This class has definitely taught me more about engineering than any other class simply because of the amount I learned about the design and manufacturing process. Before this class I had never had hands on experience in the workshop or even began to design something that would be built. This class taught me how important every detail is and what a long, detailed process building something is. I learned that any over looked detail in the design and brainstorming process, no matter how small it may seem, can become a major problem when it comes to actually making that part. Another thing that surprised me was how parts that seemed so easy to manufacture on solidworks could suddenly become unrealistic and changes would have to be made to our design to accommodate for this. Overall, I learned what design and manufacturing is like outside of the classroom and in the real world. In this class we got to take all the knowledge we learned in lecture and discussion and apply it to our slot bots design and manufacturing.
This class required more time and work than any other class I have taken at this University. Although it could be extremely frustrating at times, I would tell any student who takes this course in the future to stick with it and put in as much effort as possible, because the knowledge you learn from this class is invaluable. Due to this amount of time this class required, time management and teamwork were extremely important skills. I would definitely tell any student taking this class to try to put in as much time as possible to the design process because it will safe you a lot of headaches down the road. Also, try to get in a group that has a similar schedule as you because you will need to meet almost every day for weeks. I learned how to play to each team members strength in this class because you will need to use your time wisely; you must learn how to do everything but if possible everyone should have their personal responsibilities since everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. i learned a lot from the left vs right side brained people lecture and our group used this information to give out specific group roles. Before this class I had never used solidworks before and had very little experience with any type of CAD software but in the beginning of this class I learned how to design my own individual parts for the first few individual assignments. By the end of the class our group had designed a car, an extendable arm with a ratchet, and a linkage. The most important thing that I learned however was how to use the machines in the shop to build our slot bots. I had never worked with my hands before on a project like this and had no idea what I was doing at first but now I can work the lathe, mill, drill press and other tools without thinking about it. We spent countless hours in the shop and I honestly feel that this is the most important thing that we learned in this class.
One improvement that I would suggest for this class would be to make groups earlier in the semester and push all the deadlines forward to give the students more time to manufacture and test their bots on the table early enough to make more adjustments. The first month of the semester the work load for this class was extremely little compared to the last month and if you could give students more time to test their bots with all the balls on the arena during discussion would make each teams slot bots to work better. I know that we would have liked to buy new wheels for our car so that it could go over the middle strip more easily but we simply didn't have enough time to get them and remake our shafts and pillow blocks. Another change you may want to consider is making the rules set and not able to be changed by an earlier date in the semester because I know our group and other groups had to make major changes in our design half way through the semester and in the end I think this hurt the performance of our bot. Overall, I learned an incredible amount from this class and think it will help me more than any other class once I get a job in the engineering field.
Finally, I will discuss the things that could have helped to improve my performance in this course. The thing I wish I could change now is making more in depth conceptual drawings and ideas during the early design process. Another major problem we realized just a few days before the competition is that the slot was not quite as wide as the CAD drawings said it was so we had to make major changes to our bot so that it could fit and in the end this made our linkage no where near as effective as it had been before these changes. I would have measured the slot on each arena before making our bot because this was our biggest problem in the class. Finally, I would plan for more problems in our manufacturing process because I had no idea so many things could go wrong, just like the width of our slot bot that I mentioned before. I would like to thank professor Hart, Davor, Mike Umbriac, Bob and John for all the help, making this class possible and such an excellent learning experience.
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