Home · Research · Team · Mission & Vision · Publications · Updates · Join · Lab Guide

Milestones, papers, talks, travel, and behind-the-scenes build progress from the BIRD Lab.

Jump to: 2026 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023 · 2022

Legend: 🎉 Awards & honors · 📄 Papers · 🎙️ Talks & conferences · 💸 Funding · 🧰 Build & facilities · 📚 Service · 👥 People · ✈️ Travel · 🎓 Graduations

Highlights (last 12–24 months)

• 🧰 Bird Flight Research Center: the space is finished and we’re bringing the camera system online now, with a public opening planned soon.
• 💸 Funding: we secured a DURIP equipment award and several new grants that are letting us push core projects forward (and support trainees).
• 📄 Papers: we’ve published new work spanning bio-inspired flight mechanics and bird morphology/ecology.
• 🎙️ Talks: lab members have been invited to give talks, keynotes, and run symposia—good chances to share the work and build new collaborations.
• 👥 People: the group has grown—students have transitioned into PhD paths, trainees earned recognitions, and new researchers joined the team.

2026

January

🎉 Alex passed the FE exam!

Congratulations to Alex Fillman has passed the FE exam and overcome the first hurdle in the PhD journey.

👥 New undergraduate researchers Welcome to Narihide Fujita, Meghna Tirumalai, and Wyatt Liu who will be working on projects supervised by Kaleb Bordner, Alex Fillman, and Francisco Jackson.

🎙️ Conference Presentations — Gordon Research Conference on Multifunctional Materials & Structure (Ventura, CA) Kaleb Bordner and Huanglun (Adam) Zhu presented ongoing work on the dynamics of avian-inspired perching and sensing in formation flight.

🎉 Congratulations to Ava Lewis who was selected as an AIAA Rising Star in Aerospace Ava Lewis was selected as an AIAA Rising Star in Aerospace and attended AIAA SciTech in Orlando, FL.

🎙️ Conference Presentations — SICB (Portland, OR) Faiza Alvi and Alex Fillman presented ongoing work on avian airfoil aerodynamics and tail range of motion at SICB’s annual meeting.