This course has been the most important part of my
engineering education thus far. I feel that topics covered and activities
engaged will be very relevant in my future career. All the aspects of the class
from the actual design and manufacturing to working with a team and make
decisions taking multiple ideas into the thinking. Topics covered in lecture also helped with
thinking about the basic things to think about in the design process.
The
design and manufacturing portions of this class were the most enjoyable from my
perspective. This was the first course I have taken that gave me experience
with a CAD program. That CAD program was Solidworks that became a necessary
tool in the design of our machine. The way Solidworks was taught was done very
efficiently in that different steps were taught to us that we later would piece
together. Using a CAD program in designing our machine before any actual
machining anything allowed our group to know almost every detail of our machine
from the very beginning. This allowed us to anticipate problems and told us
much more about a proposed design than a simple sketch would. Not only was this
my first experience with a CAD program but this course also was my first
experience with machining on this class. The machine shop was somewhere where
once I got a handle of different processes and the functions of different
machines I became very efficient with my time. Total machining time would
definitely be a fraction of the original time spent when I was still learning
how to use the machine. The machine training was a very rough and brief
introduction to the machines. For example, when it comes to my personal
experience with the lathe, I needed to go through the same process at least
three times until I felt comfortable that I was doing things correctly.
Repetitive experience was the only way I learned while in the machine shop.
Reading instructions off a paper and going through the physical motions were
very different things.
The
experience I had with my team was a very favorable one. I was lucky to be in a
group where the members were accountable and productive. What was different
about this team is that more true than other groups I’ve been in, certain
members had certain training. Using the knowledge of who knew how to do what is
how we distributed the work among the team members. This was especially true
when it came to the machine shop where we tried to keep the same people working
with the same machines so that we were well experienced with whatever process
we were performing. The team used our time wisely and we met all deadlines.
Once again, stating that our group was very productive and there wasn’t the
case of harassing a member to get something done that he was being lazy on, it
did not happen on team Highrollers.
Lecture
was an effective tool in that it familiarized us with the science behind what
we were producing. It was not only relevant to our machine but I feel since it
was so basic it will apply to future things I will design in my engineering
future. When lecture spoke about different things to reduce friction and
deciding on which material will work best in particular situations are tools
that are universal to all design processes.
Overall
this course was very valuable and educational to me as a result of the work of
the professors, my GSI, and my team members. This course was more enjoyable
than most courses and should not be altered too much if at all. Although my
team did not fair too well in the competition, the process was educational,
positive, and most of all, memorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment