Course Reflection - Michael Gershoni (7313-5372)

Mechanical Engineering 250 was my first “truly” mechanical engineering course. When I thought about declaring mechanical engineering as a major I imagined shops, safety glasses, and using my hands to create things. The first half of the semester I was heart-broken to learn that we had to complete multiple milestones and tasks before given admission into the mechanical engineering shop. However, I also learned the importance of thoughtful planning, meticulous designing, and mathematical analysis. Without the skills learned in the early portion of this course the mechanical engineering shop would be a large confusing space littered with heavy machinery. As much as I couldn’t wait to run in there and start building, it became very apparent that without the hours of designing we, as a team, would be lost. Another surprise was the amount of effort that went in to building the robot. Our battle cry to motivate us through the hours of designing on CAD was “Once the drawing are done the manufacturing will be quick.” This could not have been any farther from the truth. The craftsmanship necessary to make a functioning robot took weeks. I also learned that no matter how exact and perfect our design drawings seemed to be at the time, there were always unexpected issues to attend to in the shop.

I also learned a lot about working in a team environment. More specifically in this course than in previous courses like Engr 100, I learned the importance of specialties. As a group we were very lucky to be so different. One member in our group happened to be great at working with CAD. I learned that I was a fairly skilled manufacturer. Another member in our group was an EECS major and was very good with wiring the motors to the robot. While not every moment was perfect between us as teammates, judging by prior experience in teams, we were very compatible and very productive.

As explicitly mentioned above, I learned a lot. So no matter how difficult it was at the time, the method of teaching us was effective. I remember one day in lecture when a student asked, “What if you mess up in the shop and need more supplies?” the professor responded with, “We’d like to think you’d do it right the first time.” As sophomores we were thrown into a situation where we had no choice but to succeed in the class. Because of this we learned significantly more than designing modules on CAD and the mechanics behind gears, we learned how to look at an unfamiliar task and work at it until its completion.

While I am very pleased with what I have taken from this course, I must say that some of the lectures, after talking with peers, contained too much new material for the amount of time that material was covered. I believe shorter and more frequent lectures would help break the material over a longer period of time. Allowing for better comprehension of what was covered.

- Michael Gershoni