Kyle's Reflection

Now that ME250 is over and I have had time to reflect on the course, I have come to realize many things. Firstly, and in my opinion most importantly, I now am sure that I have chosen the right path for my education by majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Although ME250 was hectic and frustrating at times, I now know I thoroughly enjoy the design and manufacturing process. On more of a fundamental level, I have learned a great deal this semester. I now have a strong understanding of basic terminology such as the difference between a tapered bearing and a deep grove bearing, and more importantly which one is more applicable to a certain design application. Understanding different methods of machining parts is a very valuable skill that I have taken away from this class as well.  For instance I learned what circumstances it is preferable to use a mill instead of a hand drill or drill press to drill a hole in a piece. It is also important to note that each machine has their limitations. For instance some rods are simply too small to cut down on the lathe. These limitations should be taken into account during the design process. This semester has definitely taught me about the importance of a complete and thorough design. The design is the backbone of manufacturing and without a complete design (nuts and bolts included) the project will not proceed smoothly.  

ME250 is a very involved class and can at times the project can appear daunting, however it definitely helps to be working with a team. During the design process it was interesting to see the differing approaches to most everything we did. Ranging from the strategy selection to the sketch model down to the actual manufacturing of the parts, each teammate had their own way to go about things. This was not a bad thing however. It was a good way to lay out our options, analyze the pros and cons of each option and come to a collective decision on which direction to go. This is a valuable experience because it is how the real world works. Some might say that working with a team affects an individual’s grade too much. I disagree because not only were there plenty of individual assignments, but being able to adapt to others and work in a team environment is a very important skill to have in the real world.

Time management is a recurring theme in ME250.  Milestones helped to keep students on track. However a part of the course that I found frustrating however was the how much had to be done between MS8 and MS9 in a small amount of time. Admittedly, it is each student’s responsibility to properly schedule out his or her project, however the schedule is a bit deceiving. At a glance it appears there is a week between needing to have the critical module complete and needing to have 90% of the machine complete, however with Thanksgiving break taking up four days of this week, there was only three days to accomplish this. I feel more of a forewarning of this could help future students. One other area I felt could be improved was the use of controllers in the final days. I think a sign up sheet for times with the controllers on a Google doc could be a very useful tool for future students.

My team could have improved our performance in two major ways. One is time management. We left slightly too much to be completed within the final days which created some chaos. We also should have had more of a simplistic design with a complete and perfect Solid Works model earlier in the class. Overall I feel that we worked well together and I enjoyed the class thoroughly.