Formally known as the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, New Mexico Tech (NMT) is a small university in rural Socorro, NM. With a student population of fewer than 2,000, NMT was perhaps best known for being featured on an episode of TruTV’s Man vs. Cartoon, in which NMT’s Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center tried to recreate some of the contraptions Wile E. Coyote used to try to capture the Roadrunner. That all changed when NMT brought on Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian as an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

After earning his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University in 2018, Dr. Hassanalian began working at NMT, where some of his biometric-inspired drone systems have gone viral. “Over millions of years,” Dr. Hassanalian states, “nature has evolved a wide array of processes, structures, materials, and functions that enhance efficiency. Engineers and biologists have increasingly drawn inspiration from this vast natural repository, seeking to learn from the solutions that biological systems provide. Often, nature offers the most effective answers for developing and optimizing various systems, including those used in aerospace. Natural systems present highly effective solutions to complex challenges in aerospace, such as drag reduction, locomotion, navigation, control, sensing, and design.”

Working with this principle, Dr. Hassanalian and his graduate students design drones inspired directly by nature. Drone researchers and developers worldwide use similar principles, but what sets Dr. Hassanalian apart is the fact that he uses materials taken from real specimens and builds them into drones. Some of his creations have even been nicknamed “zombies” as they are made from taxidermied birds and bird parts. Dr. Hassanalian first gained national attention when he and his graduate student, Jared Upshaw, were featured in an issue of IFLScience.

The title of the article was Taxidermy Drones: The Ultimate Spies. The first thing that grabbed the attention of the world was the images of a drone that looked like an actual living bird. In reality, Dr. Hassanalian and Jared purchased a taxidermy bird and built it into a drone with flapping wings. It’s uncanny how much the drone looks like a living bird. Dr. Hassanalian makes it very clear that he does not kill or harm any birds when making his drones. He works with a local taxidermy shop and purchases real feathers from online sources.

Dr. Hassanalian also clarified that, though the title of the article suggests these drones disguised as birds are spies, they are anything but that. Rather, these drones are meant to observe and collect data in natural ecosystems. Researchers love using drones to gather data because they can be equipped with an array of sensors and can access places that are otherwise difficult for people to reach. However, when it comes to observing wildlife, drones have one major flaw: the noise made by their propellers can scare away the subjects being observed.

“Currently, the drones being used for wildlife monitoring are mainly hexacopters and quadcopters, which means they have propellers that create a lot of noise,” Dr. Hassanalian said. He also mentioned that these propellers can be dangerous to birds and wildlife if a drone comes into contact with a subject. By building a drone out of a taxidermy bird that maneuvers by flapping its wings, Dr. Hassanalian explained that they hope to fly the drone alongside living birds, who would then assume the drone is actually a bird, not a complex piece of machinery.

The attention Dr. Hassanalian’s “zombie bird” drones gained brought in funding to expand the program. For his most recent project, he is using taxidermy ducks to build drones that can flap their wings to fly and pedal their feet to swim. The drone’s realistic flight and swimming capabilities mean that it could be used to observe birds and other aquatic animals without detection. So, in essence, the drones are spies—but for ecological and educational purposes, with no nefarious goals.

“The overarching goal of this project is to develop safe, eco-friendly platforms that can support wildlife monitoring, mitigate bird strikes near airports, and offer novel approaches for environmental observation and research,” Dr. Hassanalian stated. “This fusion of taxidermy with drone technology marks a new era in bioinspired engineering, setting the stage for versatile, low-impact drones that harmonize with nature.” NMT may be a small school, but with forward-thinking professors like Dr. Hassanalian, it is making its mark on how the world thinks outside the box to engineer solutions for today’s challenges.

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