Activities
Toni Navarro - Ethics
Evaluate the following aspects of your project: What assumptions –about goodness, justice, society– are implicit in its conception (meta-ethics)? What guidelines or norms should be followed during its development (normative ethics)? What criteria could be established to assess its consequences, and what protocols would you apply in case of negative outcomes (applied ethics)?
The ethics that would correspond and contribute to society's implicility in the project are related to the improvement and better distribution of innovation in medical research and development to a bigger audience with accessible and smarter products that would enhance citizens' lives as a process of democratization for this type of technology.
As a consequence, the guideline norms for its development have to be attributed mainly to the patients who will use the biohybrid interfaces over their bodies and how they perceive and behave with the technologies as an external part of themselves, to consider how they will connect to external objects, with what objects and peoplle that can connect too, and how the systems that will integrate this ecosystem will respect the limits of information from the person whose using it.
The criteria, if the technology is only used for medical procedures as post-surgery and recovery steps, relates to how institutions and companies, who accept and adopt the technology, will need a protocol of security, an individual confirmation from the user to give access to the extra layer applied to his body during a certain period and space where it will be used, giving instructions as a manual to explain people how they should care for it.
Design is "a material way of doing ethics" that must anticipate the trajectories of its products. Imagine a possible scenario that reflects the ideal application of your project: How are your intentions and values embedded or inscribed in it? What factors could cause a deviation in the context of use?
Within a perfect hypothetical scenario for using the biohybrid technologies I've been developing along the program, I imagine a situation where a patient after a surgery needs to be stabilized and cared with the necessity of moving itself through the space to reinforce muscle and psychological/emotional freedom around the space its situates without losing heartbeat, special needs, supports that could improve a faster recovering process.
These thoughts reflect my intentions and values through my experiences in hospitals as a patient and as an observer watching people having difficulties and problems barely solved, considering the price of certain rehabilitation methods and products that would improve their health inside or outside the hospital during the post-surgery processes, which depends a lot on emotional streight and independence recovery.
What mechanisms of evaluation and participation could help democratize your design process by making it more transparent, collaborative, and accountable? How can situated knowledge and marginalized communities be included to consider their interests and needs?
To democratize the project even more, not just in a systematic way through the medical companies and institutions already established, it would be interesting to reframe the development of the open access to the framework and structure that would give public access to people around the world to develop different systems and improve. the technology as a collaborative platform that could benefit the users.
However, even if the application for this scenario is possible, it would be important to have an institution that regulates the "mutations" made by the users and understands how they would be tested, distributed, and promoted as a security method that could be produced by people, which would include a very rigid method process of qualifitcation that ou certify as something not only secure to the body but the enviroment tha interface would be surrounded by.
Marginalized and underrepresented communities could be helpful to understand different types of bodies and so different implications due to the application of the technology that needs to live inside or above their bodies during a certain moment. This research could give a better perception of how modular and adaptable the technologies should be, considering which body they should act upon according to their structural properties and its conditions to survive an care for the patient.
Non-human agency compels us to adopt a more humble position as designers, moving away from modern fantasies of total control. What degree of autonomy do you attribute to your project's material and technical components? Identify the "actants" or "cognizers" at play, their differentiated responsibilities and specific roles.
As the field evolves, biohybrid interfaces combine synthetic technologies with biological materials to envision innovative approaches that emulate and integrate biological systems, enhancing structural and functional performance primarily through the integration of biomimicry processes and genetically modified organisms to cultivate tissues with unconventional capabilities.
Consequently, when ideating and developing this kind of technology, a designer must understand and treat its creation as a living organism composed of cells, tissues, muscles, and even organs that must be suitably adapted to an environment where they can sustain themselves and function as part of the biome where they should act.
For devices inserted into or above the skin, it is vital to comprehend, as a living entity, the environmental interactions being established within the biohybrid interface and how its placement affects both technology and the patient's health over time, as they coexist and need to survive in a symbiotic relationship to live during a certain time.
As a result, the technology should maintain a level of consciousness similar to that of the human immune system or the more specialized and advanced cells already present in our bodies, especially if longevity is considered. This can help prevent anomalous behavior that would deviate from intended functionality, although this may vary depending on the patient's condition and the duration for which external living entities are required to remain within a foreign body to help people's lives.
Toni Llàcer - Research
Formulate your research questions/hypothesis
"How does employing a biodesign framework aid in developing accesible biohybrid applications for future emerging healthcare challenges through post-surgery devices using genetically modified living materials, generative design and biomimicry technicques?"
Theoretical framework
Summarize your theoretical framework* (max. 5 lines)
The theoretical framework to develop the research bases relies first on how biodesign concepts and techniques, specifically quoting generative design, synthetic biology, and biomimicry, could emulate biological systems more accurately by improving the use of resources into its structure and distribution with the use of genetically modified living cells. Secondly, the framework focuses on understanding the evolution of medical devices through human history to identify patterns that relate to post-surgery products and their financial attribution to customers. At last, the research will cover the field of biohybrid robots to explore which materials and techniques could support and facilitate the development of new interfaces to solve the problems identified through the medical device studies.
Select 5 sources -min. 2 academic papers- and explain why they are enlightening for you
This reference can help me understand the possibilities and challenges of working within the emerging field of biohybrid robots, considering not only the techniques and materials but how they can be applied into reality, considering the projects that were already built and tested once. As a consequence, it could help to be aware of the costs and expenses to produce this kind of technology.
The second reference is very similar to the first considering its relation to the possible applications of hybrid robots, however, this paper is better focused on the production and scalability of the technologies from unicellular structures to multicellular structures until being applied to scaffolding structures.
The third reference, different from the previous ones, is focused on one specific type of biohybrid robot that is powered by a microfluidic system, exploring how fluids could be used to grow tissue, emulate metabolistic capabilities and bioreactors, and even create movement between different scales.
Unlike the previous references, this next one relates specifically to how soft robotics, a simpler system of robots using only synthetic materials with inflatable or fluid mechanisms, can be applied to developed medical devices and improved personalized medicines. In summary, it can help as a paper that could guide possible application within the field I would like to explore by knowing whats already being doing until today.
The fifth paper selected gives the continuity of medical applications with soft robotic wearables, however, it gives more attention to how those robot types could be inserted into the human body as implants for medical purposes by understing its possibilities and speculating future applications.
The last paper, like the first ones, gives a summarized approach to the possibilities of biohybrid robots, examples that were developed, and other interfaces that are being developed by integrating synthetic and biological matter to boost and continue the advancements to the area itself.
Specify your practical approach: what data you will use, how you will gather it, and when.
The data will be collected through scientific portals and periodicals, books related to the topic, and different kinds of multimedia informational channels verified by their content quality, as series and certified videos from research institutes, colleges, companies, and collectives focused on the areas quoted in the framework. To be more active and present during the research during the development and ideation of the device, it will be necessary to visit hospitals and talk with doctors and other specific individuals that will deal with and evaluate the possibility of a new technology to improve and facilitate their professional actuation. Then, at last, it will be released with different individuals for an evaluation of the developed prototype to consider people's experience with the device and how they perceive it positively or negatively considering their health and interaction between medical services.
Markel Cormenzana Uriarte - Holon
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