Team Reflection-Connor

Design and Manufacturing
At the beginning of the course, I had only ever used simple tools like screw drivers and hammers. I didn't know how objects were made, but now I feel confident with my ability to use a lathe machine and a mill as well. I think Bob and Marv did a good job teaching and were very patient with the unexperienced ME 250 students. Before this class, I would have hand drawn everything but now, I find using a computer and Solidworks is much easier.

Teamwork
Unlike other courses I have taken at Michigan, I feel this is the first time my entire team wanted to work hard towards a common goal. Normally I like to take leadership, but this time I feel Nick was the leader. It was a good experience to have to be a follower as well and listen to other people's inputs. Everyone contributed something special to the team as well. Amanda was good with computers, Nick and Tim had a lot of experience, and I think I was the creative one who came up with a lot of different ideas at the beginning. Our group worked very well together too. We had a couple disagreements, but in the end, we all came together to make the machine.

Time Management
I was skeptical about how much time we had considering we were still making CAD models with a few days left to build. Nick however had everything well timed out and with his experience he knew exactly how long the whole project would take. I would have liked to finish earlier, but we finished with enough time to run several tests and fine tune the smaller things. It was difficult to be efficicent though when the lab got crowded, so we would try to work at less busy times. I think we were a little crammed at the end and could have improved there.

Course Improvement
There are several things the course can do to improve. First of all, when we first started building stuff, I knew what a mill was, but I didn't really know how to use it. I think in lecture you should talk with more detail how to build objects. Perhaps do more of having an oddly shaped object and go through the steps to making the object.

Safety First. In lecture or lab I don't really recall talking about safety besides for wearing safety goggles. Sure enough, somebody drilled a hole through his hand later. These machines are very dangerous and I had a close call with the band saw myself. I think you should talk more about safety.

The rules and arena design and kits changed several times. It's hard to build a machine when the parameters keep changing. Please try to have rules set in stone from the beginning.

Personal Improvement
The thing I best improved on is working with others. In my life, I have built lots of little gadgets and random things but always by myself and not with others. My design was different from our final design and this was difficult for me to deal with, but in the end I had to trust my teammates. Also, whenever somethings needs to be done, I like to do it myself, but I learned I can use my teammates if they are not busy to help me out. At the end, I became ill with strep throat and the team had to work without me. I was afraid they would screw up, but in the end they did a fine job without me.