Jimmy Cofsky- Individual Reflection

I am not surprised that ME 250 is a required beginning class for those who think they plan on majoring in mechanical engineering. It is a grueling class that those who have a true desire to continue similar type work in their futures will enjoy and excel in. ME 250 not only tested us individually, but as a group.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I entered the first day of class at 8:30 am half awake. For the first few weeks, the class remained pretty slow. The first few assignments were pretty straightforward and I was kind of excited to learn CAD for the first time. Then, we started to get our groups together and I am happy that I landed with Team Fluffy Bunny. One of the most valuable things learned in ME250 is how to work with a team to get a project completed. Throughout the semester we were able to work well together. We would try and work around our other hectic parts of our schedules to meet and get all of the assignments done. Our timing and awareness of what we needed to turn in progressed as the class went along. The assignments began to speed up and the idea of our machine construction and competition rapidly came into sight.

That is one of the things that caught me off guard the most in the class. The final project of having a complete machine that can run and score points in “the arena” suddenly becomes one of the next assignments, and everything starts to kick in gear. Luckily, our team was prepared for this to happen. We had good expertise from Marcus and Brendon in manufacturing. This was coupled Jacob’s and my eagerness to learn some of their skills. Our design was complex. This was bad because we occasionally got into situations that none of us were very certain about, such as the timing circuit, but once the extra time was put in, the reward was definitely there.

We also incorporated laser cutting, water-jetting, and 3D printing. These were all new ways of manufacturing parts that I had never used before. It definitely added to the learning experience of the class by learning how to use all of these devices and what type of materials can be used on each device. Once our bots were finished, the design expo was a great way to cap everything off. All the stress of finishing the machine was complete; all that was left was to see how our machine performed in comparison to the rest of the class. Fortunately, our bot came in 4^th, so the effort was definitely worth it.

There are two things that I would change about this class. First, I would recommend more CAD labs prior to the creation of the machines. We had a bit of lopsidedness when it came to experience on CAD, which slightly affected the difference in workloads between us. Secondly, I would recommend a different way to post assignments. There were many times when our group wasn’t clear as to when assignments were due and what exactly the assignments entailed. Other than that, I enjoyed ME 250 and definitely feel that I got a lot out of the class.

Thank you team Fluffy Bunny and ME 250 staff for making ME250 an informative and enjoyable class

-Jimmy Cofsky