ME 250 was my second mechanical engineering class and it was very different from my first ME experience of ME211. The design and manufacturing aspect and hands on portion of this class was the reason I chose it for my elective. I really enjoyed learning the steps involved from initial problem, to beginning problems, to final solution. The lab portion of this class was the most helpful in learning about design and manufacturing. However, it seemed that we were always to rush through our assignments in lab before time ran out. Our group even had difficulty getting our MS6 reviewed because other groups took too long getting theirs reviewed. The lecture portion of the class seemed to be a slight waste of time. The concepts covered were rather common sense. There were a few concepts, such as how to properly do an engineering drawing were interesting. Other concepts would have been better explained in lab. The drill speed, feed rate, etc. were difficult to understand when shown just on a slide. I would consider changing the lecture time to one hour and the lab time to one and a half hours.
I have had a lot of experience with teams throughout my college career. This team was one of the most fun and at the same time challenging teams I have worked with. I think the main difficulty with getting the team on the same track was that we were not assigned teams until late into the term. Additionally, we did not do many team assignments until even further into the semester. The restrictions of shop hours made it difficult for me to budget my time. I think one of the things our team did well was dividing up tasks to different members. We had one person focus on the solid model, two on the mill, and another on the lathe. While each person focused on a specific task, we all took part in each process to have everyone involved entirely in the class.
My overall impression of this class was a good one. Getting to the end of the class and having an actual working robot was quite rewarding. I was very excited when we scored so highly in the seeding round and did so well in the first round. I was a little disappointed that we did not get to show off our defensive blocking arm of our robot. I would have like to compete against a top robot. There are a few things that I would have changed about the class. There should be more little steps in the process evaluated. There should be a deadline for the final concept and more machining deadlines. There is always a big rush towards the end of a project, but with the restrictions of the shop hours, the time needs to be better allotted. Smaller milestones throughout the build would help teams feel less panicked in the last few days. The size requirements should also be thought through further for the different challenges of the new arena.
If given this option, I would like to take a class like this again. I am sure it would be just as exciting and challenging!
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