Reverse Engineering
Evidence of Work
The Reverse Engineering Project assigned to our class was to completely disassemble an object, identify its pieces, and analyze its different elements. My group was Bryn, Wesley, and Ryan and we chose to work on an old digital alarm clock. To tackle this issue we each focused on a different aspect of the object, including its function, manufacturing, materials, and structure. We started off by creating a gantt chart to make sure our group stayed on track to finish in time.
The final project includes a detailed report of our analysis of the device, sketches of each individual system, and a slideshow presentation. The sketches can be found within the report. The main features include a redesign of the object with some slight improvements and the implementation of these changes, as well as the description of how the device works.
Content
Reverse Engineering - Taking apart a device to see how it works in order to redesign it with improvements. This project is an example of reverse engineering.
Orthographic Drawing - A three dimensional object is represented in two-dimensions. Most of the drawings in our report are orthographic and show the device from different angles.
Isometric Drawing - A three dimensional object is shown in two dimensions and angled to see three coordinate axes.
Perspective Drawing - A drawing that shows the depth of a figure and has a vanishing point.
Structural Analysis - Determine the purpose of each part and how it interacts with the other parts. All analysis information can be found in the report.
Material Analysis - Determine the materials used and their properties. The material's properties should be effective for their purpose.
Functional Analysis - Describe how the product works and the functions of all the subsystems individually and together.
Manufacturing Analysis - Describe the processes and applications of tools to transform raw materials into finished goods.
Gantt Chart - An interactive timeline showing the parts of a project that need to be completed and the progress that's been made on them. Our group utilized this resource to stay organized.
Reflection
Overall, I felt this project ran very smoothly for my team. Even when we struggled to identify the exact model of the clock due to its origins in a foreign country, we persevered and collaborated to find ways around it. When one of us found a website that was useful to several aspects of the analysis, we would communicate it with the whole group to reduce the time it took to research everything. I think this collaborative effort was crucial to our overall success. Another strong point of this project was the work ethic of myself as well as the rest of my group. We each executed our tasks showing quality and being in alignment with our timeline from the Gantt Chart. I stayed focused during each class period and exemplified my conscientious learning skills for this project.
Some areas of improvement to consider for the next project are to set aside some more time for the actual presentation and to go over talking points prior to presenting. For instance, in this project my group only allotted a day and a half to complete the entire slideshow, since we had figured the information from the report would be easy to transfer over. While we did end up completing a solid presentation on this schedule, it would have been nice to have some extra time to check for any errors we may have made. Additionally, I should have taken more leadership in solidifying everyone's talking points for the presentation, since we did not have any time to practice before reporting out to the class. For the future, I will remember to focus on the outward communication of our findings a bit more.