Don't forget about the upcoming meeting on November 14th! Details can be found at http://asme.seas.ucla.edu/events/ Also, we now have a facebook group. Check us out at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2213942363
Your first assignment is to familiarize yourself with Computer-Aided Design. Go to htp://download.seas.ucla.edu and download Autodesk Inventor Professional 2009. You should go through the first few tutorials until you're at least comfortable with extrusions and mates.