Spring 2027

Introductory Experience in Electrical Engineering

Introductory course covering electrical devices, circuits, and systems with a focus on a real-world project involving both software and hardware.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Hongrui Jiang3.4/5Robert Jacobberger

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Hongrui Jiang

One student said the class was ridiculously easy and a blowoff, though they felt it did not teach anything.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Create and read electrical circuit schematics and systematically assemble them on a breadboard using discrete components

  • Verify operation of electrical circuits using electrical measuring instruments such as multimeters and oscilloscopes

  • Use a microcontroller with computer coding to read digital/analog signals, and provide digital/analog outputs that perform simple electrical functions

  • Communicate test results from electrical measurements using tables and charts

  • Perform simple electrical circuit calculations on quantities such as power, energy, voltage, current, frequency and time

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

None

  • None
ECE 210 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
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.17/5 from 18 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.

For this course: 3.8/5 raw quality · 1.5/5 difficulty · 6 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Hongrui Jiang

Reviewers noted that Professor Hongrui Jiang used videos of another professor and that the class was mostly taught by a TA. While one student found the setup unhelpful, another reported that Jiang was helpful when students got stuck, guiding them to understand problems rather than just giving answers.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.94 GPA, 98.4% A/AB (n=64 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.94 GPA, 96.5% A/AB (n=86 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.99 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=83 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=72 letter grades); Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.99 GPA, 98.6% A/AB (n=73 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Giri Venkataramanan, Nathan Strachen, John Booske

Past students described this lab-based course as hands-on with weekly breadboard work. Giri Venkataramanan structured each week clearly, while Nathan Strachen was accessible and generous with grading. John Booske kept the workload to about an hour weekly, though lectures often served primarily for attendance.

HONGRUI JIANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

MARK ALLIE is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

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

ROBERT JACOBBERGER is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 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 / 1000
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 308Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 307Classroom Instruction0 / 180

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Hongrui Jiang

One student called the course easy and criticized the setup, while another said the class was taught mostly by a TA and that Professor Jiang helped when students got stuck.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.98 GPA, 98.8% A/AB (n=167 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.87 GPA, 94.8% A/AB (n=193 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.94 GPA, 97.8% A/AB (n=179 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Hongrui Jiang

One student said the class was ridiculously easy and a blowoff, though they felt it did not teach anything.

Past student reviews · Hongrui Jiang

One student found Professor Jiang nice, easy to communicate with, and fast to respond to emails, though they felt the lectures were a bit pointless.

Topics

  • Electrical and electronic devices, circuits, and systems
  • Integration of software and hardware in circuit design
  • Communication of electrical measurement results

Skills

  • Reading and creating circuit schematics; assembling circuits on breadboards
  • Verifying circuit operation using multimeters and oscilloscopes
  • Programming microcontrollers to process digital and analog signals
  • Performing basic electrical calculations for power, voltage, and current

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 · 0.02 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
ECE 210 · Spring 2027

Introductory Experience in Electrical Engineering

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": "1274:320:023742",
    "course_id": "ECE 210",
    "course_uid": "course_1bd32bc0c6b6f790c916febd",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023742",
    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Introductory Experience in Electrical Engineering",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
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
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": "ee34eae4c3b3b5e59c2908a627d36e3b090da5dd2d13ded219b0fb3491031be3",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}