This MnT journey has certainly been rewarding, enriching and fulfilling, but it has only been so valuable because of the challenges it has presented to us. This is what the team each has to say!
Nicole: Being group leader, I had to keep our team organised, meaning I had to not only be aware but be on top of all moving parts of the project at all times. This was challenging since there were so many aspects to our project, and many pieces of equipment that were had to keep track of such as individual sensor holders and HX711 pieces. Through keeping strict to-do lists and checking that none of our equipment was missing, and all necessary tools were returned to the lab at the end of every lab day, I learnt the soft skills of organisation and time management to keep to the informal and formal presentation deadlines.
Hilma: For hard skills, I got more familiar with hard engineering skills like soldering and using heat shrink technology. I also dabbled in coding. For soft skills, I learnt how to take more initiative, where instead of waiting to be “assigned” work, I would actively find work to be helpful. As the financial controller, I also learnt to be extremely detail-oriented and attentive while shopping for equipment, such as the shipping time and delivery fees, in order to abide by the criteria for claims. I also learnt organisational skills as I had to keep track of each expenditure no matter how far back it was.
Sze-Ann: Initially, since everyone came from such distinct majors, it seemed like everyone would have their own role in the project, and would not deviate much from their own niche – coding, hardware etc. However, I learnt that the roles were fluid as we were all willing and happy to learn from each other. I picked up hard skills including soldering, using heat shrink technology and wire management, and my knowledge of electrical parts such as breadboards and vibration motors went from zero to decent. I also learnt soft skills, mainly resilience and to refrain from getting easily frustrated as many challenges thrown our way were repetitive, such as connections coming loose or having to tear down and setup our sensor arrangement each time we entered the lab.
Natalie: Personally, everything felt new to me, so approaching the project with an open mind enabled me to acquire hard skills including soldering and wiring. Along the way, we met with several hiccups where our load sensors didn’t work the way we wanted them to, or the wires kept falling apart and we had to resolder them again. However, being patient and learning to adapt to find more efficient ways of resolving this issues has enabled me to embrace these challenges and overcome them as they come. Overall, I am grateful for this experience to learn pickup new skills and grow with my team over the course of our project 🙂
Aubert: While there are a lot of things I know about in theory, there were many unforseen hurdles and obstacles we had to cross while executing. For example, we had to figure out how to connect the load sensors and vibration motors in a way that is not cluttered and looked neat, while initially we only assumed we had to connect them in any functional way. We also had to make sure all connections were tight and have the ability to immediately troubleshoot when there were missing connections, find them, and rectify them.