This is my first semester in the University of Michigan, and I cannot emphasize on how I love it here! The university has given me a whole new kind of experience; the different environment, interactions, activities, society and especially my first design class.
I've heard from my friends whom have taken the course in their sophomore years and they told me it was not as crazy as I would have imagined. However, the class was not really as how they described it. It was such a hectic class that put my time management skills in test. Maybe its just the transition from a community college life, but I do feel that the design class is a whole different kind of level for me. Despite the amount of workload given to us, I enjoy the class really much!
Before I took this class, I have not a single idea on what CAD is. It is such a foreign term in my mind. After the course began, I've then realized how important CAD is to the real engineering world. It's the backbone to every manufacturing. Thanks to the course, I've learned how to create engineering drawings and complex solid models. This experience has broaden my horizon on what I know about engineering.
The lectures are really educational as well. I learned that designing is a never ending process, and one has to know when to stop and get started for manufacturing. Moreover, discussing and interacting with each other in the class is crucial in getting new ideas and sharing your wonderful and creative thoughts.
And oh of course, the manufacturing process. I am proud to say that I have learned a great deal of manufacturing processes that I have no idea about before I took this class, such as milling, lathing, tapping. I was even more amazed when I know that we will be exposed to laser cutting and waterjet cutting! Manufacturing is not as complicated as it may look, but it is not as simple as I thought. There are just little stuff that you have to remember before using the machine, and always think safety first!
What I've learnt a lot from the course is that critical thinking and teamwork is crucial in design and manufacturing. Lots of problems just occured to us in the middle of manufacturing, and this would have been prevented if only the team think deeper into the idea. An example would be using brackets to make joints more sturdy. By looking through our solid model, everything looked really fine and almost flawless. But in reality, things are subjected to unexpected external forces, and we have to consider every single possibilities that our machine will be exposed to. That is when critical thinking comes into play.
For teamwork, I have learned that the best way to help the team is to dedicate yourself into doing more than what you have to do. If you feel forced to do things for the team, you will never do the best you can do, and this will affect the team as a whole.You have to set the attitude right in your mind, and then you wil be focused in what you are doing thus contributing to the team.
In the end, this course has been the most educational course that I have for my entire life. Not only it educates me how to design and manufacture, it has also taught me a lot on interaction skills, time management, teamwork, discipline and many more. I am really glad that the course is harder than it used to be, and this gives the students an opportunity to better grasp what design and manufacturing really is. Many thanks and appreciation to Professor Hart and the GSIs (Mark, Sam, Sei Jin and Jean) for giving me this experience to manufacture something.
Lastly, a great thank you for all my teammates Yundi, Chris and Eugene. You guys have been a great bunch. I learned a great lot from you guys and I would really love to work with you guys again in the future!
Rock on ME 250!
Sincerely,
Sean Bong
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