We describe an ultrafast optics laboratory comprising a mode-locked erbium fiber laser, autocorrelation measurements, and a free-space parallel grating dispersion compensation apparatus. The gain spectrum of Er fiber provides a broad bandwidth capable of supporting sub-100 fs pulses centered near a wavelength of 1550 nm. The fiber laser design used here produces a train of pulses at a repetition rate of 55 MHz with pulse duration as short as 108 fs. The pulse duration is measured with a homebuilt autocorrelator using a simple Michelson interferometer that takes advantage of the two-photon nonlinear response of a common silicon photodiode. To compensate for temporal stretching of the short pulse due to group velocity dispersion in the fiber, an apparatus based on a pair of parallel gratings is used for pulse compression. A detailed part that lists in the supplementary material includes previously owned and common parts used by the telecommunications industry, which helps decrease costs of the laboratory. This provides a cost-effective way to introduce the principles of ultrafast optics to undergraduate laboratories.