His research interests are in renewable energy, experimental fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, fluid-structure interaction, nonlinear dynamics, and flow control. His teaching interests are in aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, and aircraft design. Dr. Olinger has authored over forty (40) technical papers in engineering journals and conference proceedings. He received a national ASME Curriculum Innovation Award - Honorable Mention in 2001 for educational methods that integrate experiments and computations into the engineering classroom. He was also awarded WPI's Morgan Distinguished Instructor in Mechanical Engineering, 2001-2002, recognizing quality undergraduate project project advising. He was the recipeint of a U.S. Navy - ASEE Summer Faculty Research Fellowship in 1994.