Through all the projects and challenges, I found this course to be very engaging and, frankly, really fun. Among all the grunt work and plugging in to calculate stresses and strain of materials, it was extremely helpful to actually work hands on. Understanding, that I am a visual learner, being able to work with materials and others is a much more engaging way to learn.
As a design student, it was fun to work in an interdisciplinary climate. I found it amusing to be in a room full of engineers and watch them out of their element and excited to create projects with me. Fundamentally, I think that's what we all had in common-- we like to make things. That's how we got involved with engineering and how we found our way to this class. What was most interesting to me is how, for the last project, we had to assess our capabilities and approach the project as a team to successfully execute our mechanism. Understanding what each of us brought to the table and then carrying on with prototyping, I think each of us on the team learned a great deal about capabilities when we worked together.
As we were all essentially sophomore MechEs it was interesting to see how our approaches to challenges differed and how enraptured we got when we eventually landed on a solution. What this class taught me was what working environment I like and thrive in. I look forward to seeking out similar environments in the future.
Our final Enigma mechanism (look at that light!)
