Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.85 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=10 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.86 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=7 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.
Fall 2026
Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
ME 601 covers advanced special topics in Mechanical Engineering including vibrations, manufacturing, and energy systems.
Summary
1 / 6
Historical reviews of Xiaobin Xiong: The syllabus is dense and math-intensive, with exams that can be impossibly hard and homework that may not align with lecture content.
Grade history
↗ average GPA
letter grades
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F
All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSenior standing or member of Engineering Guest Students
- Senior standing
- member of Engineering Guest Students
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- Senior standing
- member of Engineering Guest Students
Professors
Fall 2026Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.83 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=6 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.40 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades).
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2015: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Fall 2016: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades); Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=1 letter grades).
No course-specific feedback yet.
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades); Fall 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.86 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=28 letter grades).
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Historical reviews of Xiaobin Xiong: Xiaobin Xiong teaches a mathematically dense robotics course that reviewers find challenging but rewarding. He provides extensive materials like preview videos and recorded lectures to support learning. While the syllabus is full and exams are difficult, the high-quality projects and research focus make it valuable for interested students.
ANDREW MIKKELSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
CHRISTOPHER LUZZIO is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
FRANK PFEFFERKORN is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JAY SAMUEL is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JOHN MOSKWA is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
JOHN PFOTENHAUER is recorded teaching in Spring 2011, Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
MICHAEL DECICCO is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
XIAOBIN XIONG is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
YING LI is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. 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 042 | Classroom Instruction | 2 / 1 | 0 |
| LEC 076 | Classroom Instruction | 15 / 16 | 0 |
| LEC 086 | Classroom Instruction | 13 / 28 | 0 |
| LEC 085 | Classroom Instruction | 10 / 45 | 0 |
| LEC 087 | Online Only | 0 / 30 | 0 |
| LEC 075 | Classroom Instruction | 13 / 28 | 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 of Xiaobin Xiong: Recent reviews for Xiaobin Xiong describe a challenging, math-heavy robotics course that is highly recommended for research-oriented students despite its difficulty.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.85 GPA, 97.6% A/AB (n=42 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.79 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=99 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.90 GPA, 96.1% A/AB (n=76 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Historical reviews of Xiaobin Xiong: The syllabus is dense and math-intensive, with exams that can be impossibly hard and homework that may not align with lecture content.
Historical reviews of Xiaobin Xiong: Students appreciate the high-quality final projects and the availability of preview and recorded videos to help manage the complex material.
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 · 0.10 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
Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering
Recorded 2026-09-07Laser Based Manufacturing
Recorded 2026-09-07AI in Mechanical Engineering
Recorded 2026-09-07Model Reduction
Recorded 2026-09-07Design for Rehabilitation
Recorded 2026-09-07Mechanical Dissection
Recorded 2026-09-07EChem: Devices for E.Conv & St
Recorded 2026-09-07Raw records
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"title": "AI in Mechanical Engineering",
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"title": "Model Reduction",
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"offering_id": "1272:612:012097.42",
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"title": "Design for Rehabilitation",
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{
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"offering_id": "1272:612:012097.76",
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"title": "Mechanical Dissection",
"credits_min": 1,
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},
{
"run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
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"offering_id": "1272:612:012097.90",
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"course_uid": "course_49f4cc81838176c2180ea21f",
"term_id": "1272",
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"title": "EChem: Devices for E.Conv & St",
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}
]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": "88d596959d1a92b60c57a7f879e0b0fe97be42b63fb5d57a0f2ccf98ea314c71",
"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}