{"id":549,"date":"2018-04-27T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T19:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/?p=549"},"modified":"2019-04-30T15:44:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T22:44:04","slug":"reflecting-back-on-the-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/2018\/04\/27\/reflecting-back-on-the-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting Back On The Semester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that I\u2019m done with finals, I have some time to reflect back on the first term of my 3rd<\/sup> year.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t gotten my final grades back, so I\u2019ll have to hold on making a complete judgement, but overall I think this semester went smoother than MECH2.\u00a0 If MECH 2 was a 10\/10 on a difficulty scale (for the sake of argument) this semester was probably a solid 7\/10.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my overall impression of my classes:<\/p>\n

MECH305: Data Analysis and Mechanical Engineering Laboratories<\/strong><\/p>\n

The class has recently been redesigned and this year was its first run through.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially labs and statistics.\u00a0 There are five regular labs in total, which draw on concepts from other courses.\u00a0 You go in, follow the procedure, and write up a lab report.\u00a0 The next week you expand on one of the regular labs by setting up your own objectives, and deciding how you\u2019ll carry the experiment out.<\/p>\n

At the very end of the course, there was one big exploratory lab report in which we were free to explore anything we wanted using the techniques we learned throughout the semester.\u00a0 My team ended up wiring strain gauges to a hockey stick in order to determine the forces applied to it during a slap shot.\u00a0 We even had someone that had played hockey semi-professionally take some shots with it, shot-out to Jackson. It was pretty neat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MECH 358 – Engineering Analysis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This class was by far the most abstract out of all of the classes this term, since it builds on linear algebra concepts. You learn how to solve equations that can be incredibly hard\/impossible to solve numerically, like the heat equation which you\u2019ll come to know and love (here’s<\/a> a quick preview of that lovely equation).\u00a0 I didn\u2019t particularly enjoy linear algebra back when I took it on 1st<\/sup> year, but I actually enjoyed this class.\u00a0 My biggest takeaway from the course was that even though we have large amounts of computational power, you have to be clever in how you go about computing certain problems.<\/p>\n

Homework consists of matlab and lots of \u201cwhy doesn\u2019t my code work.\u201d<\/p>\n

MECH360: Mechanics of Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

This class is a continuation of solid mechanics in MECH224.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of material covered, so doing the practice problems and tutorials is a must.\u00a0 Luckily, there are tons of online resources.\u00a0 There\u2019s not much to say about this course except study hard for that final. I got completely blind-sided by it, and I\u2019m still sweating about it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let that happen to you.<\/p>\n

MECH 375: Heat Transfer<\/strong><\/p>\n

The class is technically called heat transfer but we all referred to it as thermo.\u00a0 We covered a lot of material, and in my opinion it was one of the more challenging classes this term.\u00a0 There\u2019s correlations and numeric tables all over the place.\u00a0 Prepare to sprint with your hands during exams.\u00a0 For the final you get a crib sheet, which is a 40 page formula packet.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the topic as a whole.\u00a0 The class was held in the MATH building and I hope for the sake of anyone reading this that you never have a class in that building.\u00a0 The seating arrangement and the size of the chairs is terrible.\u00a0 That classroom get a -1\/10 from me.<\/p>\n

MECH 380: Fluid Dynamics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another class that I really enjoyed.\u00a0 It felt like an intro to aerodynamics.\u00a0 You gain greater insight into drag\/lift and learn about mach numbers and shockwaves.\u00a0 The concepts can be tricky, but I found it manageable.\u00a0 \u00a0Engineering Analysis, Heat Transfer, and Fluid Dynamics all tie into each other, so if you understand one it can sort of help with the others.<\/p>\n

Like I said, I\u2019m still waiting for my final marks so I might be singing a different tune once I get them back, but this year wasn\u2019t so bad.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s back to Co-op for the summer.<\/p>\n

Wish me luck,<\/p>\n

Rigoberto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that I\u2019m done with finals, I have some time to reflect back on the first term of my 3rd year. I haven\u2019t gotten my final grades back, so I\u2019ll have to hold on making a complete judgement, but overall I think this semester went smoother than MECH2.\u00a0 If MECH 2 was a 10\/10 on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4265571],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mech-undergrad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}