Christina Harvey leads the Biologically Informed Research and Design (BIRD) Lab and the UC Davis Bird Flight Research Center. Her team investigates how birds maneuver in cluttered, variable environments and applies those principles to next-generation, highly maneuverable uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). Integrating aerodynamics and aircraft dynamics modeling with wind tunnel experiments and motion tracking, her work advances both resilient autonomous aircraft and our fundamental understanding of biological flight.
Harvey is a 2023 Packard Fellow and a 2021 Amelia Earhart Fellow. She holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, an M.Sc. in zoology from the University of British Columbia, and a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from McGill University.
Relevant expertise:
- Morphing-wing aerodynamics and maneuverability: leveraging data driven flight dynamics models and live bird motion capture and photogrammetry to uncover fundamental principles of biological flight that inform agile, disturbance-tolerant UAV designs.
- Bio-informed autonomy and sensing: investigating sparse pressure sensing and learning-based flight control algorithms for gust rejection and formation/swarm coordination to enable resilient autonomous operation through cluttered corridors and variable environments.