ME250 has been a great experience. I learned much about the design process. I used to feel that it didn’t take any real effort to design something that you already have an idea of what you want that something to do. Then I found out that design something was way more complicated than it looks. There is so much that goes into the design process, like forming strategies, concepts that go along with those strategies, and an idea that would make the chosen concept work. I also learned that once have chosen that said idea, manufacturing it, is a whole different story. You would think it would be easy to just come up a simple plan to follow as you make your machine, however there are so many things that could go wrong with manufacturing the part. If these things do go wrong it could mean a trip back to the drawing board or even worst, scrapping a whole idea.
This is why working with a team is so important. If things do go wrong, you have someone to back you or even someone that could fix the issue. Also having a team makes it easier to go through the design and manufacturing process. Sure you may run into problems with conflicting ideas about the way something should be designed or the way something should be manufactured, but this often leads to a better outcome on the project. Finally working with a team can alleviate some of the stress that comes with designing and manufacturing something. When something doesn’t work with the design or manufacturing, someone from your team could help figure out the problem or already even have a solution to the problem, whereas if your working by yourself, you only have yourself to rely on which can be difficult at times.
I also learned the importance of time management. Waiting until the last minute to make changes in your design can make getting your machine manufactured in time very difficult. This is what happened to us. We had many great ideas at the beginning of the course and sometimes changing those things made the manufacturing process a little bit more difficult than it has to be. Also you have to expect the unexpected. Since there are many things that could go wrong with your design or manufacturing, that time needs to be accounted for in your schedule. Finally, if you are ahead of schedule, you should continue to work at the pace you’re working at. It is better to finish early than to rush to finish on time.
I understand that this was the first time that this course was done the way it was so of course there will be ways to improve this course. The first thing that could be changed is the timing of when the rules for the competition are introduced. We were already going through the design process without knowing the rules, which completely backfired for some of the designs that were already thought up before learning the rules. Also make sure the rules are more concrete. One of our ideas was shot down by something that wasn’t even in the rulebook. Another problem I had with the course was the workload in the beginning of the course. If this was the only course that I had taken this semester it would not have been a problem but the fact that as students, were usually taking more than one course it made the workload seem real heavy. Other than that I had no other problems with the course. Also I could have improved my personal performance in the course by simply not procrastinating as much I did.
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