Spring 2027

Process Synthesis

Process Synthesis introduces inventing processes for large-scale, low-cost processing of materials like water, chemicals, petroleum products, food, drugs, and wastes.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Katelyn Dahlke2.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Katelyn Dahlke

The course required lengthy weekly homework assignments, and exams were described as hard and often too long for the time provided. Students also reported receiving homework on material not yet covered in class.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Create and interpret simplified chemical process flowsheets

  • Apply mass and energy balances to chemical processes and unit operations

  • Use phase equilibrium data and equations to calculate performance of simple separation processes

  • Use reaction equilibrium concepts to calculate the performance of simple chemical reactors

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

CHEM 116, 329, or concurrent enrollment

CBE 250 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Katelyn Dahlke

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.45/5 from 29 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.0/5 raw quality · 4.8/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Katelyn Dahlke

Katelyn Dahlke taught CBE 250 with lengthy weekly homeworks and exams that students found hard and too long for the allotted time. Lectures were considered necessary for understanding, though some students found the notes messy and the focus on definitions lacking sufficient problem-solving practice. Dahlke responded quickly to emails, but students often described her responses as lackluster or insufficient, and some reported she removed students from class for perceived disruption.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 2.88 GPA, 30.6% A/AB (n=36 letter grades); Fall 2024: 2.86 GPA, 31.7% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Spring 2025: 2.59 GPA, 31.2% A/AB (n=48 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Regina Murphy, Sean Palecek

Regina Murphy wrote the course textbook and used a format of reading, mini-lectures, and practice problems, though students found the homework challenging and long. Sean Palecek taught through examples and found the homework intense but educational, noting that attending class and office hours helped students do well.

BRIAN PFLEGER is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Spring 2013, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KATELYN DAHLKE is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

REGINA MURPHY is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Fall 2016, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SEAN PALECEK is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2008, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

THATCHER W ROOT is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 640
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 700

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Katelyn Dahlke

Katelyn Dahlke's lectures focused on definitions and concepts, while students noted the heavy weekly homework was essential for learning despite the exams feeling too long for the allotted time.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 2.59 GPA, 31.2% A/AB (n=48 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.15 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=70 letter grades); Spring 2026: 2.95 GPA, 42.6% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Katelyn Dahlke

The course required lengthy weekly homework assignments, and exams were described as hard and often too long for the time provided. Students also reported receiving homework on material not yet covered in class.

Past student reviews · Katelyn Dahlke

Students found the class notes messy and frustrating because there were no recorded lectures, making it difficult to catch up if they missed a session. Some also felt her responses to questions were lackluster.

Topics

  • Invention of processes for large-scale, low-cost material processing.
  • Processing of water, chemicals, petroleum products, food, drugs, and wastes.
  • Simplified chemical process flowsheets.
  • Mass and energy balances in chemical processes and unit operations.
  • Phase equilibrium and simple separation processes.
  • Reaction equilibrium and simple chemical reactors.

Skills

  • Creating and interpreting simplified chemical process flowsheets.
  • Applying mass and energy balances to chemical processes and unit operations.
  • Using phase equilibrium data and equations to calculate performance of simple separation processes.
  • Using reaction equilibrium concepts to calculate the performance of simple chemical reactors.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.20 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
CBE 250 · Spring 2027

Process Synthesis

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:220:002675",
    "course_id": "CBE 250",
    "course_uid": "course_615ffa9f09a63710d1f4a9cb",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "002675",
    "source_subject_id": "220",
    "title": "Process Synthesis",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "6e11a0a3d8f908b4a83e9d42f19f010d89a51e02e1c059c333bc32edb3661dc4",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}