Individual Reflection-Chris Harris

The ME 250 class was a decent introduction to the design and manufacturing process. I learned how to use a mill, lathe and many other machines involved in manufacturing our slotbot. I was given the opportunity to use the laser cutter and the water jet machine as well. I had very little machining experience prior to this and this course was a good introduction to that. I had already had experience working with Solidworks so I didn’t gain much from that aspect of the course. However, I did get a chance to see some of the new features of Solidworks, since the versions I was using were older. The biggest thing I learned about design and manufacturing was how to complete a project in a very short period of time.

Time management was a huge thing when it came to this course. Once we started machining I believe we only had a couple weeks to have our machine fully up and running. This meant that, ideally, nearly all of the design and drawings needed to be completed a week prior to Thanksgiving break. Also, the best way to get things done was to try and divide everything up among the team members. Being on top of the assignments once to manufacturing started was challenging as well, and I learned better skills for planning and making sure things got done on time.

There are a few things I would like to touch on involving the improvement of the course. Firstly, the CAD lessons were not sufficient enough for how vital Solidworks was to the project. If I hadn’t already had experience using the program, it would have been a nightmare trying to create the solid models. I understand there is limited time in the semester and even less time when you factor in how much time is needed to actually manufacture the machine, but even having the CAD lessons continue during the manufacturing would have helped.

Another thing that I had a huge issue with was the absence of the two professors during the semester and especially during the manufacturing process. Professor Umbriac was around the most with his office being close to the machine shop, and he was always helpful whenever I had question, and if he had to look something up or ask someone else he always did it right away rather than telling me he would get back to me which was great. However, apart from the few lectures that he taught and the actual slotbots competition, Professor Hart was absent the nearly the entire time we were manufacturing. I understand he has other classes and obligations, but the fact that I didn’t see him around the lab or machine shop once during the semester was astonishing. In the future, I think more interaction with the professors would be hugely beneficial to the students.

Lastly, I think that more shop training than the few hours we received would help things go more smoothly once we start making the bot and would therefore cut down on the huge time crunch towards the end. Also, having more hands on labs in the shop would also help out a lot.

Things I could improve on:

• Better time management
• Awareness of when assignments are due and what is required in each one.
• Not getting too sucked up in one aspect of the project. (I often completely forgot that we had a blog to update, thankfully my teammates updated it).
• More time on the lathe. I was never very comfortable with it and tended to stay away from it if I could.