Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Term Review


This term I learned a lot from this class. I learned of the process and mechanics that goes into a large-scale project. Although the course was based on bridge design I learned a lot of lesson that are related to all fields of engineering. For a project like building a bridge nothing can be accomplished without teamwork. Having a group of reliable people around you is important in every aspect. With a group greater thinking and designing is done because there are more ideas to blend together. Design process is another lesson that I learned. Goals need to be set up and the beginning of the project so that you know what you are trying to attain throughout the process of the project. Of course, these goals are going to change and develop as we go through each step and learn new material. With this the final product will turn out well.
The most beneficial lesson learned had to be forensic analysis. As an engineer you have to design and develop structures and procedures that do not fail. So learning this analysis throughout the span of the course allowed us to find the problems and improve the bridge so that the problem was no longer there. This is a lesson that will be relevant throughout the rest of our careers.
The least beneficial aspect for me had to be the planning. I know that planning is an important part in completing and well done project in a timely manner, yet since things are constantly changing I found that planning ahead of time was not really helpful.
I think that this course ran very well. Everyone was engaged and interested in the project, and we were all able to learn something even if the topic of the course was not prevalent to our specific major. One thing that I think could have gone better is the explanation for the set up for the blogs. At first it was a little confusing but after further explanation it was more understandable.
This week in lab we tested our final bridge. This bridge was 3 feet long and was hollow inside with a width of 3 inches and a height of 2 inches. Our final design costed $409,000.00 and held 30.8 pounds. We had estimated that it would hold about 35 pounds but it failed before it could reach that point. The bridge snapped in half with a few pieces scattering. This occurred because a few of the chords slid out of the gusset plates.
Next week we will be wrapping up the final points of bridge design.

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