This is a simplified two-dimensional model of a truss designed by Andrew Keane and his staff at Southampton University's Computational Engineering and Design Center. Keane developed a computer program called Options, which was used to improve the traditional design of the truss in its transmission of vibration energy. The initial design and testing were done with the computer, and a physical model was eventually built and successfully tested. This process has become a standard procedure - models are created and optimized with the computer, then built and tested in the physical world. In Keane's program no human intelligence intervened in the design process, except in the design of the software. Options uses the techniques of genetic algorithms, which simulates biological evolution to optimize a problem.
The beam Keane developed (though it is not accurate to say he developed it, perhaps it is better to say he guided its evolution) bears an uncanny resemblance to a biological form.
