Linda Fayler
OSU Marine Technician
Sea Soar Operation and Maintenance

I am not interesting per se, but my job is. Working is important to me; it provides me with a sense of accomplishment. By understanding why I enjoy my work, you may better understand me. The formal title for my job is marine instrumentation engineer. The main focus of which is maintaining common use scientific instrumentation, generally on OSU's research vessel WECOMA. The Sea Soar is part of the common use equipment, but is used by the scientists on a variety of ships. Occasionally the work takes us to interesting locations, which I enjoy. This job requires a great deal of ingenuity and resourcefulness. The challenges are many, as our group is frequently required to engineer solutions out of parts-at-hand, which may not have been intended for the applications we are applying them to.

The job varies daily, requiring a general knowledge of how things work both electrically and mechanically. Hands-on work is much of what we do, from the conception, design, equipment purchasing, to the installation of a system. I am constantly learning new skills in order to keep up with the work requirements. The variety and challenges keep the job interesting, but what makes it most enjoyable are the people I work with. Within the marine technician group we each have distinct areas of expertise, which compliment each other and allows us to function as one working unit. We work well together and often have fun while we do it.