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‘A tinkerer at heart’

Fab Lab’s Bobby Hartsock leaving after seven years

By California State University, Bakersfield

February 10^th, 2024

There is always a lot going on at the Fab Lab on the California State University, Bakersfield campus. A creative hub for students and the public alike, with computers and fabrication equipment filling the space, it would be easy for a newcomer to feel intimidated if not for the lab’s welcoming atmosphere, a tone set by Fab Lab specialist Bobby Hartsock.

This month, Hartsock leaves CSUB after seven years working in the Fab Lab. He and his wife, Eunice, will soon move to Tennessee, where Hartsock will work for a software development company with his brother. It’s a bittersweet development, both for Hartsock and those who worked with him.

“I’m very excited about taking the next steps in life,” Hartsock said. “But I’m very sad about leaving campus and all the people here. So, it’s mixed feelings.”

‘Like a kid in a candy store’

Getting the job at the Fab Lab in 2017 wasn’t Hartsock’s first time calling CSUB home. After graduating from Centennial High School and starting at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as an engineering major, Hartsock transferred to CSUB to earn his degree in business administration with a concentration in management information systems. As a student, he worked at the help desk.

“It was a lot of fun working at the help desk, and I really enjoyed everyone on campus, all the staff and faculty,” Hartsock said. “Everyone was really helpful and really nice.”

Following graduation, Hartsock worked for Aera for five years and did fabrication projects in his free time. When he was laid off from Aera, he looked back on his time working at CSUB fondly, wondering if there might be any open positions for which he would be well suited.

“Then I saw the Fab Lab posting and was like, ‘Wait, this is all the stuff I do for fun at home, but I would get paid for it,’” Hartsock said.

Dr. Andrea Medina — director of grants and outreach for CSUB’s School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering — was part of the hiring committee for the position and has worked closely with Hartsock over the years as she oversees the Fab Lab.

“Bobby’s a true tinkerer at heart,” Dr. Medina said. “He was like a kid in a candy store being in the lab.”

With the Fab Lab opening in 2014 thanks to sponsorship from Chevron, Hartsock has been a fixture of the makerspace for the majority of its existence. Though he wasn’t there from the very beginning, he’s had a large impact on it.

“Bobby has made the Fab Lab what it is today, a place where people are comfortable and can hang out and get stuff done,” Dr. Medina said. “He’s made it a welcoming place where the imagination is the limit.”

Hartsock said he and Dr. Medina always had the same vision for the Fab Lab, leading to a great working relationship between the two.

“We wanted it to be open, accessible and easy to use,” he said. “I’m really happy to have been involved in building the Fab Lab into the great place that it is today.”

The Fab Lab gives students and members of the public access to machines like 3D printers, a laser cutter and a ShopBot CNC router, among others, to create all kinds of items. As the Fab Lab specialist, Hartsock was ready to help with any kind of project, as were his team of student interns who continue to staff the lab.

“People usually come in saying, ‘I want to make something; here’s my project idea,’ and whatever their experience level is, we work from there and get them to a point where they can use the equipment and feel comfortable with it,” Hartsock said. “We always say that we don’t do anything for anybody — we teach everyone how to do it for themselves.”

Dr. Saeed Jafarzadeh — associate professor and chair of CSUB’s Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science — said he would regularly encourage his students to check out the Fab Lab. Dr. Jafarzadeh has benefitted from Hartsock’s expertise himself, too.

“Starting the Fab Lab on the CSUB campus was a true blessing for me,” he said. “I learned how much I love fabrication, and Bobby had a major role in that. Long story short, his passionate guidance encouraged me to buy five 3D printers, two laser cutters and bunch of other tools. I will be forever grateful for what I learned from Bobby, and his friendship.”

Engineering students regularly use the Fab Lab for class projects, but anyone is welcome to use the space. Because of that, Hartsock has made connections all across campus.

Tony Velis, part of the CSUB art department’s technical staff, has worked with Hartsock on several projects over the years. The two bonded over their love for creating. Velis said working alongside Hartsock has been “very inspirational.”

“The guy can build intricate, delicate electronics and still tear apart his Unimog,” Velis said, referring to a green military truck Hartsock would often drive to campus. “Many members from CSU Bakersfield and I will miss Bobby and wish him the best at his new adventure.”

Stand-out projects

In addition to helping students and the community with their ideas, Hartsock has also worked with Fab Lab interns on some projects of their own.

In the summer of 2019, the Fab Lab team participated in the National Air and Space Museum’s Project Egress, a community build led by Adam Savage of “MythBusters.” The project involved 44 artists and groups from across the country each building a unique part of the Apollo 11 command module hatch, which Savage replicated in full with the contributed parts.

“That was a lot of fun,” Hartsock said. “The part we made was fairly small and straightforward, but to be involved was neat, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission.”

Another stand-out project from Hartsock’s time in the Fab Lab was creating face shields for local frontline health care workers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. When Dr. Medina asked Hartsock if the Fab Lab could help first responders through the personal protective equipment shortage, Hartsock jumped into action, sourcing materials and design schemes.

At the time, Dr. Medina said Hartsock and the team’s work was “engineering in action … Filling a need. It’s working with what you have."

Hartsock also enjoyed working with interns on a mesh network remote-controlled truck. They would drive it around campus while testing it, and the camera inside meant they could see the reactions of those who crossed paths with the truck.

“It was always entertaining to see people stare at the truck and follow it around,” Hartsock said. “It would drive to spots on campus and do loops and go down walkways, and people would wave at it.”

Bobby Hartsock with the mesh network remote-controlled truck in the Fab Lab.

Hartsock with a piece of a face shield the Fab Lab made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bobby Hartsock with Fab Lab interns working on Project Egress.

Search and rescue

Off campus, Hartsock spent his time volunteering with Kern County’s search and rescue group. Officially joining in 2019, Hartsock worked with both the Southern Kern and Kern Valley teams. Though volunteers are trained on all sorts of skills so they can help on any kind of call, Hartsock said he was known for playing around with radios.

Last fall, Hartsock was brought in to help find a missing hunter on Breckenridge Mountain. He would later find out the hunter is the father-in-law of Frank Panameno, who works on campus as part of CSUB’s facilities team.

Panameno explained that his father-in-law, Salvador, was hunting with friends on a cloudy day when he followed a deer and couldn’t find his way back to his campsite. After about a day, the friends called Panameno with the news that Salvador still hadn’t returned. Search and rescue were called and eventually found Salvador. A diabetic who had to resort to drinking river water, Panameno was quite weak when he was finally found. He needed a couple weeks to bounce back to full health, but Panameno said his father-in-law has since joked that he would have found his way back to the campsite eventually.

The CSUB connection was made by Abel Núñez-Guerrero — NSME outreach and community college coordinator — who is friends with Panameno and works with Hartsock. When he heard his friend’s story, Núñez-Guerrero told him about Hartsock’s work with search and rescue. They soon discovered Hartsock was part of the response that saved Salvador.

To Panameno, the search and rescue crew are heroes. He was grateful for the chance to meet with Hartsock and thank him for his role in the rescue.

“Usually, you hear stories of people being a hero and someone saves you and you don’t know who he was, you just wake up in the hospital,” Panameno said. “To be able to meet him and say thank you was awesome, because you don’t always see the face of who’s helping you out. So when I was able to go say thanks, it meant a lot.”

Hartsock isn’t aware of similar volunteer search and rescue opportunities in Tennessee, but he hopes to find a similar way to give to the community. He called his time with search and rescue here “a really meaningful and fantastic way to spend my time.”

“It’s such a great experience to be part of that,” he said. “Just seeing the impact it has on people, whether you’re able to rescue someone alive or recover a body from the river that had been missing, the closure it gives families — there’s nothing that can really compare to that.”

Bobby Hartsock, center in light T-shirt, in a group photo with the search and rescue team.

Bobby Hartsock during search and rescue training.

Bobby Hartsock, second in right row, and search and rescue team during training.

‘The best job’

Leaving CSUB and Bakersfield isn’t easy for Hartsock. He’s enjoyed his time working with students and professors, as well as the members of the community who have come to the Fab Lab to work on projects.

CSUB is “a fantastic place to work,” he said. “It’s definitely the best job I could have imagined.”

While Hartsock has been a key part of making the Fab Lab what it is today, he has no doubts that it will continue to be a welcoming place for all kinds of creators.

“I’m going to miss all of it a lot, but I think it’s in good hands, so I’m not worried about leaving,” Hartsock said. “I think what has been accomplished by the interns and by myself and Andrea and her team will continue.”

Dr. Andrea Medina and Bobby Hartsock at a farewell dinner for Hartsock at Lengthwise.

Hartsock and CSUB colleagues at a farewell dinner at Lengthwise.

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Footnotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); Photos by Juan Rodriguez and Abel Núñez-Guerrero or contributed by Bobby and Eunice Hartsock and Dr. Andrea Medina.