Gerhard, William E., III

William E. Gerhard III, a senior in Electrical Engineering from Woodbridge, Virginia, has been involved with CEED since his freshman year at Virginia Tech when he was a member of the Galileo Living Learning Community.  William served as a member of the Service Learning Committee as a sophomore and currently serves on the InVenTs Leadership Team, focusing on bringing more Electrical Engineering into Studio 1.

While attending Woodbridge Senior High School, William was involved in Project Lead the Way, a four year engineering program that ignited his passion for Electrical Engineering. With his Digital Electronics teacher he helped to found the first VEX robotics team at his school, and discovered his passion for robotics, control systems, and embedded systems.

William has spent his summers working with a wide range of companies related to the Department of Defense, including BITs Systems and a two semester Co-Op at McQ Inc. Over the course of his undergraduate career, he has been involved in extracurricular engineering organizations like the Atmospheric Teaching Experiment, SAE AeroDesign, as well as co-curricular activities in the Autonomous Mastery and Prototyping (AMP) Lab.

Mentorship and volunteering have been a foundation of William’s undergraduate career. In addition to being active in the InVenTs community, William found the Autonomous Mastery and Prototyping (AMP) Lab freshman year. He has been an active fixture there, working on his Autonomous Ground Vehicle designed for rough terrain, and mentoring fellow students in the lab.  In addition, he is tasked with introducing new students to the lab, teaching soldering techniques, and updating and maintaining the official AMP lab website.