engage the third-year undergraduate students in Medellin, Colombia, to combat the 21 st Century challenges of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and encourage them to work creatively with new materials that reduce the environmental impact. This paper presents a material design course “Designing with biopolymers”, which focuses on self-learning while working on a project. It is expected to close the gap between the new materials and the current educational practices. The course is divided into two stages. In the first stage, the students design and fabricate organic materials with which they explore the possible variations using some technologies. In the second stage, they apply various design methodologies on these materials and find possible applications that match their properties. As a result, they learn how biopolymers can take innovation to the next level in the future, and how they can achieve sustainability.