Personal Reflection

By: Ryan Doherty

This term I took part in the course ME250 at the University of Michigan. This course was designed to introduce the engineering ethics of design and manufacturing. During this course, I was included in a team of four that constructed a project that was to perform and deliver a required set of goals that were to be oriented into a competition amongst the other teams throughout the class. During this process I learned about design, manufacturing, teamwork, and time management along with other quality assets.

In this class, I learned a great deal about Solid Works. I was familiar with NX software so it was easier to pick up on the new additions that Solid Works has to offer. I found it easier to use and more ergonomic. I learned how to create parts such as rods with holes and grooves, buckets, and plates with ease. I also learned how to create somewhat complex parts with the software, including bearings, gears, and springs. Creating the assembly was also easy to do when you upload the files into the window. Our group was pretty good with completing the required amount of design models for the milestones that were assigned.

After the machine was designed using Solid Works, we used the software to make drawings for each part in order for us to assemble the machine with the materials that were given to us in the project kit. I had previous experience before this class with using the lathe, and among other machines in the shop, but definitely increased my personal skill with all of the equipment. I also learned a lot about using the mill, which I have never used before this class and was happy to be able to get some experience using the machine. Good engineering practice was a big thing that I learned throughout the course, such as zeroing and turning surfaces in order to get a correct read on the measurement, and even with small things such as putting washers on bolts so you don’t wear or damage the material that you are fastening. This class definitely made me think more about the ways things work and how to solve problems that occurred during the stages of production.

Even though there were a few bumps in the road along the way, none of this project would have went nearly as smooth as it did without the help of teamwork. Without everybody’s input about different aspects of the machine, it would have taken a lot longer to produce the outcome of finishing the machine with it full functionality. I have worked in teams throughout my life in many different classes, sports, and work environments, but this class immensely helped me improve my skills to work with people that I did not know prior to the team assembly. The people in my team helped me with developing my habits of time management, for they greatly improved throughout the course of the term with getting a vast amount of work done in a somewhat small time frame for deadlines and due dates.

Although I would say this was my favorite class that I took this semester, I would have to admit that there is much room for improvement to make the course better. My advice would be to start the term with the introduction to Solid Works to get everybody familiar with the materials that they will be using. I would also suggest assembling the teams much earlier as in after the first week. This would help people learn together and add a lot of time for working on the project in the end of the term. I feel that the first few weeks were unnecessary to participate alone. The assignments were fine and could still be assigned to work on individually, but the milestones about the design processes should have been in teams the whole time. It felt that much of the material was overlapped in the milestones after teams were assembled, since we had to completely revise the way we made the machine to get everybody on the same page. Doing this would help give teams much more time to fabricate their machine and get it running the way they intended in time for the competition. My team was able to finish making our machine but ran short of time for practice running it, while I heard other teams were having much more trouble and could not get everything completed as necessary for milestone nine.

I personally could have improved my performance throughout the course. In the beginning, I was not very organized and missed some points on the milestones due to not enough attention to detail. I missed simple things like writing a paragraph on which module I thought was the best and why. I could also have better prepared myself for the assignments for I underestimated them and forced myself to crunch time in order to complete them, for the first two anyway. But all in all I thought that this was a very interesting class and I am very excited to see what I am able to accomplish in ME350.