When Lily Oliphant came to Oregon State University, she was already certain of one thing: she wanted to build robots. Growing up in Maple Valley, Washington, she immersed herself in FIRST Robotics throughout middle and high school, discovering a passion for hands-on engineering that would later shape her academic and professional path.
“I loved the hands-on nature of it,” she said.
That early experience led her to seek out research opportunities when she enrolled at Oregon State, where she quickly found a welcoming environment and a breadth of projects to explore.
Oliphant, now a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, wasted no time diving into those opportunities, contributing to multiple robotics research projects and excelling in highly competitive internships across various industries, including agriculture, construction, and autonomous systems.
Connecting robotics and agriculture through AgAID
One of the most influential experiences of Oliphant’s college career began when robotics professor Cindy Grimm introduced her to AgAID, a multi-institution, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation-funded institute led by Oregon State that is integrating AI and robotics to support sustainable agriculture.
mechanical engineering undergraduate student
Blue Primary, Yellow Secondary
Oliphant joined AgAID as a summer intern in 2023, helping design innovative tools to support orchard workers, including a virtual training interface for apple-tree pruning. She returned in 2024 for a second internship — this time stepping into a leadership role that combined robotics with education. Working alongside AgAID Associate Director Jordan Jobe and Lynden High School (Lynden, WA) teacher John Grubbs, Oliphant helped develop a new Agricultural Innovations Career Development Event for FFA Washington, a pioneering curriculum that introduces high school students to data analysis, drones, computer technology, and robotics in agriculture. Her contribution focused on the robotics portion, where teams of students build and program a VEX robot that simulates moving apples through an orchard.
Her work culminated in a feature article — “Agricultural Innovations CDE: Preparing Students for Agriculture 4.0” — published in 2024 in Agricultural Education Magazine, reflecting on both the robotics challenges and the future of tech-infused agriculture.
Studying autonomous delivery robots on campus
Alongside her agricultural robotics work, Oliphant served as a research assistant on a project studying how Starship and Daxbot delivery robots interact with the campus environment. This research combined months of sensor analysis, field observations, and collaboration with graduate students. Their resulting award-winning paper presented at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems explored how delivery robots affect accessibility, safety, and policy on college campuses. The study combined an analysis of online community posts with in-person interviews, revealing both positive and negative perceptions of the robots. The experience deepened her interest in autonomous systems and expanded her technical skillset in data analysis, human-robot interaction, and robotic mobility.
Building the future with Hoffman Construction
In summer 2025, Oliphant broadened her engineering experience further by joining Hoffman Construction as an off-site manufacturing intern, focusing on integrating robotics and modern construction technology. Over ten weeks, she optimized prefabrication workflows, collaborated with industry mentors, completed OSHA 30 certification, and contributed to high-tech construction projects.
“These 10 weeks were truly the most rewarding of any summer,” she wrote.
The internship affirmed her belief that robotics and automation are becoming essential across a wide swath of sectors — far beyond what she first imagined entering the field.
Looking toward the future
As she looks ahead, Oliphant is certain that robotics will remain central to her career, though she is open to many directions.
“I know I want to do something within robotics,” she said. “I have found ag robotics super cool. But I’m also very interested in aerospace and astrospace robotics, too.”
Whatever direction she chooses, Oliphant is building toward a future where automation and robotics serve people, including farmers, builders, students, and entire communities. Her curiosity continues to guide her, just as it did when she first picked up a robot in middle school and discovered the joy of watching something she built move on its own.
