ME 250 was an interesting and informative class. It turned out to be a different experience than I expected. This class required more work than I have ever had to put into any single class. But in the end, it was worth all the time and effort to see our slotbot maneuvering around the competition arena.
I learned a great deal about design and manufacturing from the lectures and experiences I had in this class. To start out, the lectures taught me all the processes and materials I could use in order to optimally produce a product. The main advantage that this class offered though was after learning about these things in lecture, I could then further increase my knowledge from first-hand experience of designing and manufacturing a product. This experience was invaluable because I learned about not only the correct procedures of how I should go about the process, but also I learned about many of the obstacles that I could possibly run into when making a product.
One aspect of the process that I learned was important was time management. I learned that in order to get a project done on time you will need to create a schedule of progress due dates, so that you aren’t rushing to finish everything last minute. We were required to set a schedule, and I am thankful for that because I would never have expected this project to take as much time as it ended up taking. And even following our schedule, our group always found ourselves stressed for more time. I don’t think we could’ve completed this project without time management skills.
Teamwork is also a topic that a learned a great deal more about in this class. There are many different types of people that get together in a team, and that is why it is important to realize who you are working with. It facilitates the process having a team that works well with each other, so as long as the members of a team understand each other and treat each other with respect, there is a great chance for success. Also it is important to work with the strengths of each of the teammates, to produce a better result. Also, a final note I would like to share about what I learned about teamwork is that communication is key. As long as you and your teammates are on the same page you are on the right track and frustration is avoided. I thank my team for all their hard work.
A final important fact that I learned is to pay attention to the little details early on. This would have prevented having to redesign and remanufacture several parts of our slotbot. For example, hole locations need to be precise, and the holes themselves should be the right size. Another example is that gear locations need to be exact or else you will run into the problem where two or more gears will not mesh well which will inhibit the desired movement. If anything this fact saves a lot of time, effort, and frustration.
There are two changes to this class that come to mind to improve the experience for the student. One improvement is that the students should be given more information or guidance about the assignments that they are doing. I felt as if I was unsure of what was expected for almost every assignment that I was completing in this class. I also had talked with some other students and my teammates and they felt the same way. The second change that can be made is to make the final exam at the end of the course rather than at the end of the lectures. I feel that this is effective because the students have had experience working in the machine shop and will be better able to respond correctly to the exam questions. I felt like I learned a lot more after I took the final exam that would have helped me on it. This is one thing that I thought would’ve helped my grade in this class.
Another thing that would’ve helped my grade would’ve been asking the GSI’s more questions when it came to homework assignments. It would have cleared up some things that caused me to lose points on homework assignments and milestones.
To summarize my reflection, I know going into any future projects I will be better prepared to complete them more properly and efficiently based on the things I learned from this class.
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