ME 250 had many different components to it most of which definitely helped me in my progression to becoming a Michigan Engineer. Obviously the greatest component of my learning came from the hands on designing and manufacturing of the slotbot. The lectures were good at getting us thinking of what ways we could design parts of our robot. There are several things I did think the lectures and myself could have done a better job with though.
The design element of the class had all the components there with the strategy, concept, module, component… which I thought was great but where our group and many other groups were struggling was in the strategy section of the class. I feel the reason for Team Boss’s success was its time devoted to strategy which many other teams I am guessing did not put as much time in. My team would be in the library until 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning trying to figure out the best strategy to try and which strategy was the most implementable. The best strategy on paper is not always the most effective when it comes to thinking of concepts for that golden strategy. This is one thing I definitely learned on my own during the class, and I feel we had to learn it the hard way since this was not really touched on in lecture. I do not think enough time was devoted to how strategy, concept, module, component are really woven together. Next time this class is taught, I would strongly suggest helping students understand that with this stagey you can do this concept, and this concept goes to these modules… now are these modules manufacturable? Most teams picked a strategy pretty quick and then were off and running with other ideas that looked good on paper but might not have gone so well during the manufacturing. But that is part of the learning process.
The one thing that made me the maddest about the class was the fact that we were not in teams sooner. In the real world we would have been brought together as a team right off the bat, it would of given everyone more time to think of what is the best direction to go and how to make it happen. Instead most groups had to take one individuals idea add in some others components and go with it. I know I missed out on a lot of the design part of the class because I was not with my team earlier and had a harder time thinking of ideas. I did not like how those early assignments worked, to be honest I would have prefer end to just have one homework devoted to the design process where you give us a problem and we just give a brief overview of possibilities with probably a few calculations in there. The purpose would be to make sure we understand what the strategy, concept, module, were so that we get into a team we can actually get to work in tackling our real class problem of slot bots. I really liked when you gave the bumper car example before the midterm, it really got me thinking of how would I design that, but it would be just enough time spent to not be wasting team time. So I would combine groups after 3 or 4 lectures and really emphasize that strategy is not something to joke around about because if you pick a wrong strategy you will be in trouble down the line, plus it could give some extra shop time which would be nice.
I did not like how the rules of slot bots were always changing but I understand the game is still very new and the staff was trying to be fair with the rules. Next time please just try and change the rules less for the next team, it will save a lot of headaches, more teams could have been in the slot if the slot configurations were not always changing.
I feel I had such a great team and would not change them for anything, our chemistry was great and we were all in it together. I learned so much from my team on how to trust a team member to do something and how each team member takes roles. I really enjoyed working in the shop and learning how to use all of the different machines. I still have more to learn but not I at least have an idea of what I am doing. Team Boss pulled very long hours but the job always got done and done well so I have no complaint in term of time.
I really like the videos and learning all of the different components during lecture but I do not think we need to get as in depth about some of the things to save more time for the designing part of the class. It was great having the resources posted online as well as all of the lecture, it was very helpful to look things up and to help solidify some learning on my end.
Things I learned:
- Basic CAD skills
- How it takes time and patients when coming up with the best design
- To consider everything new choosing a design
- Using the lath and other shop tools
- How to implement different components (gears, motors, pillow blocks, couplings...)
- What component should be used when (ex, when to use a busing or a bearing)
- Dimensioning/ tolerances
- How to work and manage a team
Things I could have done better with:
- Learn the mill better
- Be more aggressive with design
- Take sketches more seriously (aka learn to draw so others can understand)
- Learn more about CAD
Things class could have done better with:
- More stress on design
- Make the design review more special where you give the teams more time to come up with their design and preparation of the presentation.
- Talking about strategy better
- Talking about how everything meshes and if you mess up one part you could be in trouble
- More exampling the beginning like bumper cars
- Bring team together almost right off the bat
- Not as many rule changes
- Not being so rushed to learn CAD
- Not as in depth about some of the mechanical parts
