The End of Fall Quarter 2009

This week was finals week for fall quarter.  All the finals went about as expected.  I got grades lower than I would have liked in two of the three classes (Math 464 & ME 331).  I got a 4.0 in the other class (ME 480).  Overall reasonable grades for such an ugly quarter.

This quarters schedule was horrible.  I had to get to work at 6am and work till 8am.  Then catch a bus to get to school by 9:30 for my first class, Math 464 (Numerical Analysis).  Then I had ME 331 (Heat Transfer), a hour break, and then ME 480 (CAD Technology).  I then caught a bus to get back to work at 2:30pm and work till 7:30.  Tuesday and Thursday were a little different but I still got to work at 6am, went to school in the middle and back to work till 7:30pm.

Of these classes the one I liked the most was the ME 480.  In this class we had labs where we got to make parts using rapid prototyping machines.  This is very exciting, you can design and "print" a part very quickly.  I have posted a video of some of these parts on You Tube.

I have chosen to make next quarter a little lighter and only take two classes. The first is a follow-on class to ME 480.  This class (ME 498, Advance Topics in Rapid Prototyping And Rapid Manufacturing) will be more hands on allowing me to actually use the machines myself (in ME 480 the TA operated them all).  I will also be taking ME 373, Introduction to System Dynamics.  This is a required core class for my ME degree.


Overall I am glad to have a break and am looking forward to what is coming in a few weeks.