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He has designs on USF collaboration

Mother Nature may be the best designer, but this guy's pretty good, too.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published January 31, 2007

The University of South Florida St. Petersburg might soon become a national center of innovation in nature-inspired industrial design.

"There's something unique happening here," said designer Franco Lodato, who spoke on campus Monday about bringing to bear his career of mimicking nature's successes to create useful, stylish and highly marketable products. "There's a good opportunity to do something revolutionary."

Lodato is at USF this week visiting the faculty in biology, design and technology, who are considering creating a curriculum around the kind of biodesign Lodato has used at HermanMiller, Motorola, Gillette and DuPont. Lodato is planning to move to the Tampa Bay area and collaborate with what he sees as a nimble multidisciplinary group to teach students but also help industry.

"We're hoping to bring him to this campus as a faculty member," said Deby Cassill, a professor in biology. "He can bring money from corporations to build a program in biodesign."

The program could be similar to workshops Lodato has done at other schools. A corporation seeking a product solution spends a few thousand dollars to fund a program through which students and their teachers in different departments research how nature solves similar problems. They then create a design and prototype product for the company, which rewards the students in cash.

"We're thinking about selling this service as would a real private company," Lodato said.

Lodato has a basis for his optimism. He has 45 U.S. patents, 14 international, all based on observing nature, not trying to reinvent it.

"It's about humility," Lodato said. "From a design perspective, the best source of information is nature, but we let it pass by."

Lodato talked of an ice ax he designed while working with DuPont. By imitating the efficient structure of a woodpecker, he helped create a product that took over the marketplace. He also discussed similar examples of cell phones, cars and toothbrushes.

Lodato said that too much design is strictly about making products attractive as opposed to making them work well. He said his emphasis is on delivering a design that answers customers' needs.

"It's not about the shapes. It's about how those shapes can do something useful," he said. "I always want to bring a business rationale rather than say, 'Well, it's design and I'm Italian so it will look nice.' "

Lodato left his position at HermanMiller late last year and has been in talks with David Fries, who runs an ecosystems technology lab through the College of Marine Science. Fries said interest from the life sciences and design departments could conceptualize a product while his lab could turn that into a working model.

"It's the overlap of all those bubbles that makes it work," Fries said. "A smaller institution like this can take advantage of that because it's agile."

Fries, Cassill and others are showing Lodato around the campus and the business community so he can get a feel for the promise of biodesign in the bay area. They hope to develop a program of innate quality for academe, industry and students.

"Form and function are the same," Lodato said. "Design is the catalyst."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 22:27:49]