Nathan Rowley Class Reflection

After an intense and difficult semester, the final match has finally been played and this class is over. I have learned so much, coming in with little practical experience with manufacturing; I am leaving with not only experience, but also knowledge. I learned that bending aluminum is neither a convenient nor accurate procedure. I learned that putting holes in axles tends to lead to failure. I learned that making uniform brackets is worth the extra time and effort it takes. Finally, I learned what you can and can’t make using standard techniques, and how difficult it is to get precise tolerances. In terms of design I learned very practical ways to approach and analyze design problems (FRDRPARC tables) along with how to sketch out and effectively communicate ideas. I learned the importance of coming up with many different ideas and not fixing yourself to only one.

Teamwork also played a very important role in this class. I learned that sometimes it is best to not concern yourself with every little facet of the problem, and that if a teammate has an idea they know will work, sometimes it’s better to trust them. It was very important to be able to work both autonomously and cohesively in order to better manage, and optimize, our limited shop time. As a team member, I had to know when a problem was minor enough that I could simply fix it myself, or when a bigger issue required the help of one or more of my teammates. This was all done to make the most efficient use of our time, which I believe my team did quite well. I did learn that a little bit of planning, while taking more time in the short run, actually saves much more time in the long run (planning was to fix some of the more obvious flaws in advance would have saved quite a bit of time).

I feel this course could have been greatly improved with a bit more GSI/group interaction. Although the GSIs were always there to answer questions and help, it would have been nice to have more/longer “review checkpoints” so the GSIs can help detect design problems and potentially save students a lot of time. Also, the grading system at times felt very arbitrary; a more detailed explanation of deducted points would have been nice, so persistent errors could have been corrected. The assignments were fairly clear, as well as the general point distribution, though. I also would have preferred either more interactive or longer solidworks labs; I learned most of the CAD from doing the homework, not from the lab. Also, I really would like to see more interaction in lecture, like when we did the sketching activities. An example of this would be things like brief, non-graded quizzes at the end of lecture to reinforce the main points. I felt like a lot of material was covered in each lecture, sometimes at a very rapid pace, so this would have been really helpful from my perspective.

I could have improved my performance in this class by spending more time on the homework, instead of just trying to get it done. Although I feel like I learned what I was supposed to from the homework, some of the questions just seemed a little over my head (like the ball-shooting cart problem from one of the homeworks).