My take-away from this course is the importance of involving the client as soon as possible, since they may have useful information to inform design decisions. Specifically, the client had a spreadsheet of cord manufacturing data that I did not know about until halfway through the project, and that data was critical for improving our model's accuracy.
Based on this experience, I think the most important attributes of an engineer are initiative, persistence, and communication. Initiative and persistence are needed to challenge yourself beyond your current knowledge. If a certain solution requires a certain skill, you should learn it, not give up. In my case, it was finding a way to consolidate the physics simulations, the fitting, the sensor data and the GUI. I had to find which libraries and tools could work together, and learn how to use them. Communication matters because strong technical work has limited value if operators and stakeholders cannot understand or trust it.
I see the role of engineers as a public responsibility, not only a technical task. People are trusting their lives in the Smart Bungee Winch: a miscalculation could lead to an injury or death. There are countless systems in the world that people rely on for their safety, health, and well-being, and engineers have a duty to design those systems with care and integrity.
My strengths are systems thinking, persistence through iteration, and translating complex ideas into practical decisions. I could improve on writing reports, logging results and writing jusitfications for design decisions. I will develop those areas by working on more projects where I write why I made certain decisions, and by asking for feedback on my writing and documentation.