Unmanned Aerial Tracking Drone

"Dr. Michael W. Shafer is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University. He joined NAU in 2013 after receiving his Ph.D. and M.S. from Cornell University. At Cornell, he focused on vibrational energy harvesting via piezoelectric transduction. He investigated ideal design methods, power harvesting limits, and applications of the technology to avian wildlife tracking and bio-logging. Prior to his time at Cornell, Michael worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 2006 to 2009. There he helped develop the sky crane system used to land the Mars Science Laboratory Rover (Curiosity) in 2012. Michael graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northern Arizona University in 2006." --Dr. Michael Shafer's NAU directory page

Dr. Shafer has worked closely with NAU's Foresty Department on the drone project and lead capstones to generate numerous iterations of the Drone. On the project, Dr. Shafer holds the following responsibilities:

• Writing project proposals to acquire research grants
• Guiding students to workable design concepts during early stages of the design process
• Checking the quality of final designs

Dr. Shafer works with other teams of graduate students in a Dynamic and Active Systems Lab (DASL). A link to DASL's webpage: http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Groups/dasl/