Going into ME 250, I did not know what to expect. I am a senior in Chemical Engineering, which I felt gave me some advantages and disadvantages in this class. The design process was familiar to me, if only as a way of solving problems. Many of my classes had prepared me to think of a problem in this way. Another advantage I had as a senior in this class was the work ethic instilled in me from four years of engineering education. With my full course load this semester, I could not procrastinate on any of my classes if I wanted to get all of my work done. For this class in particular, I liked to get the homework done well before the deadline so that I would not scramble at the end to get it done by the deadline. Some of my other course work helped in some of the assignments as well. I am taking a material science engineering class on materials and manufacturing, so the lectures that covered materials selection were somewhat of a review.
On the other hand, the manufacturing process was completely new. The only time I had ever used power tools at all was volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. I was initially rather timid using the machine shop. Once I figured out how to use the machines, I was more willing to attempt manufacturing. Also, many of the details of the physics concepts were rather fuzzy to me. I have not taking physics since my sophomore year of college, and had given away my textbook from the class. This made some of the analysis parts of the homework and the design process more difficult.
As teamwork goes, this required more work with a team than any other class that I have taken. One thing that I particularly learned this semester was how to rely on my team when I could not help them with the work we needed to do. My ChemE lab class had deadlines very close to the ME 250 deadlines, so I could not always help with the manufacturing as much as I would like. Between my groups for ChemE and ME, I was able to help with both projects and feel satisfied with the end product.
One critique I have of the course was that the initial design process seemed removed from the actual manufacturing. Aside from the descriptions given on the materials sheet, we were not given a good idea of what we could use in our machine. In my case, the strategies and concepts from MS1 and MS2 were not anything near what would be possible with the materials we had. Also, we were not given the kit until the week before the design review, which made making our overall team design difficult. I found it much easier to design the machine after I had parts in my hand and could see how they would interact.
To improve my own performance in the class, I would have spent more time reviewing the physics concepts from Physics 140. I lost some points on the exam and on a couple of the homework assignments from these, and I could have gotten these points if I had a better grasp of the concepts.
I have to say that one of the best parts of this class at the moment is that it is done once I submit this reflection. With this class and my ChemE lab class done, I only have two exams left, which gives me a lot more time to study.
It was also exciting to see our machines compete. I have a ridiculously competitive streak, so it was really exciting when we won our first round.
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