SELF REFLECTION

Paul Stam

Mechanical Engineering 250 is my first real taste of what it means to be a mechanical engineer. In this course I learned fundamental design principles of engineering, different components such as springs, bearings, and screws, and also essential pieces in creating a working robot such as motors and control boxes. In the beginning of the semester I learned the basics in creating parts in SolidWorks, and I learned how to machine parts on the mill, lathe, bandsaw, and on the waterjet. The class also required students to take fabrication labs which I really appreciated. Overall, this was a demanding course, but it was well worth the effort.

Over the course of this semester, I learned design principles (e.g. simplicity of design, risk management, cost-performance diagrams) that were applied to my team’s robot. One of my favorite parts of this class was the machining. Before this class, I had done very little machining before and was even intimidated by those who could machine well. After taking this class, I feel much more confident in my machining skills, and I believe I am much better prepared to take ME350 next year.

One of lesson’s I learned from this class was to plan ahead. For example, it’s good to cut a part long if it is going to be lathed. I also learned a lot about team formation and how a team can be successful. In my ENGR 100 class from my previous semester, teams were required to create team contracts, and gantt charts. Unfortunately, this class didn’t require this.

Though I learned a lot from this class, I think that there were several areas that should have been improved. The most noticeable was the inconsistency of the rules created by the staff. I understand that the staff tried to even the playing field, but it appeared as if the staff was unaware of the students’ possible scoring strategies. I would have appreciated rules that were set in stone at the beginning of the semester. Another improvement that would have benefited students would be to reduce the duration of lectures. Lectures contained copious amounts of information, but I feel like the key concepts weren’t stressed heavily enough. The tedious calculations took away from practical engineering. Also, the staff should have encouraged more learning by doing.

I also strongly disliked the way the method of the deterministic design was taught. Rather than have students understand the concept of funneling ideas from to broad to narrow, students were required to follow a specific way to problem solve. I believe that many design approaches should be offered to students, and I was very disappointed with the strict grading for the required design approach.

On a different note, there are several changes I could have made to improve my performance in this class. The first would be to review the information presented in lecture earlier rather than later. I also should have asked for more help in designing our robot. The ME250 staff has a lot of experience in this area and their input would have been extremely beneficial. Another thing I would have done differently would have been a better team formation. If our team went one step further and created a team contract and a gantt chart, we might have been more productive during meetings and machining times.