UTA Libraries Staff Spotlight: Eric Olson

Over time, the FabLab at the UTA Central Library has evolved into a hub for both project creation and community engagement. Helping to facilitate these experiences for library patrons is Eric Olson, who holds the role of FabLab technician. 

Eric is a founding member of the FabLab and has been involved since its launch in October 2014. He's proud how this space’s journey has brought the university community together. 

"The FabLab has taken off and become a big campus resource," Eric said. "It’s difficult to get a new campus service up and running when it's something that has not been a traditional part of a library, but everyone came together to make it happen." 

 In his role as a FabLab Technician, Eric is responsible for maintaining and repairing equipment, as well as researching new technologies. To help manage the expanded operations of the FabLab, he works closely with his graduate assistant. In addition to his technical duties, Eric enjoys mentoring students by sharing his professional expertise and experience with them. 

"I started out doing electrical engineering, and I realized that it would be horrible, and I would never see the sun for at least five years. So, I transferred to computer science, and about halfway through my computer science degree, the big tech crash happened," he said. "I had done front line tech support for Lockheed Martin to pay for school as an undergrad. I thought IT was pretty good, and I would go back to that, which led me here." 

Outside of work, Eric's interests read like MacGyver's resume, from car and home repair to raising orchids due to the help of a biology degree. His talent in each of these categories has flourished and continues to expand. 

“My wife and I are big into native plant gardening. We are progressively converting our front and back yards to plant beds. I'm also a big orchid enthusiast. I have a collection of about 50 separate orchid species at home," Eric said. "Orchids are marvels of evolutionary biology for more than a few reasons. They’re unique organisms. I enjoy them on that level but also the nice blooms and foliage." 

Eric shared that his mechanical skills came from necessity as an undergrad. He couldn’t afford to take his Toyota Corolla to a shop to fix it and was within walking distance of an auto parts store. So, necessity brought about an opportunity to learn a new skill, which he still uses today. 

"I have rebuilt my Ford Ranger's engine. I did all the suspension and everything else on my wife's car, too," Eric said. "I’m currently in the process of swapping an old Chevy Tracker from an auto to a manual transmission. I am just kind of hunting stuff down right now." 

 

Eric’s diverse talents and skillset add to our vision of what a makerspace like the FabLab is all about. We are proud to have Eric as a member of our team at UTA Libraries. We want to give a big thanks to Eric for his continued service to the UTA community. Keep up the excellent work.