Spring 2027

Introduction to Materials Science

Introduction to Materials Science covering basic structures and properties of solids, including phase equilibria, mechanical properties, failure, corrosion, and materials selection.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Franklin Hobbs4.3/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 55.3% A/AB (n=206 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.12 GPA, 44.8% A/AB (n=221 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.19 GPA, 48.1% A/AB (n=214 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe some of the ways a range of materials, including ceramics, metals, and polymers, have economic, societal, and political ramifications, both on the present and in history

  • Explain how the structure inside a material can be manipulated across a wide range of length scales (0.1nm – 1mm) to control its properties

  • Analyze the interrelationships among structure, processing, properties, and performance in material

  • Justify the use of a material based on the material properties, the engineering constraints of project, functionality, and human and environmental interaction

  • Demonstrate a quantitative understanding of material properties and structure

  • Interpret commonplace representations of data and concepts in materials (e.g. Arrhenius relationship, TTT diagram, Larson-Miller Plot, Ashby Map)

  • Communicate with peers to analyze problems in materials selection and design and develop skills for working in collaborative environments

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

CHEM 103, 109, 115, graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students. Not open to students with credit inM S & E 351.

MS&E 350 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

Franklin Hobbs

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.89/5 from 19 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: 3.17 GPA, 46.9% A/AB (n=211 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.35 GPA, 60.0% A/AB (n=210 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.12 GPA, 44.8% A/AB (n=221 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

FRANKLIN HOBBS is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 900
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 900

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 55.3% A/AB (n=206 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.12 GPA, 44.8% A/AB (n=221 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.19 GPA, 48.1% A/AB (n=214 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Basic structures and properties of solid materials
  • Phase equilibria and meta-stability
  • Mechanical properties, failure, and corrosion
  • Materials selection
  • Economic, societal, and political ramifications of ceramics, metals, and polymers

Skills

  • Analyzing interrelationships among structure, processing, properties, and performance in materials
  • Manipulating material structure across length scales to control properties
  • Quantitative understanding of material properties and structure
  • Interpreting data representations such as Arrhenius relationships, TTT diagrams, and Ashby Maps

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 · 0.21 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.

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Selected offering source records
MS&E 350 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Materials Science

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": "1274:636:012621",
    "course_id": "MS&E 350",
    "course_uid": "course_4cd797cc625204964e694bb0",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "012621",
    "source_subject_id": "636",
    "title": "Introduction to Materials Science",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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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": "3ced1b52e9fdc28c1d79f337607934d4849ac0c1bde8f8fd3f6f5bd49e91205f",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}