UML IEEE is pleased to announce the start of a UML ECE Faculty Research Presentation Seminar! Stop by to learn about your professors and the work that they conduct outside of the classroom! Professors are searching for students eager to assist with their research work, which is a great opportunity to learn new concepts and build your resume!
Our first presenter will be Professor Noah Jafferis, who will be presenting his work "Untethered Flight of the RoboBee X-Wing - Bio-Inspired Design and Behavioral Insights"!
Abstract:
In recent years, there has been heightened interest in developing mm-scale flying vehicles, both for at-scale and controllable studies of insect flight and other behaviors, and for applications in environmental monitoring, structural repair, search & rescue, and archaeological studies. In this talk I will discuss some of my research on insect-scale flapping-wing vehicles, including similarities and differences from their biological counterparts. The design of the robotic devices often either builds off of observations of natural systems, or ends up converging to a design with similar properties, and on the other hand, developing a physical understanding of the robotic systems can also provide useful insights for understanding biological behavior.
Bio:
Noah T. Jafferis is currently an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at UMass Lowell. He obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University in 2012, and was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Harvard University's Microrobotics Lab. Noah was home-schooled until entering Yale University at the age of 16, where he received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2005. At Princeton, Noah's research included printing silicon from nanoparticle suspensions and the development of a "flying carpet" (traveling wave based propulsion of a thin plastic sheet). His research at UMass Lowell and Harvard includes the design, fabrication, modeling, scaling, and system optimization of novel millimeter-scale mechanisms and devices such as insect-scale flying robots, piezoelectric linear actuators and rotary actuators, integrated sensors, fans, and thrusters. Some of his other research interests include bio-inspired engineering, 3D integrated circuits, MEMS/NEMS, 3D printing, energy harvesting, and large-area/flexible electronics.