Building things and engineering go hand-in-hand, and assistant professor Matthias Liermann, who joined AUB’s faculty of engineering and architecture in September 2009, intends to build many things.

As a kid, he “really wanted to build a robot” and started learning everything he could about programming and electronics. At age 17 he actually built three model airplanes but left it to someone else to fly them, as he went on to pursue his education.

Choosing to major in mechanical engineering seemed logical to Liermann, and not just because his dad was a railway engineer. “Engineering gives understanding of how things we use in our daily lives actually work,” explained Liermann, who could just as easily have succeeded in another major.

“After high school, I spent half a year on an assignment teaching German to high school kids in Slovakia. That was a good experience for me, and I enjoyed interacting with that age group a lot,” said Liermann, who believes that “inner attitude is what makes a person’s work valuable, as it counts more than the type of work one does.” 

After receiving his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany in 2004, Liermann worked at the University’s Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Controls, specializing in analysis and design of hydraulic systems. “The work there was great, as it involved many technology domains. I felt I was getting closer to my goal of building a robot,” smiled Liermann.

But Liermann‘s next step was to complete his PhD in 2008 on the design and development of a new type of self-energizing hydraulic brake system for trains.

A specialist in the field of mechatronics, Liermann is currently working on developing a new course for fourth-year engineering students in fluid power systems. He is also teaching control and automation and finds “AUB students very polite, creative, and funny. They have good intellectual capabilities, but lack being inquisitive and analytical enough in some unfamiliar approaches.”

Married with two small daughters, Liermann is happy to be living on campus and loves to spend time with his family. He also enjoys playing squash and windsurfing as well as playing the guitar and the cello and singing along with his wife. Liermann likes to read biographies, novels, and historical fiction in both German and English. An admirer of nature, Liermann is in touch with his faith and defines himself by the relationship he has found and built with his Creator.