Spring 2027

Design of Machine Elements

Design of Machine Elements covers analysis and design of machine components, focusing on loads, stresses, fatigue, material selection, and power transmission systems like gearing and bearings.

offering recorded3 credits

Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Heidi Ploeg

One student found the course covered a wide range of difficult material that was hard to synthesize, noting there was always a significant amount of work due.

What you’ll be able to do

Sketch failure envelopes for both brittle and ductile static failure theories and use these to estimate safety factor against potential static stress failure
Calculate safety factor for high cycle fatigue of steel components
Assess safety factor for straight cut spur gears against bending and surface fatigue failure
Predict the failure rate of components based on property and load distributions and estimate the cost of these failures in terms of human life and limb
Quantify specifications of belt and pulley systems for successful transmission of power between parallel shafts
Quantify specifications of rolling element bearings for successful shaft support

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗

average GPA
letter grades

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(M E 306 orE M A 303) and (M E 331,B M E 201, or concurrent enrollment or declared in Biological Systems Engineering), or member of Engineering Guest Students

- - - M E 306
    - EMA 303
    take one
  - - ME 331 · prior_or_concurrent
    - BME 201 · prior_or_concurrent
    - concurrent enrollment or declared in Biological Systems Engineering
    take one
  take all
- member of Engineering Guest Students
take one

ME 342 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

Any of
- All of
  - Any of
    - M E 306
    - EMA 303
  - Any of
    - ME 331 · prior_or_concurrent
    - BME 201 · prior_or_concurrent
    - concurrent enrollment or declared in Biological Systems Engineering
- member of Engineering Guest Students

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANDREW MIKKELSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTOPHER WESTPHAL is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HEIDI-LYNN PLOEG is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAY SAMUEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KRISTOFER DRESSLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROBERT ROWLANDS is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RYAN KERSHNER is recorded teaching in Fall 2010. 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.

Section	Mode	Enrolled / capacity
LEC 001	Classroom Instruction	0 / 149
DIS 302	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
DIS 303	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
DIS 304	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
DIS 305	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
DIS 306	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
DIS 301	Classroom Instruction	0 / 28
LEC 002	Classroom Instruction	0 / 90

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 · Heidi Ploeg, Ryan Kershner

Students described Heidi Ploeg as incredibly helpful with homework, while Ryan Kershner's lectures were considered convoluted with insufficient examples. Exams were reasonable but not easy, and tests were open book and note.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.32 GPA, 65.3% A/AB (n=167 letter grades); Fall 2025: 2.72 GPA, 34.2% A/AB (n=155 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.12 GPA, 40.4% A/AB (n=161 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Heidi Ploeg

One student found the course covered a wide range of difficult material that was hard to synthesize, noting there was always a significant amount of work due.

Past student reviews · Ryan Kershner

A student noted that most homework topics were not covered in lecture, requiring extensive reading from the textbook, which they described as not being great.

Topics

Loads, stresses, deflections, material selection, fatigue failure, and finite elements.
Mechanical power transmission components, including gearing, bearings, shafting, and frictional devices.

Skills

Estimate safety factors for static and fatigue failures, including sketching failure envelopes and calculating high-cycle fatigue limits.
Assess gear safety factors for bending and surface fatigue, and quantify rolling element bearing specifications for shaft support.
Analyze loads, stresses, and deflections; select materials; and apply finite element concepts to machine design.

Grades

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 · 0.21 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 342 · Spring 2027

Design of Machine Elements

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": "1274:612:011979",
    "course_id": "ME 342",
    "course_uid": "course_b5cc447e8038efff870ea454",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "011979",
    "source_subject_id": "612",
    "title": "Design of Machine Elements",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]

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

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 Download part 2

Model & dataset provenance

{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "6fee6f030bc871db351c0baf2d426c0515ae3c464eefed05cbb26e6020734184",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}

Design of Machine Elements

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

Grade history

Prerequisites

Professors

Calendar & sections

Student experience

the class

difficulty & workload

Topics

Skills

Grades

Spring 2027 · Projected

Grades over time

Where this course fits relative to UW–Madison

Sources & history

Catalog & offerings

Student reviews

Grade history

Where this course fits relative to