If I Knew Then What I Know Now

In terms of how you went in this course, reflect on one thing you learned and
wished you knew already when you started this course. What 10 words of advice
you would give to next years class to help them improve how they go.

In this course I was able to understand the importance of teamwork, time

management and contribution that plays a crucial role in an engineering design
project. One thing I learned and wished I had known at the beginning of the
course was significance of correct decision-making. This was consequently
proven through the obstacles and unproductive laboratory sessions which cost us
time, limited chemistry combinations and cell designs. For instance, halfway
through the semester the team decided to undertake research into a wet cell
battery due to our failed attempt of compacting the paste in a dry cell design.
The wet cell was initially successful as the rough prototype was able to sustain
an average voltage and current for a long period of time and run the car.
However, the cell design was critically lacking and unprofessional due to the
inadequate research and poor decision-making of how to approach these
problems. These problems were given a poor attempt and were not notably
resolved, thus lead to the unfortunate results on the competition day. In
retrospect, I believe if our team had bought a patent we would have achieved
much higher marks in the competition. Despite these setbacks, it brought the
team together more closely and motivated us to become more productive and
thus highly contributed to the project. My advice for the following years class is
to realise the importance of making appropriate decisions as it ultimately
influences the outcome greatly.

Plan for Procrastination

Some teams were on top of their projects all session, while others read comic
books until the last minute before starting. Reflect on the pace of your efforts
and how that influenced the outcome of your design, testing and your
satisfaction with how you went in the course.

The pace of our team was considerably slow in comparison to the other teams, although there
were times during the mid-semester break where the team was productive and tasks were
completed, it took no time for the pace to decline greatly once again. For instance, when the
rough prototype of our dry cell had shown great results, the cell designs that were generated
did not produce a stable current as we could not compact the paste. These complications left
the team discouraged, however it also propelled us to look for other alternatives which
brought us to the wet cell. The lack of appropriate decision making and poor time
management had a negative impact on the productivity of the team thus lead to unproductive
laboratory sessions which left us little time to perform trials and testing. Overall, I am not
satisfied with the productivity and time management of our team meetings and laboratories
throughout the semester. Despite this, I am satisfied with how we dealt with our problems as
the teams resilience and endurance in the last few weeks has allowed us to create our battery.

Design for Success

There are many approaches to design and we only used one of them. Reflect on
how you might approach your next, big, team engineering project. What did your
team do well this time? What did they do poorly? What did you do well or poorly?
Dont just give the same response as above.

Overall the approach we took in the design generation processes was effective,
however one flaw was that we were extremely unproductive in solving the
problems we had. We did not take a realistic perspective, and did rough plans for
many weeks, thus once the design was put into practice in the laboratory
sessions it was unsuccessful. I believe this was the poor aspect of our team,
where time was wasted in unrealistic designs, poor and rough planning and
negligible tasks which was due to our inappropriate decisions. However, as
mentioned above, our team was resilient despite the setbacks, which I believe is
a valuable aspect that our team possesses. Although our cell designs failed many
times in practice, it was these failures that directed our team to focus on how to
fix them and thus progressively design our battery.

Your Expectations
Welcome to Engineering! Reflect on how this course met your expectations and
how you met the expectations of the course.

This course has definitely met my expectations of being challenging, stressful yet
provided an enjoyable experience of the engineering design process. From the
design generation process, teamwork difficulties to the laboratory sessions
where it has enabled me to further Additionally, these skills, the course has led
me to realise a sense of responsibility and the importance of contributing to the
team.
Although we did not meet the marking criteria, the experience was challenging
yet insightful as I believe it served as a microcosm of the worlds larger problems
to bring attention to the depleting sources of energy for instance. I was able to
exercise my practical and creative skills and the importance of teamwork and
making the most appropriate and logical decisions.

Your Feedback
Heres your chance to provide some feedback. Bonus marks for helpful
suggestions. Looking back on your learning and enjoyment in this course (pick
one or two you feel most strongly about). Both positive and negative feedback
are appreciated, as long as it's constructive.

I believe this course is equally challenging and enjoyable, where the criteria was reasonable
and embodies the engineering design experience. However, I found the lectures to be
unnecessary after a few weeks as the discussions did not apply or contribute towards the
creative process and implementation of our battery. Alternatively, I believe more mentoring
sessions were needed as halfway through the semester each team had a cell design prepared,
however many complications needed to be resolved which are specific to each team. Overall,
the course provided a challenging and enjoyable experience for my first semester of
university.