Engineering Portfolio
Name: Muhammad Abbas�Email: muh.abbas@mail.utoronto.ca�Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/muhammadabbas1214�
MIE243 Course Project – Pick and Place Machine (Engineering Drawings)
In this project we had to create a design for a pick and place from scratch and create an entire engineering specification report on it as well as a CAD model of it on SolidWorks. For the first time we as a team had full control over the entire project as there was no structure since we knew the final submissions and just had to make those to the best of our judgement. Here you can see three candidate designs that my team and I had done, and it was one of the first engineering based brainstorming sessions we had due to the skills we had acquired from this course on how to do engineering drawings and create candidates. Really interesting to see real life applications of engineering drawing.
MIE243 Course Project – CAD Models
From the candidates, we then moved towards the CAD modelling of the designs here are some images that show the recent developments of the CAD from the rough structure of the pick and place machine towards a fully functioning CAD model of the pick and place machine. I have truly enjoyed CAD modeling during this course especially during our dissections in which we disassembled different products and modelled them. I have felt slowly but surely felt an increase in my CAD skill level due to the vast practice that is required in this course.
MIE243 Course Project – Experience and Relation to Engineering
Up until now I have completed two design courses and this is my third design courses, the first two design courses were similar but by far this is the most unique course as in this we have the most freedom in terms of our design and how we can approach this problem of finding an optimal pick and place design, from the screws in our CAD model design to our report everything is done on the basis of the teams best judgement and this is what I have really enjoyed as this accurately mimics the engineering design industry in which you are not spoon-fed rubrics and past structures but you are given a problem or an area to work on and you have the full freedom with your team to create a unique way of solving the problem. Although this was tough initially, I got used to it and loved the freedom aspect of this design hence further making me fall in love the design industry as it showed me how a designer has the freedom to create whatever they want with limited restrictions hence being beneficial for me as it allows me to invoke my creativity skills.
Other Course Project: APS112 ESP II
My course project was very unique and one of the gateway projects that opened my eyes to engineering design as although APS111 was also an engineering design course it was not as detailed and real as this since in this course we had an actual client and for this design we were creating a prosthetic thigh tester for the Sunnybrook Hospital which was interesting as we had to manage meetings with the client and had to do a presentation and although at that point in my career I did not know CAD I still attempted to create something as I like to have a 3D visual representation of the designs that the team is doing and so I used “Google Sketchup” to create the three candidate designs and the final design on behalf of the team and this really gave me the stepping stone into the world of CAD as after this doing SolidWorks was a bit easier in terms of understanding how 3d graphics work.
Other Course Project: APS112 ESP II (Relation to Engineering)
Although MIE243 is the closest course that I have done that is an accurate representation of my ideal job a potential job that I may encounter in the industry may be related to engineering consultancy as I have a high interest in that field as well, since that is also a part of the engineering design industry and hence this course was the closest and most realistic course that I have done so far to engineering consultancy as we had a real life client who had a problem that we as a team were solving through our engineering knowledge and we also had a final presentation in which we presented in front of the TA’s and the client something which is a prevalent industry practice as it is vital for the client and engineering team to be on the same page.
Conclusion
Although I know that engineering will never get easier especially in industry I am still blessed and prepared in terms of giving it my best and ensuring that I take the appropriate steps such as making this portfolio and doing practice interviews to prepare for internships and taking advantage of the abundance of resources available to ensure that the difficulties can be mitigated as much as possible. Every semester I become more and more interested in a specific field for example I started with liking cars (automotive industry) and then moved onto liking design (design industry) and then liking gears out of all the mechanisms to then conclude my final job ideal specific job. These experiences have also led me to narrow down my stream options for third year which have now become “Mechatronics”, “Solid Mechanics and Design” or “Energy and Environment” as they all will allow me to have relevant experience for my target industry.