Final Reflection: Michael Frontera

      ME250 has, in many ways, been a great learning experience for me with respect to the design and manufacturing process. Perhaps the first thing that became very clear to me was the delicate balancing act that must be performed between choosing a design, and choosing a design that can be manufactured in a given time frame. For this reason, I think all else being equal it is very important to keep the design simple, while still meeting project specifications and requirements. Our design, for example, was a relatively simple one, with the drivetrain being the only actively powered component. Nonetheless, when it came time to move from the drawing board to the machine shop, many unforeseen problems and issues still arose which one might imagine would be even further compounded by a more complex design. A good example of the disconnect we experienced between our design and the final manufactured machine was with regard to gear alignment. While it is fairly easy to make everything line up well in a CAD model, translating that into the real world takes some machining ability. Now don’t get me wrong, Bob and Mark were extremely helpful at answering any questions that I might have had. Despite this, the limiting factor is always going to be the machinist who may or may not be able to get the part within the required tolerance. My takeaway from all of this would be to not fear taking risks in the design process, insofar as they are risks that would yield a benefit greater than the perceived risk while being able to be completed in the given timeframe. With regard to teamwork, I think it is essential to be open to the free interplay of ideas and to not rush to judgment with regard to ideas that may seem outlandish or unconventional. Of course, there are bound to be conflicts and disagreements in any team – that is simply human nature. The key is to handle them in a level-headed manner, letting rational discussion and not emotion win the day. Another lesson learned is the great importance of proactivity when undertaking a large project such as this one. If you don’t stay on top of the task at hand, things tend to compound very quickly and can leave you scrambling to make up for lost time. Overall, I think the course was organized fairly well and I appreciate all of the behind the scenes work that was put in by the professors and GSI’s to get the class off the ground. Several recommendations I would make would be to allow teams to start manufacturing earlier so as to spread out the student load in the shop and I found the ctools site a bit scattered and difficult to navigate as well.