ME 250 Final Reflection

ME 250 was a rewarding class. It taught me the basic steps of design and manufacture.
I believe that I learned more in the design phase than in the manufacture phase. This is due to the fact that I come into the class with a significant amount of mechanical experience. I really enjoyed learning about the design steps and how to break down a problem into smaller aspects (strategies, concepts, modules, components). It is easy to get overwhelmed by the whole of a problem, but using these steps, one can see that any problem can become manageable. I really appreciate the additional reading recommendations.
Another aspect of the design process that I found especially rewarding was learning a CAD program. This is something that I had not done before, but was particularly interested in because of past work experience working with engineers. Initially, I did not find the amount of work in the CAD lab adequate, but I struggled through the CAD homework assignments, and by the time that we were ready to design our machine, I felt able to contribute to that phase of the process.
The manufacture phase of the class was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed spending time in the machine shop. I learned a lot from the shop staff. The most memorable aspects of working in the shop will be learning to use the lathe and the mill. In our team, we found that the two people that did the lathe exercise focused on lathe work during machine manufacture, and the two that did the mill exercise worked mostly on the mill during manufacture. This can be rationalized by saying that we played to our strengths, and consequently, produced the best possible product for our team. However, I feel a little cheated because I did not get as much experience with the other machine as I would have liked. It is difficult to be too upset because we were recognized for best manufacturing.
Time management seems to be an underlying theme of this, my first semester at U of M, as well as ME 250. One person could not have completed this type of project on their own. Our team’s success relied on each of us doing our part to complete the assignments, milestones, and ultimately, the machine. In order to accomplish these tasks, we again played to our individual strengths, for the good of the team, but it would have been nice to slow down for more individual instruction of things like the machine torque/speed analysis.
My critiques of the class are also critiques upon myself. My performance in the class could have been improved if I could have found more time, or managed my weekly schedule differently so that I would have more time to focus and contribute more to the things that I am least familiar with. If I had more time, I could have become more familiar with the acceleration analysis, or become more familiar with the mill.
And so perhaps the most important thing that I learned from this class relates to time management. By keeping an eye to the calendar, and by setting milestones to achieve our goals, we can be successful. We can always be more thorough with more time.