Spring 2027

Elementary Heat Transfer

Elementary Heat Transfer covers fundamental concepts of conduction, convection, and radiation, along with heat-exchanger principles.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Dakotah Thompson3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Dakotah Thompson

Exams were reported as difficult to finish in time, and the instructor did not curve grades. One student noted that homework formatting took more time than the actual heat transfer problems.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Predict the rate of heat transfer for steady state situations involving conduction, convection, and radiation

  • Develop numerical models of 0-D, 1-D, and 2-D transient temperature distributions

  • Develop computer models of radiation situations involving multiple grey surfaces

  • Simulate and optimize heat exchangers for a variety of applications

  • Qualitatively predict the velocity and temperature distribution associated with boundary layers in convection problems

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 361 and (M E 363 or concurrent enrollment), or member of Engineering Guest Students

ME 364 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: 4.17/5 from 6 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.

Past student reviews · Dakotah Thompson

Dakotah Thompson was described as approachable and helpful during office hours, though some students found lectures dry or hard to follow. Reviewers noted his exams were difficult to finish in the allotted time and that he did not curve grades, which made achieving high marks challenging despite his supportive teaching style.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 2.84 GPA, 15.9% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.09 GPA, 36.8% A/AB (n=68 letter grades); Spring 2026: 2.73 GPA, 21.4% A/AB (n=70 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Allison Mahvi

Professor Allison Mahvi received mixed feedback on the course's difficulty. One student found the class tough, noting that lecture examples were poor preparation for assignments and that homework emphasized EES debugging over concepts. Another student praised her handwritten lectures and caring demeanor, describing exams as somewhat difficult but recommending her highly.

ALLISON MAHVI is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ARGANTHAEL BERSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAKOTAH THOMPSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID FOSTER is recorded teaching in Spring 2007. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

FRANKLIN MILLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

GREGORY NELLIS is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2010, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2015, Fall 2018, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL CHEADLE is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017. 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 / 1680
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 280
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 280
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 280
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 280
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 280
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 280

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 · Dakotah Thompson

Dakotah Thompson was a helpful and approachable instructor who worked with students until they grasped concepts. Students described him as friendly and willing to make time for those struggling with the material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.16 GPA, 47.0% A/AB (n=149 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.38 GPA, 62.7% A/AB (n=193 letter grades); Spring 2026: 2.89 GPA, 31.3% A/AB (n=150 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Dakotah Thompson

Exams were reported as difficult to finish in time, and the instructor did not curve grades. One student noted that homework formatting took more time than the actual heat transfer problems.

Past student reviews · Dakotah Thompson

Lectures were sometimes hard to follow or dry, but office hours were consistently described as easy and informative. The instructor made an effort to support students through the challenging course content.

Topics

  • Conduction, convection, and radiation.
  • Heat-exchanger principles.

Skills

  • Predicting heat transfer rates in steady state conditions.
  • Developing numerical models for transient temperature distributions.
  • Creating computer models for radiation between multiple grey surfaces.
  • Simulating and optimizing heat exchangers.
  • Qualitatively predicting velocity and temperature distributions in boundary layers.

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 · 0.10 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
ME 364 · Spring 2027

Elementary Heat Transfer

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": "1274:612:011996",
    "course_id": "ME 364",
    "course_uid": "course_e943bbcb154c20d2c16a6792",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "011996",
    "source_subject_id": "612",
    "title": "Elementary Heat Transfer",
    "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
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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": "79926e3ab4b2ccfada76e5eca815cd25c1b52b260795f767b0cc44946b7198f6",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}