After serving in the United States Navy between 1944 and 1946, Olsen attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned both a BS (1950) and an MS (1952) degree in electrical engineering.
[6] During his studies at MIT, the Office of Naval Research of the United States Department of the Navy recruited Olsen to help build a computerized flight simulator.
In the 1960s, Olsen received patents for a saturable switch, a diode transformer gate circuit, an improved version of magnetic-core memory, and the line printer buffer.
Olsen's valuing of innovation and technical excellence spawned and popularized techniques such as engineering matrix management, that are broadly employed today throughout many industries.
"[12][13][14][15][16] Olsen admitted to making the remark, even though he says his words were taken out of context and he was referring to computers set up to control houses, not PCs.
[17] In 1986, Fortune Magazine named Olsen "America's most successful entrepreneur",[11][18] and the same year he received the IEEE Engineering Leadership Recognition Award.
[22] While Olsen believed VMS was a better solution for DEC customers and often talked of the strengths of the system, he did approve and encourage an internal effort to produce a native BSD-based UNIX product on the VAX line of computers called Ultrix.
However, this line never got enthusiastic comprehensive support at DEC.[citation needed] Olsen was forced to retire from DEC, stepping down as president in 1992.