Nathan Thome's reflection

ME250 was my first opportunity to design and build a complex machine. I feel I learned quite a bit about the design and manufacturing process during this class. One thing that I found challenging was trying to initially design our machine in CAD without being able to handle the parts or touch the arena. All of the design and build work that I have done before allowed me to be hands on with whatever I needed to build and where it would operate right away. The fact that I couldn’t get in the arena with some materials right away made me have to do a lot of research that I wasn’t used to. Going over the materials list and looking up arena dimensions in CAD made me have to visualize what our product needed to be like without actually being able to see anything in front of me. This was frustrating, but I realized that engineers go through that process all of the time. This class really built my skills for predicting outcomes and foreseeing problems and constraints when given simple information. I feel this class really prepared me for future problem solving.
I’ve done a lot of team projects in my past, but of course, ME250 gave me new experiences. I think the fact that this project lasted an entire semester really challenged my team and resulted in everyone having to step up their skills. I noticed right away that each of my teammates and I had our strengths and weaknesses. While some of us took over CAD drawings, others created PowerPoint presentations and blog posts. Eventually though, all of us participated in every activity. My CAD skills grew because I had teammates that were really good at it and who helped me along. At first I was timid with my ideas because I had very little experiences building complicated projects and my shop skills were not very good. This lead to me taking a bit of a back seat when initial ideas were discussed. However, as time went by, I grew more comfortable making decisions and I feel in the end I offered an equal amount of production as my teammates did. My teammates and I disagreed a lot during this project, so my people skills grew substantially. I had to watch my temper and be polite with my opinions. My skills as a team member grew a lot during the construction of our machine.
As far as time management goes, I learned how to shove a lot of work into a specific amount of time. I really had to plan out my week ahead of time and see when I could get to the shop. Due to shop operation times, I really had to consider how to handle my ME250 work along with other schoolwork. In the end, I learned how to prioritize and schedule work well in advance.
Apart from all of the material that was planned for me to learn, ME250 really built my engineering skills in general. I think that there is a certain mindset that an engineer needs to develop, and I feel ME250 really forced me to develop that necessary mindset. It’s hard to explain, but I think it really comes down to analyzing situations. In the beginning of the project, my teammates and I would come up with an idea and just assume that we would get it to work without any problems. Several problems later, I learned how to question myself right away when I came up with a new idea. It went from saying, “Here’s an idea. Okay then.” To, “Here’s an idea. What can go wrong? Will this work as planned? What if this scenario comes up? What if that scenario comes up? What could be the maximum force on this and where would it come from? What’s the maximum force this object can withstand? Is there a way to alter this to make it better? Do we have all of the necessary materials? Can we manufacture this? Can we manufacture this in time? Is this actually possible given all of the constraints?” By the end of the competition I was almost constantly asking my teammates questions to make sure our machine would work the way we wanted it to. ME250 taught me to mentally test what I was building before I event started designing it on paper. I feel this class developed my engineering skills more than most that I have taken because my options were so open.
When I compare what I did in ME250 this semester to what previous students have done I’m blown away. My social life and sleep schedule may have suffered, but I’m really glad to have been able to participate in the redesigned course. After seeing our exhibit at the design expo I really had to appreciate the fact that U of M put forth extra funding for this class and that Professor Hart put forth so much effort to produce a more effective introductory design program. I think a new standard was set for ME250. This semester’s class was a great starting point, and I personally have a few ideas that could improve the program even more. Lectures were tough. It’s understandable to have trouble with the loads of information that we received. One thing I thought worked really well was when Professor Hart sometimes broke up the lecture into segments by using videos and hands-on activities. I think the lecture series could improve by involving more hands-on experience for students. If Professor Hart introduced more frequent activities or even group discussions in lecture I think the turnout would have been a lot higher. I also felt that the homework sometimes didn’t correlate with what we were learning. We had to solve certain physics problems (a kinematics problem comes to mind) that just seemed completely separate from what the class was actually about. I think if the homework involved more things correlating to lectures such as problems where we would find gear pitches, choose between bearings for components, determining torques, and brainstorm ideas for situations (much like the first exam question), students would have been less frustrated with the work load. I also think there could have been a bit more incentive for competition. Our machine was built to compete. It wasn’t the prettiest and it wasn’t the strongest, but we knew we had to move ping-pong balls, not bowling balls. I’m sure we were graded down on certain things that didn’t affect us in competition and I think bonus points could have been awarded for placing well (or being the only team to move a squash ball) to balance out any manufacturing issues the staff had. I also think the final examination of our machine would have worked better if we had a chance to review what was wrong with it before the actual grade was written down. I think certain manufacturing choices on our machine needed to be explained. For instance one part of our machine was only riveted on one side instead of both, but if we riveted both sides we ran the risk of increased friction on certain moving parts. Although the manufacturing wasn’t the best, it was necessary given the creative choices of our machine. I also think it would have benefited the staff for grading machines if we had to submit a write up about why we made certain choices along with our machine for the final inspection. For instance, my team initially wanted to use a lead screw system to move our machine. That was before carpet was added to the arena. Once we noticed there was carpet, we came up with the idea of using Velcro on wheels. This made manufacturing our machine easier. I think it should have been noted somewhere that our team effectively adapted to changes in the arena which ultimately affected the positives and negatives of our machine design. If my teammates and I planned on using Velcro wheels from the beginning our arm would have been designed much differently. I also think creativity should have been a factor in grading. Two teams came up with ideas that were completely out of the box and very different from other teams. Even though those teams did not seed well, I thought they should have been rewarded for being as creative as they were. I also don’t think grading should have been placed on seeding opposed to grading based on competition. I think it should have been a combination of both. My team was seeded considerably lower than the first seed, but our machine operated much better in the actual competition.
As far as my performance goes, I wish I had learned how to use the mill, lathe, and laser cutter more. I was very new to using power tools and machine equipment and often relied on assistance from my group members to operate them. I regret not building my shop skills more. I also think that I was too timid with my opinions in the beginning. My lack of design experience made me shy about my creative ideas. Near the end of the manufacturing process I mentioned a few ideas to a teammate and he asked me why we didn’t do that to begin with. Although I think the entire group dynamic had a lot to do with our decisions, I regret not speaking up right away and being more involved with decision making in the beginning.
Overall I really enjoyed the redesigned ME250 class. I learned a lot and had some fun along the way.