Coming into the semester, I had very little knowledge about manufacturing or design. The initial designs I submitted for the class were impractical, unrealistic, or lacking in important details because of this lack of knowledge. Throughout the semester, with the help of lectures and my teammates, I learned about things that would have made those initial designs much better. I learned, for example, that our cage in the front wouldn’t lift by magic, but could be lifted by either or winch or a rack and pinion. I also learned that a car doesn’t run by just a motor, but with a combination of motors, gearboxes, shafts, and differentials. I learned about how even the simplest of designs have a lot of intricate detailing. Our design as the perfect example won the award for the simplest design, and yet it took a lot of work to make that thing work—and about a million brackets. The best part about knowing nothing at the beginning was that I was able to leave having learned so much. After learning about the basic principles of design and about manufacturing in this class, my future designs will be much better. I now know that solid understandings of the basics of manufacturing are essential for any kind of design. My new found knowledge of how things work and how they fit together will prove to be very useful in my engineering career, and I look forward to growing in that knowledge.
This project experience taught me about more than design, however. I have had experience working in teams before, but never like this. We had to communicate on a very regular basis, which meant that everyone including myself had to improve on our abilities to understand and share ideas. We all to be able to not only receive and handle criticism, but it was also essential that we learn to dissect, analyze, and give constructive critics to those sharing on our project. Along with sharing our ideas, we also had to share our time and energy. Being on a timed schedule, it was very important that everyone in the group put in an equal amount of time and work towards the end goal. We had to communicate about availabilities, and daily objectives. It was important for the group to utilize and balance ability. We found that if one group member lacked ability in one area, they would compensate for that in another area. For example, I lacked machining experience but would make up for it by organizing the team’s schedule and handling the team’s blog. Our team had to learn to organize, which I think we adapted to well.
In addition to learning about how to build a machine and how to build it while working in a group, I also learned quite a bit from having experienced the competition. Participating in the competition helped me to realize a lot of flaws in our design. For instance, the size of our bot wasn’t realized to be a problem until we learned how hard it was to turn it or move around our opponents. What this helped me to understand better was the need to really consider all possibilities and objectives of a project before formulating a design. In future projects, I would take more time to research before designing.
As far as course improvements go, there should be many. I will say that as it this only the second year of the professor’s career, the flaws are understandable. I felt it was a bit disorganized at times, with the order of assignments and layout of the class. I understand and can appreciate the thought process behind the layout—with everything taking up one third of the class—but in the end, this wasted a lot of time. I feel, and I know most of the class agrees with me, that we should have been put into groups much sooner. It was a waste of time for everyone to design and revise, and revise again our ideas just for us to come up with new ideas once we were placed into groups. Another thing that I can appreciate but would probably change were some of the assignments. I understand the importance of creativity in design, but honestly those assignments were useless. Who cares what my mass is as the size of a ping-pong ball? My efforts could have been used in something more useful. I would also have liked to not only learn about what a bevel gear is, for example, but also to maybe have some assignments that helped me learn about the uses of the components we discussed.
In regards to how I could have improved, I wish I taken more time to learn about how different mechanical components work and what their uses are. I would have been of more use during the design stage if I had done this, and maybe our design could have been better. And, I wish I had started studying for that test sooner.
All in all, this was my favorite class. As much as we struggled and worked, I loved learning and manufacturing. Can’t wait for 350 with Umbriac!! : ]
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