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End of Semester Review

AT209 was indeed quite the learning experience. I didn’t have much as far as expectations go for this semester. After we took AT119 with Professor Lercel and got a better grasp on risk management considerations, I suppose I expected to do a lot of flying. That expectation was hardly the reality. However, the reality of this class was quite fruitful in that it revealed a hard truth: despite how little I felt I knew before this class, I actually know even less than that.

The labs for AT209 are highly hands on. It took me a while to understand the bigger picture. From the third week we were prepping for the customization, programming, and assembly of the MFE Believer. I was surprised at how in depth the lab material was. This class went beyond the operation of UAS and far into the intricacies of how individual components operate and how those components can be customized. Starting at Lab 07 (DATX Setup) and onward, nothing was intuitive for me. Granted, I was gone for two weeks in the middle of the semester and had to play catch up. This though is hardly an excuse, as Anestis provided a great explanation of what I missed, and I still feel I would require much repetition to feel confident that I understand the material as much as my peers in Group 1. I hope to attain this repetition, as I feel this class taught skills that will be valued by employers more than any other class I’ve taken so far. Anyone can be taught to fly a drone, however operating applicable software, customizing hardware, and understanding nomenclature is a lot harder to come by.

The biggest lesson I learned from this class was the hard truth that I referenced earlier. Many people in this major seem to have prior experience with drones. In fact, I’m the only person in Group 1 that had never operated a drone until starting the pursuit of this major. I learned that it is going to take a great deal of effort on my part to catch up to the level of competency displayed by my peers in Group 1. I very much enjoyed being a part of this group and I absolutely helped out as much as I could. However, many times there would be objectives in lab that were completely foreign to me and those objectives would be completed by my other group members before I even knew what questions I should ask. Lucas, Aidan, and Andrew are super competent and given the stresses of this semester, Lord was I thankful to be a part of their team. But I am simply not on their level and it’s bad for me to use them as an academic crutch.

Other, less self-deprecating lessons included greater confidence with soldering. Aidan is the best at it, but I do enjoy it. I absolutely couldn’t stand using the crimps. Actual assembly of the MFE Believer has been fairly fascinating. Our physical alterations of the DATX controller were cool, but I was confused as to why some specific modifications were made. I found myself frustrated as to why I don’t have a mind to think of things like that.

Overall takeaways include that I need to get more competent with the technical nature of this major and that I should be less hesitant to jump in and get hands on. Next semester I’d like to be able to contribute more to my group’s hands-on success. Additionally, despite my distain for it, I suppose I have to get used to utilizing Coda...I’ll do what I must.

-Hunter

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