Spring 2027

Manufacturing: Polymer Processing and Engineering

Introductory course covering polymer processing, materials, manufacturing, recycling, ethics, and modeling techniques such as dimensional analysis and simulation.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Lih-Sheng Turng

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Tim Osswald

Exams were described as difficult and distinct from lecture material, with one student finding studying extremely hard due to the disconnect between labs and classes.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the relationship among materials, properties, processes, and performance of plastics products

  • Describe polymer processes, process selection, and optimal design and apply the basic terminology associated with the field of polymer processing and manufacturing

  • Conduct experiments, analyze and interpret the data

  • Identify techniques and decision making tools for increased quality, product safety, decreased cost, reduced cycle times and reliability and productivity

  • Identify ethical and sustainability concerns that arise in manufacturing

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

(M E 306 orE M A 303) andM E 231

ME 310 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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.40 GPA, 60.6% A/AB (n=137 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.40 GPA, 64.4% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.30 GPA, 61.1% A/AB (n=131 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

LIH-SHENG TURNG is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TIM OSSWALD is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2024. 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 / 1280
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 307Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 308Classroom Instruction0 / 160

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 · Tim Osswald

Students found the course structure disjointed, noting that labs differed significantly from lectures, making it challenging to prepare for exams.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.40 GPA, 60.6% A/AB (n=137 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.40 GPA, 64.4% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.30 GPA, 61.1% A/AB (n=131 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Tim Osswald

Exams were described as difficult and distinct from lecture material, with one student finding studying extremely hard due to the disconnect between labs and classes.

Past student reviews · Tim Osswald

Past students noted the class flow felt random and lectures were boring, though the instructor was perceived as caring and avoided writing trick questions.

Topics

  • Polymeric materials, properties, design, manufacturing, processing methods, and part performance.
  • Post-consumer recycling, upcycling, societal responsibilities, and ethics.
  • Materials processing modeling including dimensional analysis, design of experiments, analytical solutions, and computer simulation.

Skills

  • Modeling techniques including dimensional analysis, design of experiments, analytical solutions, and computer simulation.
  • Polymer process selection, optimal design, and field terminology.
  • Identification of ethical and sustainability concerns in manufacturing.

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.

4 earlier forecasts · 0.32 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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ME 310 · Spring 2027

Manufacturing: Polymer Processing and Engineering

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": "1274:612:025964",
    "course_id": "ME 310",
    "course_uid": "course_144155603c58477b09f7bb94",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025964",
    "source_subject_id": "612",
    "title": "Manufacturing: Polymer Processing and Engineering",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b7048bd7628f1697900c94d03bb9912a2a568e57141339918782f0d3772f0e47",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}