Spring 2027

Electronic Circuits I

Electronic Circuits I covers modeling, characterization, and application of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, focusing on diodes, transistors, and op-amps for linear amplifier design.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Daniel van der Weide2.4/5Shuva Mitra

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Daniel van der Weide

Online quizzes were due twice weekly before lectures, covering material not yet taught. Students reported that homework and tests required self-study from the textbook because in-class examples were trivial or absent.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze functions and DC and AC operations of diodes, metal-oxide-semiconductor field transistors, and bipolar junction transistors

  • Utilize large and small signal models of diodes, metal-oxide-semiconductor field transistors and bipolar junction transistors in analysis of analog circuits

  • Analyze and design single stage analog amplifiers

  • Analyze and design basic differential amplifiers and multistage amplifiers

  • Analyze basic operational amplifier circuits

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 203 and 230) or member of Engineering Guest Students

ECE 340 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

Daniel van der Weide

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.59/5 from 29 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: 1.2/5 raw quality · 4.4/5 difficulty · 21 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Daniel van der Weide

Students criticized Daniel van der Weide's teaching in ECE 340, describing lectures as slow, disorganized, and lacking in-depth examples. They reported that the course required extensive self-study, with pre-lecture quizzes covering upcoming material and homework assignments often due within hours. Exams were described as difficult and poorly aligned with lecture content, while the instructor was perceived as dismissive of student questions and unclear in explanations.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2018: 3.32 GPA, 60.9% A/AB (n=64 letter grades); Fall 2019: 2.89 GPA, 37.5% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.30 GPA, 63.8% A/AB (n=116 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.89 GPA, 96.2% A/AB (n=78 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Christopher Demarco

Past students described Christopher Demarco’s lectures as clear and inspirational, with fair tests and manageable workload. However, other feedback noted his handwritten notes were sometimes hard to follow and he focused less on problem-solving. Exams were challenging but grading was perceived as fair.

CHIRAG GUPTA is recorded teaching in Spring 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHRISTOPHER DEMARCO is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DANIEL VAN DER WEIDE is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2014, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HONGRUI JIANG is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LUKE MAWST is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PAUL MILENKOVIC is recorded teaching in Fall 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SHUVA MITRA is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SRDJAN MILICIC is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WILLIAM N. HITCHON is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2015, Fall 2021. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ZHENQIANG MA is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2012, Spring 2019, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, 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 002Classroom Instruction0 / 700
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800

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 · Daniel van der Weide

Students found Daniel van der Weide's course disorganized, with lectures that failed to cover material in depth and quizzes that frequently contained errors or ambiguities.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.10 GPA, 43.8% A/AB (n=105 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.08 GPA, 49.0% A/AB (n=151 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.68 GPA, 84.4% A/AB (n=109 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Daniel van der Weide

Online quizzes were due twice weekly before lectures, covering material not yet taught. Students reported that homework and tests required self-study from the textbook because in-class examples were trivial or absent.

Past student reviews · Daniel van der Weide

Students described the instructor as condescending and unresponsive to questions, noting that he often dismissed queries as elementary and failed to explain concepts clearly during lectures.

Topics

  • Circuit-level models for diodes, bipolar and field-effect transistors, and non-ideal op-amps
  • Analysis and design of linear amplifiers
  • Frequency domain characterization of transistor circuits

Skills

  • Utilize large and small signal models of diodes, MOSFETs, and BJTs in analog circuit analysis
  • Analyze and design single-stage, differential, and multistage analog amplifiers
  • Perform frequency domain characterization of transistor circuits

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
ECE 340 · Spring 2027

Electronic Circuits I

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": "1274:320:006330",
    "course_id": "ECE 340",
    "course_uid": "course_236b13facc1d300e22cc9b1e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "006330",
    "source_subject_id": "320",
    "title": "Electronic Circuits I",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
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 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "fd6158bea7354a40642a465b85603129c6ebc38c42d429b0cf6db965f5e6ab47",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}