JOSEPH LIEBER ’19 TAKES ROBOTICS EXPERIENCE INTO REAL WORLD WITH SELF-DRIVING GOLF CART

By Greta Lawler ’23

Joseph Lieber ’19 applied his passion for robotics to create a computer-controlled golf cart, which is able to autonomously transport people with reduced mobility across the campus of Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Lieber is a recent graduate of VMI, where he studied electrical engineering and computer science. His interest in engineering and robotics began while he was a student at Mercersburg.

“I spent the majority of my 11th-grade year up in the robotics lab, doing projects,” he said. “At the end of my 11thgrade year, I joined the RMRC (Rapidly Manufactured Robotics Competition) Team, which is where I fell in love with robotics and engineering as a whole. I’d always loved mechanical stuff, but my experience on the RMRC team cemented my passion for designing more complex systems.”

As a senior, Lieber participated in the Rapid App Development Springboard, where he developed the base functionality for an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) robot.

“These experiences gave me the foundation to understand how complex these systems could be and how much I didn’t know,” Lieber said.

When Lieber graduated from Mercersburg and enrolled at VMI, he quickly started looking for new projects.

“The goal of the computer-controlled golf cart,” Lieber noted, “as far as an academic point of view, is to allow students to have more access to projects that are multidisciplinary. This project forced us to enter a multidisciplinary field, where we weren’t just dealing with software or circuits or mechanical engineering. We had to integrate all three of them in order to form and implement our solution.”

Although the golf cart is primarily a learning project, Lieber hopes it will eventually aid the alumni office when elderly alumni come to campus.

“The vehicle will hopefully be developed so that alumni can just hop on, press a location, and the golf cart will drive them [to a location on campus],” Leiber said.

Lieber serves as the team’s project manager, as well as the lead technical person.

“The hardest part of the project is understanding from a management point of view how much thought goes into the design in order to have several complex systems come together and work together very fluently. I also learned just how important documentation is. It takes a very long time to document everything, and that’s a much longer process than I think most people realize before going into software engineering—such a large volume of your time will be dedicated to documentation so your work isn’t wasted and having to be redone.”

After VMI, Lieber plans to fulfill his ROTC service requirement in the Army Reserves. He also will work for Raytheon Technologies, a major aerospace and defense company.

“As far as career ambitions, between Mercersburg and VMI, I’ve found where I’m really consistently passionate is the firmware and software side of robotics,” Lieber said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road, and you’re able to implement all these really cool and interesting systems.”

From the robotics lab at Mercersburg to the golf-cart paths of VMI, Lieber shared that his most important learning has always come from getting involved in hands-on, real-world projects.

His best advice to Mercersburg students and recent graduates? “Whether it’s at Mercersburg or during your college experience, get involved with a project that you’re passionate about, where you can apply the stuff that you’re learning in the classroom. Because if you’re not applying what you’re learning in the classroom, then you’re missing out on a lot of the experience that a school can offer.”

Greta Lawler plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall to study chemical engineering.