A concept I just ran across: L-System:
An L-system or Lindenmayer system is a formal grammar (a set of rules and symbols) most famously used to model the growth processes of plant development, though able to model the morphology of a variety of organisms. L-systems can also be used to generate self-similar fractals such as iterated function systems. L-systems were introduced and developed in 1968 by the Hungarian theoretical biologist and botanist from the University of Utrecht, Aristid Lindenmayer (1925–1989).
Why do I blog this? a friend of mine in the game design industry used it today in a presentation about successful transfer from the academic world to the industry (especially game designers).