Jeff Hawks

Jeff Hawks received his Bachelors, Masters, and PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Jeff Hawks has expertise with robotic and mechatronic systems. He has a deep interest in developing robotic technology to assist agriculture and farming. Dr. Hawks grew up on a farm in a small Nebraska town and is familiar with the scope and requirements of this project. Most recently, Dr. Hawks conducts research on biomedical devices for NASA and surgical robots. Dr. Jeff Hawks has also worked at the Army Research Laboratories on autonomous and semi-autonomous robots used for the military. He believes that the proposed project is an excellent method to transfer robotic technology to agriculture production safety and increase the compliance with OSHA regulations with intuitive technology

Dr. Jeff Hawks is currently managing several projects in robotic development, fabrication automation and product design. This includes robotic arms for welding applications and material handling, mechatronic devices to improve the efficacy of the fabrication process, and new product development and redesign for emerging applications. In the past, Dr. Jeff Hawks has managed several research projects in the areas of robotics, mechatronics, biomedical devices, and biomechanics. Projects involved autonomous cooperative robot systems, computer vision applications, miniature surgical robotics, wheeled robotics, autonomous sensor platforms, biomedical device design for spaceflight, and finite-element analysis of soft-tissues and fluids. While working in academia, Dr. Jeff Hawks taught the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Mechanical & Materials Engineering Department’s senior capstone design course and an introductory biomechanics course for juniors, seniors and graduate students. The biomechanics course is aimed at bridging the interdisciplinary gap between physiology and engineering mechanics, and the course routinely attracts an even mix of students from biological system engineering, biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and physiology (i.e. pre-med majors).

Dr. Hawks has a strong interest in research biomechanics and sports sciences for designing assistive devices for rehabilitation. Dr. Jeff Hawks worked closely with Nebraska Biomechanics Core Facility at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and the Nebraska Athletic Performance Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has advised graduate students researching motion kinematics, and was a member of the host planning committee for the 2013 American Society of Biomechanics in Omaha, NE. Dr. Hawks’ background in engineering, robotics, biomedical device design, soft-tissue modeling and biomechanics uniquely qualifies me to consult on a wide variety of projects and applications.