Final Reflection: Dan Hiemstra

My semester in ME250 was overall a good experience that taught me a lot about both engineering and teamwork. Although the road wasn't always smooth, I learned a great deal from this course. It was an awesome way to get hands on experience with mechanical engineering, something that we have only talked about so far. It provided a vehicle to get from being told how things work to seeing how things work.

The most challenging part of the course for me was trying to coordinate the group as the team leader. I learned how much time, initiative, and organization it takes to coordinate between multiple people. By the end of the semester I became more organized with expectations and goals, and I think it paid off. I think looking back at it I could have done a better job; however, I am satisfied with how the semester turned out. This was my first time leading a small group, so have taken a lot away from it.

In addition to practical manufacturing skills (Mill, Lathe, etc.), I learned a lot about workflow. The first few times in the shop, it took several hours to complete only a few parts. By the end of the manufacturing process, I was much more comfortable with tools, their uses, and how to use them efficiently. This lead to much faster manufacturing times.

Another thing I learned was how much it pays off to double (and triple, and quadruple) check each aspect of your design. We were set back multiple times because of slight errors in measurements, or lack of details in the CAD that lead to problems during assembly. If I did the semester over, I would be sure to thoroughly check over every part and assembly to make sure they worked. A little time spent on the front end can save much much more time on the back end.

For me, the most enjoyable part of the course was driving our machine after we had finished. After planning it all semester, tweaking CAD models, remaking wrong parts, trying to get the motors to work, and countless other things, being able to drive the machine around was very gratifying. Having a tangible machine that matches the CAD model was awesome. It was a great experience following our idea from conception, through each design and manufacturing step, all the way to completion.

Overall, I think the course was run well. The GSI's and professors were very helpful. One thing that I would change would be to either give more time for manufacturing, or more clearly emphasize the need to have everything finalized by the time the machine shop opened to us. I don’t think we were the only group that MS8 and MS9 snuck up on. Overall, manufacturing seemed very rushed. I think our machine would have turned out even better if we had more time to put into each part. That being said, it may not be possible to allocate more time on the manufacturing end, but it is just a thought.  

-Dan

All done!