Spring 2027

Engineering Extracellular Matrices

Covers ECM protein structure, function, and biophysical properties, linking them to cell/tissue function and exploring ECM engineering for regenerative medicine.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Joshua Brockman3.7/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Joshua Brockman

Lectures were fast-paced, requiring students to keep up with the content. Practice problems and homework helped reinforce understanding of the material.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the structure and function of individual ECM components and their relevance to physiological and pathophysiological processes

  • Apply biological knowledge of the ECM to inform the manipulation, mimicking, or engineering of ECM-based systems

  • Critically evaluate ECM engineering approaches

  • Apply advanced knowledge of bioconjugate chemistry to design dynamic scaffold platforms

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

B M E 430, graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students (or PHM SCI 430 prior to Fall 2026)

BME 545

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: 5.00/5 from 1 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 · Joshua Brockman

Joshua Brockman taught this course with an energetic, enthusiastic, and approachable style that made class discussions fun. Students found the fast-paced lectures required keeping up, though practice problems and homework helped with understanding.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.57 GPA, 77.1% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.45 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JOSHUA BROCKMAN 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 / 300

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 · Joshua Brockman

A student described this as their favorite BME class, noting that fast-paced lectures were balanced by helpful practice problems and homework.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.57 GPA, 77.1% A/AB (n=35 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.45 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.91 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=44 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Joshua Brockman

Lectures were fast-paced, requiring students to keep up with the content. Practice problems and homework helped reinforce understanding of the material.

Past student reviews · Joshua Brockman

The reviewer found Joshua Brockman energetic and approachable, which made class discussions fun and engaging.

Topics

  • Structure, function, and biophysical properties of ECM proteins
  • Impact of ECM manipulation on cell and tissue function
  • Engineering ECM for regenerative medicine
  • Bioconjugate chemistry and dynamic scaffold design

Skills

  • Manipulating, mimicking, or engineering ECM-based systems; designing dynamic scaffold platforms using bioconjugate chemistry
  • Critical evaluation of ECM engineering approaches

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.

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Selected offering source records
BME 545 · Spring 2027

Engineering Extracellular Matrices

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": "1274:207:023565",
    "course_id": "BME 545",
    "course_uid": "course_93c73675afb4eb1f5d3c456b",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023565",
    "source_subject_id": "207",
    "title": "Engineering Extracellular Matrices",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "599ee0598b482b860c8d2172b47b68cb7af148fd94ad20b16698465316dfb357",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}