I am a transfer
student. When I was notified that the ME 250 was successfully transferred to U
of M at the beginning of this semester, I did not choose to drop this course;
instead, I chose to insist on learning this course again because I previewed
this course is going to be worth the time. And it does!
The four parts of
this course—lecture, CAD lab, engineering labs, and the ball tower projected
taught me different knowledge at various aspects of mechanical engineering and
showed me a broader view of what mechanical engineering really is.
From the lecture I
gained a series of knowledge including of all kinds of concepts, engineering
principle and engineering drawing, which I can apply to the real calculation.
Both of professor Shih and Michael are great instructors. The most important
thing from the lecture in my point of view is the engineering drawing. After
that, I can understand a lot of drawings including clocks, model cars, and so
forth. And then I am even able to design a real clock based on the knowledge
from CAD and the gear knowledge taught in class.
The CAD drawing is
also a lot of fun. Although there were only six sections for the CAD drawing,
we were able to learn the basic skills for a computer-based drawing tool, which
on the other hand, added another experience to our resume.
The series of
engineering labs, including the motor lab, bike lab, etc., are bridge
connecting the engineering concept and knowledge to the real world. I was
really impressed by the bike lab. I was not aware of how the bike is really
working. After the bike, although it was just 1 hour, I totally understand the
mechanism of a bike and I did fixed my own bike at home!
The most fun part
is the ball tower project which is also the most time consuming part I have to
acknowledge. However, from this exciting project, I learned how to cooperate
with my team mates—Haipei, Julien, and Miguel. They are great guys who did
great jobs. I learned a lot from them. I also learned how to manage time for a
project in order not to do everything just the day before the due date. The
experience I gained from the machine shop is especially valuable for the
engineering career, which is another skill that can enrich my resume. I must
specially thank Bob and Mark for helping me with the milling machine, they are
great guys! David, our GSI, is the man who fully supported us throughout this
semester. He is always happy to help us with the design and manufacturing and
gave us a lot of valuable suggestions.
Overall I think
this course is excellent; however, there is no perfection in this world,
something I think is needed for improvement of this course. First, I think
there should be more homework for the CAD drawing for us to practice and be
well prepared for designing the project machine. Second, it is better for us to
have for time for manufacturing of our machine in order to perform well on the
competition.
Again, thank you all for letting me have such a great course! I'm gonna miss you all!
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