Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.74 GPA, 88.8% A/AB (n=170 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=216 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.68 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=165 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.
Fall 2026
Introduction to Mechanical Engineering
ME 201 introduces mechanical engineering fundamentals including modeling, analysis, design, ethics, and safety.
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Graham Wabiszewski
Summary
1 / 7
Historical reviews of Gregory Nellis, Kristofer Dressler: The trolley project is the primary workload burden, requiring substantial time and early start dates. While lectures and quizzes are described as easy and collaborative, the group project can be challenging even for teaching staff.
Grade history
↗ average GPA
letter grades
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course map(Concurrent enrollment inMATH 113),MATH 114, 217, 221, or placement into MATH 221
- MATH 113 · concurrent
- MATH 114
- 217
- MATH 221
- placement into MATH 221
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- MATH 113 · concurrent
- MATH 114
- 217
- MATH 221
- placement into MATH 221
Professors
Fall 2026Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews for Gregory Nellis and Kristofer Dressler praise their engaging lectures and helpfulness. Nellis is noted for concise teaching and fair grading, while Dressler provides strong mentorship and individual attention. Some students found the course structure disorganized or the professor distant, but overall quality ratings were high.
GRAHAM WABISZEWSKI is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
GREGORY NELLIS is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
KRISTOFER DRESSLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021. 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
Fall 2026Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEC 001 | Classroom Instruction | 237 / 240 | 0 |
| LAB 301 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 302 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 303 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 304 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 305 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 306 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 307 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 308 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 601 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 602 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 603 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 604 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 605 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 606 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 607 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 608 | Classroom Instruction | 19 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 609 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 309 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 310 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 610 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 311 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 611 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| LAB 312 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
| DIS 612 | Classroom Instruction | 20 / 20 | 0 |
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Historical reviews for Gregory Nellis describe an easy, well-structured introduction to mechanical engineering with effective lectures and minimal exams. Students appreciate the clear instruction and collaborative quizzes, though the trolley project requires significant outside effort.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.74 GPA, 88.8% A/AB (n=170 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=216 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.68 GPA, 83.6% A/AB (n=165 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of Gregory Nellis, Kristofer Dressler: The trolley project is the primary workload burden, requiring substantial time and early start dates. While lectures and quizzes are described as easy and collaborative, the group project can be challenging even for teaching staff.
Historical students found instructors like Kristofer Dressler and Gregory Nellis to be passionate, patient, and fair. Reviewers highlighted Dressler's mentorship and Nellis's dry humor and clear explanations.
Topics
Skills
Grades
Fall 2026 · 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.
7 earlier forecasts · 0.12 GPA average error.
Grades over time
Through Fall 2026
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
1283 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.
Selected offering source records
Introduction to Mechanical Engineering
Recorded 2026-09-07Raw records
[
{
"run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
"semester": "1272",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
"offering_id": "1272:612:024851",
"course_id": "ME 201",
"course_uid": "course_b4b6d6eb3c002cb95a8dd959",
"term_id": "1272",
"source_course_id": "024851",
"source_subject_id": "612",
"title": "Introduction to Mechanical Engineering",
"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
Madgrades
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesModel outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
{
"model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
"model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
"task_version": "14",
"output_id": "bc58c1a57bccfbe75dd617b62a43beeeead712b03ab3361b32a3e1c2932da70b",
"requirements_status": "needs_review",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}