Spring 2027

Introduction to Electric Drive Systems

Introduction to electric drive systems focusing on system analysis, dc/induction/synchronous machine control, variable frequency operation, and coupled circuit modeling.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Patrick Flannery

The workload included six homework assignments, a final project, and three exams.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Predict the steady-state torque, speed, voltage, current, and power relationships of DC, AC-induction and AC-synchronous (including permanent magnet) electric motors and generators for constant-speed and adjustable-speed operation given equivalent circuit parameters.

  • Identify the impact of second order effects such as temperature, armature reaction magnetic fields, and magnetic circuit saturation on the predicted steady state performance of electric motors and generators for constant-speed and adjustable speed operation.

  • Determine the power electronics circuit layout for power conversion circuits that are used to adjust input voltage and/or frequency for adjustable-speed electric motor and generator systems.

  • Describe the basic concepts of torque and speed control of DC and AC electric motors including field-oriented control of AC induction and synchronous motors.

  • Predict the steady state behavior of a motor drive system composed of a machine, drive and basic control.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

(E C E 355, 356, or 377), graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students, or declared in Power Conversion and Control Capstone Certificate

    • take one
    • graduate/professional standing
    • member of Engineering Guest Students
    • declared in Power Conversion and Control Capstone Certificate
    take one
ECE 411 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
  • Any of
    • Any of
    • graduate/professional standing
    • member of Engineering Guest Students
    • declared in Power Conversion and Control Capstone Certificate

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

PATRICK FLANNERY is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

THOMAS JAHNS is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2019, Fall 2020. 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

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Patrick Flannery

Patrick Flannery taught this difficult class with clear notes and brilliant explanations, often simplifying complex concepts for better understanding.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.32 GPA, 59.4% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.06 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=32 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.63 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=77 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Patrick Flannery

The workload included six homework assignments, a final project, and three exams.

Past student reviews · Patrick Flannery

Flannery allowed test corrections on both exams and included extra credit questions, though students who disliked MATLAB found the class challenging.

Topics

  • DC machine control, variable frequency operation, unbalanced operation, scaling laws, adjustable speed/torque drives, and coupled circuit modeling.

Skills

  • Predict steady-state performance metrics for DC and AC electric machines
  • Design power electronics circuit layouts for variable voltage/frequency conversion
  • Apply torque and speed control strategies including field-oriented control

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— 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 Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · 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

1316 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

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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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
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "c2eff384c2d242b043387cf5a702a8b46c3055f2559a7b43533c5daf579907c3",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}