PeTaL
Learn systematically from history to predict and shape our future.
The Periodic Table of Life (PeTaL) is an open-source software initiative to enable moving from discovery through design using inspiration from natural systems and human achievement. Follow along with our work on our GitHub page.
BIDARA (Bio-Inspired Design and Research Assistant)
BIDARA is a ChatGPT-based chatbot that was instructed to help scientists and engineers understand, learn from, and emulate the strategies used by living things to create sustainable designs and technologies.
BIDARA can guide users through the Biomimicry Institute’s Design Process, a step-by-step method to propose biomimetic solutions to challenges. This process includes defining the problem, biologizing the challenge, discovering natural models, abstracting design strategies, and emulating nature’s lessons.
Request access or use BIDARA in your own ChatGPT sessions.
Project Team
Vik Shyam/ NASA Glenn Research Center – Principal Investigator
Brandon Ruffridge/ NASA Glenn Research Center – Project Manager and Technical Lead
Herb Schilling/ NASA Glenn Research Center – Data Science Lead – Consultant, facilitator, alternate mentor
Paht Juangphanich/ NASA Glenn Research Center – Technical Support – Helps team members overcome any technical challenges they face. Background in propulsion system design.
Calvin Robinson/ NASA Glenn Research Center – Data Architect – Defines how the data will be stored, consumed, integrated and managed by different data entities and IT systems, as well as any applications using or processing that data in some way.
Advisors
Timothy Peshek/ NASA GRC – In-space power, data analytics
Andrew Trunek/ NASA GRC – Materials and ISRU
Lopamudra Das/ NASA LaRC
Dr. Marjan Eggermont/ University of Calgary – Biomole
Dr. Jacquelyn Nagel/ James Madison University – Biomimicry Engineering Advisor – biosearch tool and thesaurus
Dr. Julian Vincent – trade-off articles to train clustering tool
Dr. Gavin Svenson/ Cleveland Museum of Natural History – collections
Andrew Howley/ AskNature
Ethan Smith/ AskNature
Doug Downey/ Allen Institute of AI – AI/ML Advisor
Alex Wolf/ na2ure
Hope Zimmerman/ Biomimicry Engineering Advisor
Colleen Unsworth/ Former NASA BIRD PhD Fellow/University of Akron and VINE coordinator
Alex Ralevski/ Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer
Student Interns and Contributors
Spring 2021 Interns and Contributors
- Shruti Janardhanan – Intern
- Pratima Roy – Intern
- Sophia Stiles – open source contributor
- Ella Kazazic – open source contributor
- Jasper Wu – open source contributor
- Leon Wang – open source contributor
PeTaL 0.4 Prototype
- Shruti Janardhanan – * * 08-2020 – 12/2020
- Jerry Qian – 08-2020 – 12/2020
PeTaL 0.3 Prototype
- Lucas Saldyt/ Arizona State University – Backend development, machine learning 01-2020 – 04-2020
- Olakunle Akinpelu/ Northern Kentucky University – Backend development 01-2020 – 06-2020
- Kei Kojima/ Broadway Creek Homeschool Academy – User Interface (module integration)
- Elliot Hill/ Tulane University – Computer vision
- Benjamin Huynh/ Ohio State University – Engineering data integration into database
- Kashyap Murali/ Invited AI Researcher
PeTaL 0.2 Prototype
- Angeera Naser/ University of Texas, Dallas – Front end development and intern team lead Summer 2018
- Allie Calvin/ Kent State University – UI development and data collection
- Bishoy Boktor/ Middle Tennessee State University – Backend development
- Brian Whiteaker/ University of California, San Diego – Text Classification
- Connor Baumler/ Case Western Reserve University – Backend development
- Courtney Schiebout/ Dartmouth University- Backend development
- Isaias Reyes/ San Jose State University – 3D visualizations, interactions & full redesign
- Jonathan Dowdall/ Michigan State University- Backend development
- Kaylee Gabus/ – Front end development
- Kei Kojima – Front end development
- Lauren Friend/ NASA ARC – Backend development (BIRD search tool)
- Manju Johny/ Iowa State University – Backend development (Computer vision)
- Destiny Willingham, Dillard University
- Kathryn Sanders, Dixie State University
PeTaL 0.1 – R Prototype
- Nicholas Bense/ Northeastern University – Backend development
- Allie Calvin/ Kent State University – UI development and data collection
- Victoria Kravets/ Georgia Tech – Backend development
Website, app and game development
- Jasline Rosario, Delonte Goodman, Shaheed Bankole, Caleb Moore, Wendy Berndt/NASA GRC – High school intern team
Funding
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) under
AATT/ARMD/NASA
ARMD/AATT
NASA GRC Office of Education
Sally Ride Scholarship, SMD/NASA
NASA STTR/SBIR
NSF
PeTaL Publications
Published
| Title | Author(s) | Source | Type | Date | NTRS Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PeTaL (Periodic Table of Life) and Physiomimetics | Shyam, Vikram, Friend, Lauren, Whiteaker, Brian, Bense, Nicholas, Dowdall, Jonathan, Boktor, Bishoy, Johny, Manju, Reyes, Isaias, Naser, Angeera, Sakhamuri, Nikhitha, Kravets, Victoria, Calvin, Alexandra, Gabus, Kaylee, Goodman, Delonte, Schilling, Herbert, Robinson, Calvin, Reid II , Robert Omar and Unsworth, Colleen | Special Issue Advances in Biologically Inspired Design | Journal | 2019 | |
| Biocene 2018 | Shyam, Vikram | NASA/TM-2020-220482 | Technical Memorandum (TM) | 1-Mar-20 | NTRS |
In Publication
| Title | Author(s) | Source | Type | Date | NTRS Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clustering tool in PeTaL | Whiteaker, Brian A., Shyam, Vikram | Presentation | COMING SOON | ||
| BIRD search tool | COMING SOON |
Suggestions for Future Work
- Using PeTaL with BLAST to find biological models using nucleotide sequences. PDF
- Measuring tools and apps for data gathering