Wednesday, September 16, 2009

15/9
Eco car project is getting ridiculously demanding these days. In the past, we were given long time frames to complete simple tasks; whereas now, what we might take 3 over weeks to complete, we have been getting them done by the hours.

My daily routine below shows what I'm trying to say

730am - Rush to school
9am - Meeting / Presentations on our progress
1pm - Project discussions / Work allocations
3pm - Project
6pm - Leave School
730pm - Dinner
830pm - Project
12am, 3am, 430am - Various sleeping time
730am - All over again


Our 11-man team consists of 2 leaders, 9 members. What I heard was the car consultant hired to train and guide us throughout the project cost roughly 20 - 30k, excluding the budget of the 2 cars we're suppose to machine and assemble (another 20k each, making it 40k). Basically, with other miscellaneous expenditure like shipping, air tickets etc. This massive scale project cost roughly $70 000++ in total.

The section I'm in charge of in the project is called the car chassis The overall leader is working alongside with me for the chassis section. Our sub-groups contain front end of the car, back end of the car, engine, fuel cell and body(Car shell). All these sub groups do what they need to do, and all of them "throw" their finish works to the overall leader and me. Finally, we assemble them. Sounds easy eh? See below.

My "Job" scope in reality for chassis
-In depth knowledge on everything related to this project
-In depth knowledge of everyone's progress
-Check if all components are done correctly
-Finalise Car Dimensions
-Assemble the whole car, with all the sub-components
-Finalise all assemblies integrated in Car
-Find ways of refinements
-Find "faults" from the sub groups and get them resolved before the next "presentation"
-Work Allocation in the team.
-Representing the team during main project discussions/presentations with the car consultants/trainers, later reviewing them with our team.
-Anything goes wrong inside the car, it's DIRECTLY our fault. -laughs-

Yup, I'm not a leader, but based on my job scope, I have to act like one to "cover my ass". On this note, one of our member kept slacking and showed very bad end results. Basically, I took what he had for presentation, and did not have enough time to improve his shoddy work.

My leader and I were expected to be accountable for everything, so when we presented what that member gave us, the lecturers and car consultant ended up disappointed. Keeping in mind the car consultant and lecturers had high expectations of us since Day 1, and we had met all their expectations until that very day.

My leader felt guilty, I felt frustrated. We felt irresponsible. However, my leader just sighed in resignation. Long story short, I had to take action. I encourage the slacker in a very assertive and direct manner with my hands on his collars and dragging him for a distance before I started saying my piece on how everyone is working hard and he should do the same too. Not being able to keep my voice level down, I guess not only the year 3 students heard me, but the lecturers too as their staff room is located beside our project room. So yea, him and everyone else resulted in a bit of shock. Well, the lecturers knew what I did was of good will, and acknowledged that might have been the only way to wake the slacker up. Of course, they told me not to go to such a length in encouraging him next time. Judging how hard his working now, I'm sure it was the 1st, and the last time.




These days, I dare say I'm no more a violent person. With friends, I'm always seen giving a silly grin and a loud hearty laugh, resulting the fact that this fella is officially giving the impression of a total idiot. It's not like I don't realise it.


Anyway, Back to the story.
Presently? My leader is the "good guy", I'm to act as the strict one. It's great working with him as we have the same working traits and moral ethics. Being so inspired and encouraged by the other's enthusiasm. We have a habit of snatching the work that's to be done, and always asking for the other's opinion when any decisions are made.

Most importantly, everyone is working hard with one aim in mind - To fulfill the Eco dream, to enter our car in Shell Eco Marathon and race with people round the globe April next year. Hopefully, we can hit top 5 position or something.

Erm, will be posting the 3d model designs I did previously very very soon.

posted @ 9/16/2009 01:04:00 AM

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