Final Reflection - Ivan Manuel Gunawan

This ME 250 class has given me a very good learning experience. This is my first ever design and manufacturing class, and after finishing the course, I feel more confident about my choice of pursuing mechanical engineering major. 

The most useful thing I learn from this class is about the manufacturing process. Having my first hands on experience on the machine shop with the lathe, mill, and some other tools really fascinates me. It was not going easy for me at first. I made some mistakes at the beginning of the semester, and even got yelled once by Bob due to my carelessness. Nevertheless, I keep trying to get better, practice, and at the end of the semester I found myself become an expert on those machines.

From the problems that we faced during assembly process, I learn that precision and accuracy are very important and crucial in building a good machine. I also notice how the preliminary steps before manufacturing start, really play a big role. The CAD must have been reviewed carefully to minimize any error in the future.

Overall, the course has been set up nicely by both Prof Hart and Michael Umbriac. The idea of starting the whole project with a brainstorming in the group, and then giving each concept a pugh chart score, which leads to creating a mock digital model, really works well. I enjoy learning how to build a 3D model using the solidworks software. I wish we could have spent more time in learning some more features of this software, such as making animation of moving parts. I notice that this specific software is being used widely in the professional working field, and therefore it is worth the time to study the features deeper.

The essence of team work is also a good learning experience for me. I notice that later in the real world, we as engineers must be able to be cooperative with other engineers, to be able to complete a certain project. We have to note that not everyone is working at the same pace or style with us. We have to be able to receive critics and inputs from other teammates. Learn how to communicate the ideas in our head to other team members, and apply it to the final project. Those are some major components of team work.

On the other hand, I feel that the exam that was given to us was really tough for a first timer student taking design and manufacturing class. I found it tough just to remember all the new terms that I just heard for the first time in this class, and use it to answer the questions given. I think it would be a good idea for the instructors to review the proportion of time and amount of questions given in the exam. I also found it hard to know how deep the question expects us to elaborate the answers.

Homework are also sometimes very tough, because we only have two meetings every week, and I found it hard to apply the concepts discussed in five or ten minutes, to be able to answer the homework problems.