Josiah Walker
Email: jw0966@princeton.edu
Education
B.S. in Engineering with Distinction in Mathematics
Minors in Mathematics
Honors Interdisciplinary Studies
James Madison University Class of 2025
Biography
Josiah grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where he was introduced to engineering through FIRST robotics. He chose James Madison University (JMU) for its interdisciplinary, hands-on engineering program and worked on projects ranging from national rocketry competitions to low-cost water-quality monitoring buoys. His experience includes developing space disco balls and gliding parachutes as safety mechanisms for large drones at NASA Langley; performing experiments to reduce noise from supersonic Coanda Jets and improve 3D-printed materials at JMU; and visualizing flow for next-generation electric propulsion at WhisperAreo.
Josiah is motivated by unique interdisciplinary problems in aeronautics where he can explore fluid mechanics while also creating simple, low-cost solutions. As a BAM lab member and NSF graduate fellow, he is excited to explore avian flight to better understand how birds harness fluid dynamics and how that knowledge can be applied to modern aviation problems.
Outside of research, you can find Josiah exploring new coffee shops, playing pickleball and board games, or hiking and road tripping.
Research
Josiah’s research focuses on enhancing Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles with bird-like maneuverability and resilience to adverse conditions, such as gusts. Currently, he is focusing on the alula, a thumb-like appendage made of 2-3 feathers near the wing’s leading edge. Birds deploy their alulae to control flow separation to maintain lift when their wings are at high angles of attack from gusts or navigating in cluttered environments. To explore this, Josiah takes Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and force measurements in the Princeton 4’x4’ low-speed wind tunnel to uncover the flow structures that enable bird flight.