Individual Reflection by Travis Dehne

Over the course of Mechanical Engineering 250, I learned a lot about teamwork, time management, and over coming unseen obstacles. I realized that the transition from the design process to the manufacturing process isn’t always smooth and the ability to overcome the obstacles that ensue is critical to the completion of the project. I also discovered the importance of time management to the fluidity of the entire project and meeting deadlines. Most importantly, I found that teamwork is crucial to creating a working prototype. Overall, the project and class was demanding and called for the development of social and team skills, as well as my skills as an engineer to make a functioning, competitive design.

Tackling the design and manufacturing process of the course was more of a challenge than I anticipated. At the beginning of the course, I assumed that once a design was created, manufacturing that design would be smooth and fluid, without any foreseeable hiccups. I was very wrong. The design process was the easy part. Upon the start of manufacturing, our team realized that our initial design was not entirely feasible and many obstacles ensued. These design to manufacturing obstacles taught me that being calm and keeping a level head during a time crunch and design change allowed me to quickly solve the problems and improve our design. In addition, the manufacturing process taught me which materials were better for different parts, easier to create, and more cost effective.

While dealing with the obstacles presented from the design and manufacturing processes, I was taught the importance of time management with relation to deadlines and the project. As I learned about the unforeseeable obstacles associated with design and manufacturing, I discovered that leaving assignments to close to the deadline added stress to the project. In cases where I started the assignment early, I had more time to solve problems and this caused far less stress than when a problem arose right before a deadline. By the end of the course, I found that the project was smoother with ample time allotted for the assignments.

Finally, I realized the importance of having a team that works together. Towards the beginning of the project, there was a lack of teamwork with everyone working individually. But as the class continued, the team began working together and we accomplished tasks faster. We also began doing parts of the project separately to ensure we were maximizing our time. The combination of teamwork allowed us to complete the project to the best of our ability and without that level of teamwork I believe we would never have finished.

In conclusion, Mechanical Engineering 250 presented challenges that taught me about the design and manufacturing processes, teamwork, and time management which have allowed me to develop into a better engineer. All of these aspects allow for the successful completion of a project in a timely manner. Had our team better used these components of the course, our performance would have been better. My only wish for the course’s improvement would be less time in the computer lab and more time designing and manufacturing.