Neil's Reflection

This semester I had the chance to take ME 250. This class was an introduction to engineering, design and manufacturing. Over the course of this semester I learned a great deal about design, analysis and how to operate a mill and lathe. This knowledge will help make me be a better designer and engineer. Knowing the manufacturing process I will be able to design parts so that they will be able to be made with less complications. If my design is not able to be made on a machine I will have the tools to redesign the part so that it is able to be made. After building the bot for ME 250 I have realized and appreciate how much work it actually takes to make a design that is functional and efficient.

ME 250 also taught me how to use CAD. CAD is a very powerful and important aspect of designing and engineering. It helps with putting ideas together and the ability to share it with the rest of your team and co-workers. CAD allows you to see how you much a project will weight, where the center of mass is and where the weak points are in your design. Learning CAD this semester showed me the importance of constraining your sketches and the proper way of making parts in CAD. In addition, it taught me to design a part the same way that it would be manufactured. This way you know that you will be able to build it when you are done designing it.

Our team worked together effectively building the bot this semester. We put in the effort needed to get the project done on time. We were able to divide up different tasks so not all of us were working on the same thing at the same time.

I can improve on not having to redo CAD as many times as we had to do. Also take a closer look at the gear boxes and motors sooner so I would know how strong they are. I would incorporate both of the planetary gear boxes for the turning/driving of the bot around the table. Also take the time to look over the whole kit before I started to design so that I could us as many of the materials in the kit as possible.

Before designing the bot I wish I would have went back over some of the lectures that talked about the gear boxes and motors so that we could have made a more effective design. I would have made the front wheels drive the bot and had a single caster in the back of the bot to keep it level. This would have let our bot move around the table easier.

The course could improve on the training aspect of the mills and lathes. The gap between the training days and the actual machining times was too long. Most of us forgot how to use the machines by the time we got back to them. We had to ask Bob and John too many questions and we weren't effective at machining. Another thing that could be changed is if you let the groups have the kits sooner, they could actually see what they had to use and not just a list online of what they get to use.

Now that I look back on the class I feel like I will be a more effective engineer in the future and hopefully will carry this knowledge to next phase when I take ME 350.