Reverse Engineering
In this project, our groups were given a small, but moderately complex object, and given the task of theoretically reworking some aspect of the object to make it better in whatever reasonable way we wanted to. The other purpose of this project was to introduce the class to general project procedures that we'd be using during our capstone, such as Gantt charts, Bills of Materials, and Technical Reports.
My group's object was a small mechanical windowsill flower, and our theoretical improvement was the removal of the solar panel in favor of a battery, as to ensure that the flower could always work, even if the sun wasn't out.
My group's object was a small mechanical windowsill flower, and our theoretical improvement was the removal of the solar panel in favor of a battery, as to ensure that the flower could always work, even if the sun wasn't out.
Gantt Chart
Technical Report
Slideshow
Reflection
My group worked very well during this project and everyone did quite a lot of individual work, which I believe is partly due to our effective use of the Gantt Chart. As the project moved along and people finished different things, the Gantt chart continuously shifted and changed, and while what exactly people were doing was often changing, everyone always had a task to work on at every stage. This did also have its downfalls, however, as if someone finished something early or late, we all had to stop and rework the Gantt chart instead of all continuing to work. While everyone may have always been working on something, the process of figuring out what that something was became an issue.
On an individual scale, I feel that I did quite a bit of good work. My section to work on was the mechanical analysis, which involved a thorough understanding of the physical interactions of the object. This proved to be quite difficult, but by the end of the project I had a very strong grasp on how everything worked, and was able to help the group every time they had a question. The central thing that I feel I could have helped more with was the planning, as I was quite focused on getting all of my work done, and didn't put too much effort into moving the team along as a whole. It ended up working out well this time, but I feel that that was more luck than anything else.
On an individual scale, I feel that I did quite a bit of good work. My section to work on was the mechanical analysis, which involved a thorough understanding of the physical interactions of the object. This proved to be quite difficult, but by the end of the project I had a very strong grasp on how everything worked, and was able to help the group every time they had a question. The central thing that I feel I could have helped more with was the planning, as I was quite focused on getting all of my work done, and didn't put too much effort into moving the team along as a whole. It ended up working out well this time, but I feel that that was more luck than anything else.