Saturday, December 19, 2009

Shell-Shock

So we gave our presentations today....  I was pleased that ours worked, but am more happy to be done!!  Very happy to finish our project that we've been so dilligently working on.  The past five days had many ups and downs, which I will discuss in a bit.  First I wanted to show some pics of our final project.



























































It took many hours to put everything together, but compared to other groups our process went much smoother.  For part of the night I ended up helping Laura and the algae group for a bit.  I feel like they had the most construction out of all of us.  Construction that couldn't really be done outside of the gallery, but was stuff that had to be put together the night before.  Even just helping that group a little bit, it was interesting to see that no group was immune to conflict. 
To summarize the overall experience there are many topics to discuss.  One huge thing I want to discuss is what I've personally gained from this class.  When coming into the class I had ideas of what I would take away from this class, but after going through it, the lists do not match.  Going into the class I never realized how much of a stigma I had against other fields of study.  I think since we never see what each discipline does, it is harder to appreciate what work and thought goes into each part.  So seeing what has to be done to get the final product brings a new appreciation to the process.  However, I think other disciplines have stigmas against engineers too.  I think there is a stigma that engineers aren't creative and that we like to sit around and program or something.  Also there is the whole, "why isn't this possible" argument between engineers and designers.  All these sort of preceptions were dealt with with our project.  In discussions and in working, how we communicated and dealt with each other was initially limited or guided by these stigmas.  No they weren't all solved or changed, but realizing that they exsist has changed how I work and how I deal with other disciplines.  Or at least how I approach things.  Like for example, in engineering we are given specific parameters and must solve a specific thing.  In A&D, there aren't as specific parameters and what is being done isn't necessarily a specific problem.  So when we started working and we had some parameters and some freedom, we each had different difficulties with the situation.  Some of us were overwhelmed on what to do, others were fixated on having limitations.  Anyways, I'm rambling a bit, so I'll move on.
Another thing I gained from this class is learning how to build things.  This goes back to that things are way different on paper than in real life.  Seeing what a material actually is like definitely puts a new perspective on what a modulus of 3GPa actually means.
Another thing I gained from this class which may not be "interview worthy" is friends.  I know this doesn't have direct value persay, but I consider it a positive thing I gained from this class. 
Commenting on working with a group....the biggest obstacles were what each person wanted from this class.  The lack of focus also was an issue.  I am used to deadlines which helps break things up.  Also, I try to make decisions and then move on, not debate and debate forever and then ultimately get no where.  So there were some difficulties just in style of working. Overall, working in a group was not that bad.  Everyone brought something to the table, which I think made it a better project.  If we individually worked on this project, unlike what Marc said, I don't think this project would have been accomplished at least not as well rounded without all the different people.  There are subtlties that may not be displayed directly in the project but were involved in the process which was a big part of the final embodiments. 
Wow definitely ranting...I'm done. 

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