Student memos 1-4

Memo 1

To: Professors Harrick and Leonard 
From: Ximena Arias (EDC-02)
Date: October 2, 2008
Subject: Junkyard Wars

Junkyard War was an incredible experience which besides of having to design a specific project, it made us, without being aware of it, learn how to work in teams, listen to other’s opinions, and divide our labors. This project was a quick and fun way to learn what we are going to do for the entire quarter, which will be much more interesting and challenging. From this project we were able to learn that in real life, this is kind of how it works. Sometimes, because of lack of preparation or experience, one makes mistakes that can compromise the success of the design. Us, as future engineers, need to learn that with imagination, practice, knowledge, and perseverance, we can accomplish every goal we propose.

During this Junkyard War week, I was able to know more my teammates; individually and as a team. I learned that with division of labor you are able to work more efficiently and faster, since time was one of the most important factors, it helped us finish our work on time. The whole process of the construction of our project was very pleasant and productive. We met several times in order to finish our homework assigns.

Within one week of having started this project, I have noticed a big difference in our performance, between the first time we had to make our own instructions and when we turned in our last instructions for the project. It is amazing how much one can improve in one week, since first, the instructions were unclear, not very specific, and not detailed at all. These last instructions, we noticed a difference, at least, some of the aspects mentioned, improved a lot.

The original design assigned to our group was completely different from what we ended. This design was the common bridge we all know, so we decided to come up with something creative and innovative. At the end, we were really satisfied with our design, although it did not work as we hoped, the experience of creating it was really worth it.

Memo 2

David Kluger
Team Bridge-adiers
9/30/08
Junkyard Wars Memo
    The teamwork aspect of the project was very interesting. Personally, it was my first mature design project where teamwork was such a crucial element of the task at hand. I believe it was the same for many of the other people in the course. The Junkyard Wars project was excellent at getting everyone to work together for the first time. The project was easy enough to allow everyone to be comfortable in this new situation while it was challenging enough to make every group member think creatively, be assertive with their ideas, and was entertaining all the while. The project also allowed the group members to see each other’s personalities. The entire group was forced to meet outside of class which created a great way to get to know everyone inside of the group personally.
    The design portion of the project was also a very good introductory step towards the more intense work will be done later in the course. Simplicity was encouraged and was the best way of achieving the goal at hand. This is something that I will take with me for every design I make for the rest of my engineering career. While the designs were relatively simple, the task they had to accomplish with the materials at hand was very challenging. The lack of materials made creative thinking the keystone of the design process. Everyday items had to be seen as crucial engineering tools and pivotal structures in the design.
    The instructions were a much more crucial aspect of the project than everyone was led to believe at the beginning of the project. It is understandable that the twist of trading designs with another group had to be kept a secret as late as possible, but it may be better for future classes to have some experience in instruction making before the project actually commences. That way, the group that receives the instructions, which are most likely confusing and poorly written, will be able to recreate the design more effectively. There is one other aspect of the instruction system that should be changed: when a group receives another group’s instructions after the swap, team members should have to follow the original groups’ instructions exactly and to the best of their ability where communication with the original group is strictly prohibited. This way, the project is more challenging and the groups must face another engineering obstacle where their task at hand is more heavily dictated by an outside entity. 

Memo 3

Zach Wheeler
EDC Fall Quarter 2008
Section 2: Leonard & Herrick
Junkyard Wars Memo

    This wasn’t the first team project I’ve worked on, but it was definitely a learning experience.  What made this project different from most is that we were working with strangers.  In projects in high school, the teams are usually people who have had class together before and are at least familiar with each other.  For this, we were going in cold.  Consequently, we had to learn how much each teammate is willing to compromise and how each prefers to work in a group.  I noticed right away that we were going to have to compromise on most of our ideas.  Specific to my group, there were times when three members of the group agreed on one idea but the fourth person had a completely different idea and, understandably, wouldn’t be satisfied if his idea wasn’t included.  Then we would have to go back and try to reform the ideas to appease everyone.  It was also interesting to see how all of us seemed to be more willing to compromise the longer something took.
    The instruction-making process was interesting as well.  Making instructions for something we had yet to build was very challenging.  Though we talked about what we wanted beforehand, when it came time to specifically describe the project, it was clear that we all had different visions.  This led to the many aforementioned compromises.  However the second time, after we had finished construction of our new project, the instructions were much easier because there was no arguing about we had already done.  Also, our rewritten instructions were far more specific and detailed than the instructions we originally wrote.  I think this was because after we saw how difficult it was to read the group that we switched with’s instructions and how many questions they asked us about ours, we realized that the instructions had to be better-written.  Something that we forgot until the day of presentation was that the instructions need to be literally from very beginning to very end and that we can’t assume that some aspect is a “given.”
    Finally, actually designing and building the project was fun and challenging.  I really liked experimenting with different ideas to see what was going to work best.  When it came down to it, the simplest design seemed to work best for both projects.  We felt that doing this would make the project more reproducible for another group or if we had to make changes or rebuilds ourselves.  Also, though it’s possible that some more complicated designs could work better, we thought it would be best to go with something that would consistently produce good, even if not the best, results every time instead of another design that may break or not work well every time.  Overall this project was a great learning experience.  I know I will constantly mentally reference it while working on the quarter project.

Memo 4

Erik Herberg
EDC
Prof Herrick and Leonard
10/2/2008

Junkyard Wars Analysis

    For an introduction activity, I though Junkyard Wars was a good way start out the quarter.  I have already discovered issues of group design and communication which I need to improve on.  I am glad I was able to first experience these problems in an early activity rather than during the quarter-long design project.  I can take information from the Junkyard Wars and use it to make a smooth start on the main project.
    The main benefit I received from Junkyard Wars was learning about teamwork and team dynamics.  I’ve never had a class which requires this level of team collaboration.  I found it to be a great environment to come up with new ideas, but it can also be an aggravating experience.  We are learning how to deal with four people with four different personalities, working together for a final goal.  There were a few problems within our group (what the EDC book refers to as the Storming Stage).  Some of the issues include arriving to meetings on time, distributing work evenly, and group communication.  Now that these problems have been identified, they can be addressed and hopefully solved before we start taking off with the main project.  Without Junkyard Wars, these problems would not have been uncovered this early in the quarter.  
    Junkyard Wars also provided a useful way to learn about writing instructions.  In high school, I had experience writing detailed instructions for performing a task.  As a result, I already knew most of the concepts behind writing an easy to follow set of instructions.  However, Junkyard Wars has shown me how to approach editing instructions (by following another groups design).  This was a valuable experience, because I was able to read the other group’s instructions from an unbiased viewpoint.  By seeing the corrections I made on someone else’s instructions, I could go back to my own and edit them from a new perspective.  
Finally, Junkyard Wars was a nice crash course in the design process.  I don’t have any experience in creating and proposing designs, so Junkyard Wars was a great introduction.  I found that design in an ongoing cycle with constant revisions and new ideas.  I now have a general understanding of all the steps that need to be taken to reach the final product.
In general, I thought Junkyard Wars was very effective as an introductory activity.  It gave us a head start on the quarter-long project, and I learned a lot about team dynamics and the design process in a short amount of time.