JPL Project: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The JPL 'Sticky Wicket' Project was without a doubt, the most fun I've ever had in school. Having the opportunity to work with friends on an assignment spanning months, and seeing the fruits of our labor pay off was not only satisfying, but incredibly rewarding in a personal sense. I proved to myself that not only do I have potential to go far in engineering, but that I can thrive in a group environment. Being able to bounce ideas off of others in a judgemental free zone made everything feel so relaxed. Everything we did, we did for the benefit for everybody. I'm proud of how our hammer-swinging machine came out in the end. It truly deserves the title of "Hammerschläger".

In terms of what could've gone better, I really have to dig deep. For the most part, everything went smoothly. The division of labor was clearly defined from the beginning, with certain people working hands-on with the machine, and with others doing more behind the scenes work on things like the poster, commercial, etc. If I had to make one change, it would be more transparency between the committees in the groups. There were multiple times where we were docked points on assignments because of information that wasn't shared from one group to another, which could've been easily prevented. Other than that, I believe it went well.

While it may sound weird, the advice I'd give my future self after this project would be, "talk as much as possible" and "take better care of yourself". I say this because any little thought that could be thrown out could not only bring in new ideas, but radically change the direction of a project for the better (or worse, but we're not talking about that). The reasoning behind the second piece of advice is that I missed a lot of school time due to illnesses. There were multiple times where I was out sick with a cold or flu that could've been avoided with some more attentive self care.