Individual Reflection: Ronald Deang

Being an EECS major, I learned a great deal from ME250 and also found the same things I had learned from my EECS classes to hold true. I haven’t taken any classes in manufacturing since my Tech Ed classes in middle school, so being able to get back into the machine shop was a great experience. I learned how to use SolidWorks and learned that the new CAD programs today are very powerful and sophisticated. I learned how to use a number of different machines, including the mill and the lathe. As for the design process, I found that it is much more complex and structural than I had imagined, with there being many tools in aiding this process, such as the FRDPARRC diagram. This class also helped to reaffirm the idea that teamwork in a design is very important. Gathering different people together allows for the melding of different thought processes and ultimately a greater design. Being able to bounce ideas back and forth allowed us to create our final machine. I also found again that time management is very important. If  we had not been in the shop on a regular basis, we would not have finished our project on time, as it seems Murphy’s Law of “anything that can go wrong, will” seemed to hold true as well.

I feel like the course has its strengths and weaknesses. Learning the tools needed for design is very important, such as CAD modeling and mechanical concepts, as you will need to apply them later for your project. However, I feel that there is still room for improvement. As I said learning mechanical tools and concepts is important, but lectures could get a bit dry sometimes. I feel like the shop tutorials were too quick and too early in the semester to retain anything for someone who is a first-time user of these machines. The first time we actually learned to use many of the machines was from asking for help in the shop from the instructors. So if you did not end up using a machine for your final project, there is a good chance you never learned to use it.

There are many things I could have done to improve my performance in this class. As I said earlier, I am an EECS major, and so I haven’t taken a class on mechanics since Physics 140 in my freshmen year of college. So for the homeworks which were heavy on this material, I did not do so well. I should have started them earlier and gone to office hours for help. As for the exam, I neglected studying for it as much as I should have, and consequently did not do well. Again, beginning to study earlier and office hours would have helped a great deal, especially for someone whose background is not in mechanics. If given the chance to redo this course, I would make sure to do this differently and not take the resources available for granted.