Next semester (Fall 2010) I'll be taking two classes that should help a great deal in modeling spud guns.
ENME489I: Computational Fluid Dynamics - This is the only undergraduate class that I'm aware of that teaches how to program CFD. I know the basics of a number of schemes already. Taking a class on it would be decent motivation to learn more.
ENFP415: Fire Dynamics - UMD has one of the few fire protection engineering programs. At first I didn't think I could take their classes as a mechanical engineering student. I was wrong. Many universities have classes on combustion, but this is more general. This should be useful for combustion and hybrid launcher modeling.
These classes should provide the motivation to release a new transonic version of BAGS as well as one that does combustion and hybrid launchers. I'm excited, to say the least.
Classes next semester
Last edited by btrettel on Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
All spud gun related projects are currently on hold.
Good luck! I hope your career plans are fulfilling. I am glad to hear of interest in the fields of engineering!
I started out as a hopeful to be an engineer... Changed my mind and decided to take up the Criminal Justice fields. Got an Associates, then a Bachelors, a Masters, now working on a J.D. degree. I find my chosen field to be fulfilling; mechanical engineering is still a hobby of mine which I study and practice routinely as my hobbies require the knowledge, e.g. RC craft, firearms, electronics...
I started out as a hopeful to be an engineer... Changed my mind and decided to take up the Criminal Justice fields. Got an Associates, then a Bachelors, a Masters, now working on a J.D. degree. I find my chosen field to be fulfilling; mechanical engineering is still a hobby of mine which I study and practice routinely as my hobbies require the knowledge, e.g. RC craft, firearms, electronics...
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deathbyDWV
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I hope it goes good.
I'm currently in Intro to Engineering Design (IED). Its at the high school... i'm in 9th grade... and its really fun.
Next year i'll be in POE (principals of engineering)...
I'm currently in Intro to Engineering Design (IED). Its at the high school... i'm in 9th grade... and its really fun.
Next year i'll be in POE (principals of engineering)...
Life's too short to mark off the items on your wish list...
they sound like they suck to me. I'm a second year electrical engineering major and I always think "this network analysis class looks cool" then i get into it and I spend hours a week learning it and then hours on top of that doing the homework. Then i start thinking "man this really sucks" only to get a 50 on the exam with a class average of 55. I haven't actually designed anything yet.
(\ /)
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(><) Copy the bunny to your sig and help him achieve world domination.
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(><) Copy the bunny to your sig and help him achieve world domination.
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Mr.Sandman
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Hmm well its already my second semester here so ill post what im taking next school year: Small engine repair, Materials Tech, Construction Tech, Engineering design and fabrication. Man i wish we had a metal shop class here 
Yeah, it's that important.
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King_TaTer
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Nice. I plan to become a mechanical engineer as well and wish you the best of luck. I too am excited to take classes such as fluid dynamics. I'll be attending the University of Akron in August.
Materials links:
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<a href="http://www.buyfittingswholesale.com/#">Buy fittings wholesale</a>
<a href="http://www.flexpvc.com/">Flex PVC</a>
<a href="http://www.murrayequipment.com">MEI
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Sound like some cool classes.
As a second year Mechanical Engineering student, I agree with gear dog, I have found that any class that is not hands on will pretty much bore you to death because it's all about homework and tests (these are the majority of the classes you have to take your first two years before you get to the fun classes, and boy do I have stories about how sh*tty they are).
However, the cool classes I'm taking this quarter are ME 101, which is a design and product building class, and a CEE (Civil-Environmental Engineering) class which teaches one how to use a laser cutter and the homework's are projects. Should be fun.
As a second year Mechanical Engineering student, I agree with gear dog, I have found that any class that is not hands on will pretty much bore you to death because it's all about homework and tests (these are the majority of the classes you have to take your first two years before you get to the fun classes, and boy do I have stories about how sh*tty they are).
However, the cool classes I'm taking this quarter are ME 101, which is a design and product building class, and a CEE (Civil-Environmental Engineering) class which teaches one how to use a laser cutter and the homework's are projects. Should be fun.
Stanford Class of 2012
"In the end our society will be defined not only by what we create, but what we refuse to destroy"- John Sawhill
"In the end our society will be defined not only by what we create, but what we refuse to destroy"- John Sawhill
UMD's "hands on" classes go way beyond just being a project. The ME program requires that students take at least 3 hands-on project classes, and two of them involve a very significant amount of work including multiple lengthy reports and multiple presentations. This isn't my idea of fun. I'm in one of these classes right now. We redesign components of DeWALT tools and have to make a lot of presentations and papers. Our team's benchmarking report was about 120 pages long... and our team was smaller, so we could cut out a few parts of what they wanted...
Generally, motivating yourself in a purely theoretical class can be difficult. Having a goal in mind has helped me tremendously. The two classes I mentioned have an obvious application to me in the spudding hobby. Spudding is not the only application of these classes to me, but having a use for the knowledge in mind helps a lot.
(It also helps that the CFD class is taught by a guy who is the mechanical engineering equivalent of Bob Ross... I'm not joking. He's pretty easy and an effective teacher.)
geardog32, it sounds like you're too hard on yourself. I found that my grades improved once I stopped caring how I did in class. My college GPA is now significantly higher than my high school one.
Generally, motivating yourself in a purely theoretical class can be difficult. Having a goal in mind has helped me tremendously. The two classes I mentioned have an obvious application to me in the spudding hobby. Spudding is not the only application of these classes to me, but having a use for the knowledge in mind helps a lot.
(It also helps that the CFD class is taught by a guy who is the mechanical engineering equivalent of Bob Ross... I'm not joking. He's pretty easy and an effective teacher.)
geardog32, it sounds like you're too hard on yourself. I found that my grades improved once I stopped caring how I did in class. My college GPA is now significantly higher than my high school one.
All spud gun related projects are currently on hold.