Peter's Reflection

One of the junior MEs that went through this class told me that it was going to take up more time than I expected. And to my surprise, he was right, but it was still an extradorinaiy experience, filled with anger, surprise, delight, regret, optimism, and finally joy. Anger. The anger came from the fact that weeks were spent on this project. At some times, other classes and studying were neglected. The time we were given to complete this task was nothing short but minimal. When we were at the design competition, and were awarded the "Most Complicated Design", there is no surprise that most of the time we spent was on a very complex project. Some of the other projects we saw were relatively simple to ours. But being who Team I'm on Top is, we wanted to create something that we were proud of. What we created not only looked like we spent time, money, and creativity in, but it was an effective machine to compete against the best of the competition. To our dismay, we didn't finish at the top, but we hopefully showed that we were committed to being competitive in the slot bot competition.
Surprise. We were surprised to see all the efforts of the other teams. (Especially those who incorporated an impressive design with great machining) In my opinion, this year's machines were far better overall than last years. I was very surprised to see some of the strategies that other teams used. For example, Team Boss's strategy of blocking the flipper and than using that opening to deposit ball from the top, was a strategy that I did not expect. I always assumed that when you block the flipper on the bottom, you should score from the bottom.
Delight. Every time our team got together (which was alot for the past few months), we were always able to get a lot done. We never procrastinated til the last minutes, and we always finished the tasks at hand. A great example of our time management skills was the week before thanksgiving. MS8 was due, and we spent the entire weekend, working on the milestone. We calculated the hours we put into it, and came out to around 36 hours for the entire week leading up to that wednesday. Regret. Although we were able to finish it, I realized that we put more effort into the project than we should have. But thats who we are, we are a team of individual perfectionists, who want everything to be in order and right. If I could do it again, I would have to say that I would have spent more time on the bigger picture than the smaller one.
Optimism. After each milestone was completed, and every part was finished, there was a sense of optimism that our machine would work. Seeing the final version of the CAD file, and then putting that together to form a final product was a great sense of accomplishment. In the end, I knew for a fact that the project was going to be completed, and that we were going to have a great machine to showcase.
Joy. Whenever you spend hours and hours on a project, it can bring a team together. As we were all dressed up for the slot bot competition, we finally saw our machine compete against other machines. There were definitely certain misfortunes that we came across, ie our tracks fell off on the first round! but nonetheless, it was our creative thinking, and our designing process that built that machine, and that is something that I am always proud of. The time we took to find a schedule that works for everyone in our team, as well as get materials for our machine, was something that is vital to any design and manufacturing process. This is one of the most important things I took from the class. If there were certain improvements that I could make to the class, it would be that I would have liked to see more of a lenient schedule. Even though the milestones were created to keep teams on pace, I believe that it is up to the teams to create their own schedule and their mistakes. Therefore, I believe that a team should only be given the problem to which they have to solve and the date at which it is due. I do not believe that MS should have been used because in the real world, it is not a fact of whether or nor a team finishes a certain milestone at the designated time, but whether it meets the overall due date. If a team doesn't finish the project on time, then it teaches them a lesson of time management, more than if a team misses a milestone.
This was one of the classes where I questioned my commitment to being an engineer. But seeing what I can do in the end, made me realize that engineering is the right path for me. (Having a problem and creating a solution) I would like to thank Bob and John in the machine shop, as well as the GSIs, especially Sei Jin Park, and the professors for their part in this designing process. But the biggest thanks go out to my fellow teammates. I had a great semester with them, and can not think of anyone else that I would have been with. Always on top, Peter.