The Institute of Bio-Inspired Structure and Surface Engineering(IBSS) of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was created in 2002. Since its inception, it has been dedicated to promoting the development of Chinese bionics. After nearly 20 years of painstaking research, it has accumulated rich research results in animal sports bionics, structural function bionics, bionic control, special bionic robots, etc., and has become a fusion of information control, materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, and other majors. IBSS also has a post-doctoral mobile station, a first-level doctoral granting power and a master's degree. The institute is headed by Mr. QunjiXue, academician of Chinese Academy of engineering, and has 2 Thousand Youth Talents, 6 professors, 8 associate professors, and more than 100 graduate students. Among them, there are 90% of doctoral degree holders, 24 full-time researchers. IBSS has become one of the principal teams of “bionic science and engineering” in China.

       Prof. Zhendong Dai, the academic leader of IBSS, is the International Bionic Engineering Society fellow. He is currently the director of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Bionics Function Materials, the dean of Nanjing LihangBionic Industry Research Institute, expert evaluation member of the 12th and 13th sessions of Information Science Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese chairman of the Sino-German Bionics High-Level Forum. He was awarded the second prize of the technological invention of the Ministry of Education, the gold medal of the Geneva International Invention Fair, and enjoying special government allowances from the State Council. The team has undertaken 2 key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2 major international cooperation projects of the Fund Committee and 2 major projects of the Fund Committee. There are 4 Sino-German Science Center projects, 1 Key Research and DevelopPlan, 5 Military Committee series projectsand more than 10 aeronautics and astronautics related research projects. 

       The Institute pays attention to cooperation and exchange with international first-class scientific research teams, promotes and forms a favorable interdisciplinary cooperation platform at domestic and abroad. Since 2005, the former Soviet Union academician, Lenin medal winner, famous bionic biologist Frantsevich came to NUAA to develop cooperative research and carried out bionic biological basic training for IBSS’s teachers and postgraduates. At same time, Professor Gorb of Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences in Germany and Professor Fuller of academician of the American Academy of Sciencesfrom the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor Federle from the University of Cambridge in the UK, both are in the field of animal behavior and mechanics, Professor Barth the Professor of Lifetime at the University of Vienna, academician of Austria, Germany and the European Union in Neuroinformatics and Sensing, Professor Liming Dai from Case Western Reserve University, USA. Professor Ajayan of Rice University and Professor Kordaof the University of Ouluhas carried out in-depth cooperation on carbon nanotube preparation and performance researchand in-depth cooperation with Professor Park, Lee, and others in the field of bionic robots.

       In 2008, with the vigorous support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, IBSS hosted the International Conference on "International Symposium on Nature-Inspired Technology 2008" and "International Symposium on Intelligent Unmanned Systems 2008". In 2009, ISNIT & ISIUT2009 International Conference held in Jeju Island, South Korea, IBSS was one of the organizers. In 2010, our laboratory served as the organizing committee and organized the international conference "2010 Bionic Science Frontier High-end Seminar". In 2013, 4th International Congress of Biomimetic Engineering (ICBE'13) hosted by the International Society of Biomimetic Engineering was held at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Nearly 300 Chinese and foreign scholars attended the conference. From 2014 to 2018, four Sino-German Bionics Bilateral Seminar were held in China and Germany respectively. IBSS continued to host three sessions of the Belt and Road Bionic Science and Technology Symposium from 2016 to 2019. Through the holding of these conferences, a fixed exchange platform such as Sino-German Bionics High-Level Forum and theBelt andRoad Bionics Alliance was formed.

       In terms of the development of bionic industrialization, with the support of academician Luquan Ren, our team created the Nanjing LihangBionic Industry Research Institute, which belongs to Nanjing new-type research and develops the institution and is located in the new industrial town of Lishui District, Nanjing. Under the guidance of the “Nanjing City Two-to-One Integration” policy, relying on the advantages of first-class scientific research, disciplines, and talents such as Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the University of Southern in Denmark, and the University of Kiel in Germany, focusing on local industrial needs.Our institute is focusedon smart sensing. bionic new materials, bionic robots, bionic culture, and other industrial fields. Meanwhile, we willwork with the cooperative units to carry out technical research and development, the transformation of results, platform construction, talent cooperation, and exchanges, etc. Our team will also build research and development platforms such as Force Sensor Research Center, Bionic Adhesive Materials Serialized Products and Manufacturing Research Center, and Bionic Robot Research Center.We will take the public research and development platform as the carrier, the school-enterprise cooperation project as the starting point, the market-oriented, and the result of industrialization as the goal. At the same time, we hope to build a bionic apply technology to create China's first bionic technology museum. In order to implement the introduction and transformation of international bionic technology, realize the functions of integrated public technology services, lead talents gathering, high-tech transfer and innovative talent training, and promote the vigorous development of China's bionic industries.

       Looking forward to the future, the IBSS of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics will propel the development of industry, academia and research in the field of bionics, promote the development of bioscience and technology to better serve the development of our national economy, and serve the common prosperity of countries along theBelt and Road.