Spring 2027

Manufacturing: Metals and Automation

Introduces metal manufacturing processes, design for manufacturability, automation, control, metrology, and engineering economics for cost determination.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Sangkee Min3.8/5Frank Pfefferkorn3.7/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.92 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=133 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=173 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Take an engineering drawing or CAD model of a part and develop a production method for making the part

  • Design with manufacturing in mind so their designs are inherently easy/economical to produce

  • Improve manufacturing of products in terms of rates and quantities (w.r.t. profitability)

  • Improve manufacturing of products in terms of quality and repeatability (w.r.t. part functionality)

  • Describe the impact of manufacturing on the economy, society, and the environment

  • Identify ethical 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 S & E 350, 351, or352 or declared in Biological Systems Engineering: Machinery Systems BS),M E 231, and (M E 306 orE M A 303)

ME 311 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
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.25/5 from 4 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.

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.87 GPA, 94.1% A/AB (n=118 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=173 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.75/5 from 8 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.

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.92 GPA, 97.6% A/AB (n=85 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.61 GPA, 77.4% A/AB (n=133 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=173 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

FRANK PFEFFERKORN is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Fall 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SANGKEE MIN is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Spring 2025, 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 / 1820
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 307Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 308Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 310Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 312Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 309Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 311Classroom Instruction0 / 140
LAB 313Classroom Instruction0 / 140

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

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.4% A/AB (n=160 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.92 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=133 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.85 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=173 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Metal manufacturing processes
  • Manufacturing automation, control, and metrology
  • Engineering economics for manufacturing cost

Skills

  • Developing production methods from engineering drawings or CAD models
  • Designing parts to be easy and economical to produce
  • Applying engineering economics to determine manufacturing costs

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 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

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 311 · Spring 2027

Manufacturing: Metals and Automation

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": "1274:612:025979",
    "course_id": "ME 311",
    "course_uid": "course_5c22dd351dd878a65de829aa",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025979",
    "source_subject_id": "612",
    "title": "Manufacturing: Metals and Automation",
    "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

No records available.

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": "564901dbec894c37258cbc23b66cc647adac75b76ae725201e2da03d75e701c1",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}