​How AI will help you design, grow, and bring biomaterials forward?

​This interactive workshop is designed for creatives and founders exploring the future of biomaterials. Drawing on Orkan Telhan’s experience at Ecovative and a custom agent-based framework, we’ll explore how AI can serve as Designer, Farmer, and CFO—helping you make better material choices, scale production, and strengthen your business story. Through live demos, participants will learn how to integrate AI into their own biomaterial journeys without losing creativity, performance, or an understanding of business realities. Participants are expected to bring laptops to actively follow along.

​Outline:

​Intro - The Ecovative Experience (5 min):
In the biomaterials world, every founder has to wear three hats: designer, farmer, and CFO. What happens when AI shares these roles with you?

​AI as Designer (15 min):
How does AI support material readiness by helping you navigate the trade-offs between performance, sustainability, and aesthetics?

​AI as Farmer (15 min) :
How does AI support scale readiness by predicting quality, yield, and production bottlenecks—and by bringing algorithmic insight together with human intuition?

​AI as CFO (15 min):
How does AI support business readiness by going beyond spreadsheets to model unit economics and market realities?

​Conclusion: New Roles, New possibilities (10 min):
When the roles of designer, farmer, and CFO intersect, how can AI help navigate their competing demands—and free us to imagine new roles altogether? We will close by reflecting on their interplay, share lessons from practice, and consider what we can—and can’t—expect from AI in biomaterials.