I could write a whole book about my favorite experiences at Olin, but what ties them all together is the amazing community and people I get to interact with every day. One way I’ve gotten to connect deeply with the Olin community is through The Olin Shop!

During my Candidates' Weekend, I remember leaving the Shop tour not just in awe of all the cool machines and tools that I had never heard of before, but of the radiant energy pouring out of the space! The Shop Adults and Assistants spoke with such enthusiasm, passion, and care as they shared the impressive projects they were working on and talked about how they fostered a diverse active learning environment within the Shop. I told myself that if I ended up at Olin, the Shop was a place I wanted to spend my time in and a culture I wanted to be a part of, even if I couldn’t identify 99% of the tools and machines yet.

Little did I know that the following year I would be hired as a Shop Assistant! My favorite part of this role has been hosting open hours and tool trainings for my peers and faculty/staff. I’ve found it to be a great avenue for getting to bond with members of the community beyond the machines I was teaching them how to use. I love walking into the Shop every day and seeing what inspiring, creative, chaotic projects my peers have going on and scheming (collaborating) with them on how to make their ideas into reality!

This summer I’ve been working at Olin as a Shop Fellow, where I’ve had the opportunity to help redesign and reimagine the Shop spaces for future students and courses at Olin, such as creating a new engineering design space (The Harris Studio) and expanding the woodshop. I even went out of my comfort zone and learned how to weld! I have grown so much as a collaborator, problem solver, and maker this summer thanks to the amazing Shop Adults and Fellows who’ve challenged and supported me through these projects.

I’m super excited for these spaces to allow for additional opportunities of innovation, learning, and community connection!

At Olin, and especially in the Shop, I’m grateful to have found myself surrounded by peers and mentors who inspire me to take risks, learn from others, and to be my best self!

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Delaney Knapp joins the Olin Library staff as our Community Resources Librarian. Learn more about them, what they’re reading, and their reflections on a librarian’s role in the community in this Q&A.

Q: Share a little bit about your background and how you came to be at Olin.

A: I was born and raised in Iowa and spent most of my life living in Iowa City. I went to the University of Iowa for my bachelor’s degree where I majored in history, minored in rhetoric and received a Certificate in Medieval Studies. During my bachelor’s degree I TA’ed rhetoric where I got to help students conduct research into topics they were passionate about. After I graduated, I moved to Boston to get my master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons University where I focused on the technology and e-resources that libraries use to support their patrons.

Q: What are you looking forward to and hoping to accomplish at Olin?

A: As the Community Resources Librarian, my role will be to grow, maintain and assist others with the e-resources collection as well as work on general library duties. I am excited to improve upon existing library resources and help support the Olin community pursue their own passions as much as possible.

Q: What is your personal approach to helping community members navigate the library?

A: As a librarian my goal is to make the library as accessible as possible to each community member. I aim to not just be able to assist people in the short term but to help everyone develop the tools they need to explore their passions. I am passionate about making sure that all of the library’s resources are accessible to the entire community.

Q: What is on your TBR pile at the moment?

A: My to-be-read pile is ever-growing and never-ending, however, the books at the top of the list are astronaut Eugene Cernan’s autobiography The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series.

Q: Favorite book of all time? Favorite book you read this summer?

A: I am going to cheat and pick my favorite series of all time—the Teixcalaan series by Arkady Martine which, for now, consists of two books, A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. This summer I have been really interested in the history of the Space Race and read Red Moon Rising, which focuses on early rocketry from both Soviet and American perspectives.

Q: What do you like to do for fun in your free time?

A: In my free time I enjoy embroidering while watching a tv show (usually something either in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes) and birdwatching.

Q: Oliners can ask me about…?

A: Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, Lost or any other science fiction shows. I may not know them, but I’m always happy to talk about them!

Q: Oliners can teach me about…?

A: Their interests! I always love learning new things and hearing people talk about what they are enthusiastic about.

“I grew up in Southern California and went to a small project-based high school where I was involved with my school’s VEX Robotics team and participated in various clubs and sports. One club that I started at my high school was called Project Gold Ribbon where we raised money for children with pediatric cancer.  

I first learned about Olin during my freshman year. I’m a first-generation college student, so I didn’t know what the process was at first to get into college or even which colleges were good for what I wanted to do. I found Olin in this extra-large book about different colleges, and I was intrigued. What really stood out was Olin’s project-based learning and small community. I know I learn better in an environment where I can see how the concepts taught in a classroom apply to the real world. So, I applied and was invited to attend Candidates’ Weekend.  

When preparing for Candidates' Weekend, I was extremely nervous about what Olin was going to be like. However, once I showed up to campus, all my worries went away! My mom describes that first day as the most she has ever seen me talk to strangers. That comfort I felt within the Olin community is what really sealed the deal for me. 

Fast forward a year later, I’m now involved in a variety of ways on campus.  

I enjoy working with (H)ola and the MIX because they’ve proven to be places where I can connect with people whom I might not have met otherwise. As a freshman, I attended the SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) 2024 National Conference. This opportunity provided by the MIX allowed me the chance to interact with the 200 companies there. 

I also really enjoy working in Formula because I’ve learned valuable information about design, engineering, and manufacturing that I would not usually learn in a classroom as a first year. As a mechanical engineer in Formula, I had my own project where I designed and manufactured the mounting that connects the car battery to the chassis. To be trusted with such an important project as a freshman has been an exciting and challenging experience. 

Being in ACRONYM, our pop-up coffee stand, is good too because I get to meet all the members of the community. It’s a great way to give back and observe Olin from a different perspective. I like how people talk about anything and everything while in line, whether it’s helping each other with classwork, or just simply hanging out.  

I came to Olin not really knowing what I was super passionate about, but interacting with my classmates and engaging in these activities has pushed me to work harder and to find what I am truly interested in.  

It has propelled me to explore new topics and to be not afraid to fail.”  

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“Olin’s library goes against all popular belief of what a library ‘should be.’ Here, at Olin, the library is a space where silence is broken with random rabbit hole arguments and the humming of sewing machines. Any time I walk into the library, I find familiar faces. From collaborating on work with them to providing a much-needed distraction if necessary, there’s never a dull moment in the library.

As I write this, I’m sitting at a table in the lower library, with the closest friends I’ve ever made. With the shared memories of challenging them to see who can focus the longest and actually get work done, making pretend podcasts in the Sound Studio, and holding our own impromptu office hours, the Olin library reassures me that I’m in the right space— a place where I can be myself. Here, I know there will always be someone there to talk and relate to.

Within this library’s walls, I’ve caught myself in fits of laughters so intense that they’ve left me breathless… letting me forget that my QEA final project was due that very same night. But I’ve also had 3AM conversations: when we’re just too tired with homework, meandering into profound moments of deep connection or chaotically rambling with a friend until the early morning.

Olin’s library fosters experiences that couldn’t happen anywhere else on campus —I couldn’t possibly select just one favorite moment, because I’ve had countless and still have many more to come.

Plus, it’s got books, and let’s face it, books are pretty cool.”

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"Hands down some of my favorite memories have been with The MIX. The MIX stands for the Multicultural Innovators eXperience. It is a club on campus that celebrates different cultures and backgrounds and is open to everyone. I have been very fortunate to be able to make memories with the MIX even before I got into Olin. Since my application season was during the pandemic I had a lot of time to look through my emails and read all the love letters that several colleges were placing in my inbox. One day, I saw a new kind of love letter. It was The MIX, telling me to apply to their virtual fly-in program for Olin. Since Olin was already high up on my priority list, I filled out the application immediately. An acceptance love letter, a new Olin hoodie (which I am actually wearing right now), and a zoom link later, there I was hanging out with the MIX on a Sunday evening. Even though we were on zoom, we were still able to make fond memories, arguing and laughing over a drawing game during game night.

For the second day of the fly-in, we were able to sit in on an Olin class. This was when I met one of my favorite Professors, Emily Tow. Being from Cali, Emily’s class was scheduled for 9pm eastern time but 6am pacific time. I had stayed awake too late the night before, so I woke up late! I was so worried that Emily was going to be mad at me for showing up late but when I popped into the zoom room she was very happy to see me. Even as I gave her my bad explanation for waking up late, she looked at me very compassionately and told me that it was ok and guided me to a breakout room. Once I was in the breakout room, I was surprised to see just how much fun the Oliners were having with their topic. My favorite was when they were talking about measuring the loss of heat from hot chocolate to determine the speed of wind in a wind tunnel. This was when they introduced me to Transport Phenomena, The Emily Tow class. I couldn’t believe I was late to HER class. As everyone signed off, I stayed behind to excuse my tardy one last time. As I did, I could tell that it was something that did not bother Emily, because there she was with her warm smile and compassionate eyes.

Even though Olin was already high on my list after the MIX fly-in, I knew that Olin was the place where I wanted to be.

Now fast forward, a few years later, here I am at Olin in the Commons! This space is meant to be a hub for several clubs on campus that collaborate with the Office of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access). The biggest and most frequent club here is the MIX. Now as the MIX co-vice-president, I help run our own game nights and meetings in this room. Since the Commons was just released this year, we are still designing this space to best capture the different aspects of all the clubs that call this place home. As someone who helped work on it last year and now this year, I can’t wait to see what we create.

(fun fact: I have taken the Emily Tow class, Introduction to Transport Phenomena, just this last semester! It is definitely worth it!)"

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"Acronym has been one of my favorite ways to connect with the Olin community. Acronym is a pop-up coffee shop where students make free coffee and tea for students, faculty, and staff at Olin. I have always loved how Acronym provides a space for the Olin community to slow down and connect.

I joined Acronym my first year at Olin and ended up running it my Junior year. I loved meeting new folks at Olin every week and helping provide such a cool space for gathering and connection. People would often meet to share coffee or do work and would leave their mark by drawing or writing something on a Post-it which then got pushed under the glass surface of the table. Now Acronym has passed into the hands of some awesome students a bit younger than me. I love that they are keeping Acronym alive and making it work for the ever-changing community here."

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Coby joins the Olin community this summer as Senior Shop Manager and Instructor of Fabrication. We recently sat down with him for a Q&A.

Q: Share a little bit about your background and how you came to be at Olin.

A: When I was a kid, my mom was a teacher and my dad was a carpenter, I fell somewhere in between. After studying industrial design, I have been lucky to work in highly hands-on-oriented jobs. After college I worked for about a year at Autodesk’s Pier 9 workshop in San Francisco as an artist in residence and as part of the shop staff and in-house design studio. I then spent a year in southern India designing cooking stoves before buying a rickshaw and moving to Mumbai where I helped convert it into a mobile classroom for teaching hands-on building workshops for kids. For the last 8 years, before starting at Olin, I managed the Hobby Shop at MIT where I taught members from across the MIT community in a wide variety of fabrication machines and techniques.

Q: What will you be teaching at Olin?

A: I am excited to join the Shop staff at Olin and begin teaching Fundamentals of Machine Shop Operation. My version of FOMSO will focus on making machinist tools that students will be able to take with them and hopefully make use of throughout their careers. 

Q: What are you looking forward to and hoping to accomplish at Olin?

A: One of the key aspects of Olin that really appeals to me is the focus on hands-on learning and the accessibility of the Shop to all students. I’m hoping to continue fostering that spirit and encouraging students to explore and learn thorough building tangible objects. 

Q: What is your philosophy when it comes to fabrication?

A: I believe we all have a lot to gain through hands-on building. Working in the shop teaches valuable skills for an engineering career, but I also believe it teaches us to be better people. The power to manipulate and improve the objects around us is a reminder that we have the ability to make the world a better place. Building and making things is a reminder of our unique place in the world. 

Q: Describe a project you’re particularly proud of.

A: It’s hard to pick just one thing. The two wooden zoetropes I’ve made are pretty fun. Each has a 12-frame animation around a cylindrical vessel that spins to create the illusion of motion. One uses a strobe to display each frame, and the other utilizes a series of mirrors. 

Q: What do you like to do for fun in your free time?

A: When not in the Olin shop, you can find me in my home shop, sewing custom shirts, walking my dog, or working with my wife on our small garlic farm. 

Q: Oliners can ask me _________?

A: Why do you grow so much garlic? Does CNC technology belong in the art and craft world? What is your current favorite shop tool?

Q: Oliners can remind me ________?

A: Is that an Olin acronym you are using or a slang term I’m unfamiliar with?