Now that ME250 is over, I
guess it is time to look back at what I learned. When I initially thought about
this question, my mind went blank. I came into ME250 with some previous design
experience having been on the student team UM::Autonomy, and I think this might
have contributed to some of the problems I had and some of the extra rework I
needed to do. I’m sure you’re familiar with the attitude of “been there, done
that.” Honestly, that’s what I came into ME250 with. Without much description,
lets just say it was a crappy attitude to start with (and I should have known
this, but I guess I was vain). I learned more than I could have imagined about
the design process. The biggest, and most important thing I learned, is to make
the solid model as detailed as
possible to start with. This includes brackets, fasteners, motors and
motor fasteners, and all holes. It
makes assembly 100% easier. The biggest area I feel our team struggled
in was actually putting the machine together. We had great ideas for
transmitting power to axles, constraining gears and shafts, but we had more
than enough problems actually putting the machine together because we didn’t
add fasteners or holes for fasteners. This led to a lot of poor fits and a few
extra holes. Additionally, I feel our team went for a little too much
complexity and should have focused our design around simple and robust. The
complex design caused us to put in a lot of hours building and assembling
modules which really didn’t perform that well at the end anyway. Sometimes, the
phrase “keep it simple, stupid” is more than just a phrase; it’s a great design
principle. As far as manufacturing is concerned, the biggest thing I learned
was to start building early! Our team managed to get into the machine shop
about a week after it opened for 250, but I really wish we had started the
first day it was open for 250. We found a lot of the parts that we initially
thought would be easy to manufacture were rather difficult and often required
more than one session in the machine shop. This was problematic because, while
specific to our machine shop, it’s fairly hard to get a machine in the ME
machine shop sometimes. Needing more than one machine shop session per part, as
well as a busy machine shop, led to a few delays which caused us to begin
assembly fairly late. Lastly, one of the biggest things I learned is to step
back and let others do what they do best. I know I have a problem with being “controlling”
sometimes; I work well with others and value my teammates input, but sometimes
when things aren’t going right, I tend to start ignoring other opinions and
going off what my gut is telling me. This is fatal flaw because two eyes (or
more!) are always better than one for complex problems. When I stop listening
and thinking critically, things will go wrong.
ME-250 course improvement
My biggest comment on this
has to do with how material is conveyed and given to the students. In short,
lectures suck. I’m sure you’ve noticed how the attendance throughout the
semester dwindled down to 25-30 every lecture. In some way, you should try and
convey the material to the students in a way other than standing up on a stage
and lecturing for 1.5 hours. It’s boring, it’s monotonous, and it doesn’t
really promote learning. I’m not sure how you would best go about changing
this, but it is something to think about.
My course improvement
Honestly, I should have probably spent more
time on the material, but I didn’t. I had a busy semester with a heavy course
load, and it took a toll on the amount of time I spent on learning the ME250
material. I feel I did fairly well at learning the material, but I guess time
will tell if my grade reflects that!
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