Spring 2027

Introductory Microprocessor Laboratory

Introductory Microprocessor Laboratory covers software and hardware experiments with microcomputers, including assembly language programming, I/O interfacing, and interrupt processing.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Joseph Krachey4.1/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Michael Morrow

Students reported needing to work quite a bit to earn an A in this course.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Develop a schematic design using CAD tools for an embedded system

  • Design a printed circuit board (PCB) for an embedded system using CAD tools

  • Assemble an embedded system on a printed circuit board (PCB)

  • Write firmware used to control an embedded system

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

E C E 353 or concurrent enrollment, or member of Engineering Guest Students

ECE 315 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

Joseph Krachey

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.26/5 from 42 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 2025: 3.99 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=91 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.96 GPA, 97.6% A/AB (n=82 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 97.8% A/AB (n=92 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

JOSEPH KRACHEY is recorded teaching in Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL MORROW is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010. 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
LAB 003Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 006Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 001Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 004Classroom Instruction0 / 180
LAB 005Classroom 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
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Michael Morrow

ECE 315 is a one-credit lab course where students had limited interaction with the professor, who primarily designed and maintained the course content.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.99 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=91 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.96 GPA, 97.6% A/AB (n=82 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.97 GPA, 97.8% A/AB (n=92 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Michael Morrow

Students reported needing to work quite a bit to earn an A in this course.

Past student reviews · Michael Morrow

One student advised ensuring you have a good TA and a lab partner who knows what they are doing.

Topics

  • Microcomputer system experiments
  • Assembly language programming
  • Input/output interfacing
  • Interrupt processing
  • Embedded system schematic design
  • PCB design for embedded systems

Skills

  • Assembly language programming
  • Simple input/output interfacing
  • Interrupt processing in microcomputer systems
  • Schematic design using CAD tools for embedded systems
  • Printed circuit board (PCB) design using CAD tools
  • Assembling embedded systems on PCBs
  • Writing firmware to control embedded systems

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.

7 earlier forecasts · 0.04 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 315 · Spring 2027

Introductory Microprocessor Laboratory

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": "1274:320:006319",
    "course_id": "ECE 315",
    "course_uid": "course_28637d435e2aa66480a2a6f2",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "006319",
    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Introductory Microprocessor Laboratory",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "56977d615f2c1a30805037801584743d2e6b1e9a22803465e6f3b95a16088638",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}