Spring 2027

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering covering fission, fusion, radiation safety, socio-economic topics, policy, history, career paths, ethics, and professional communication.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Charles Hirst3.8/5Stephanie Diem

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · John Murphy

Students reported no work for the entire semester except for one 10-page paper, with no exams.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe how nuclear science and technology are used in our world today

  • Identify different career paths in nuclear engineering

  • Distinguish the technological and socio-economic context and challenges of nuclear engineering

  • Analyze problems in nuclear engineering ethics and arrive at defensible actions

  • Produce a deliverable relevant to the class curriculum, designed by a team

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
NE 231

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: 5.00/5 from 2 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: 3.71 GPA, 89.3% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 63.5% A/AB (n=63 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.83 GPA, 93.3% A/AB (n=30 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

CHARLIE HIRST is recorded teaching in Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOHN MURPHY is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEPHANIE DIEM is recorded teaching in Spring 2024. 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
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 500
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 500

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 · John Murphy

The course offered a very interesting Survey of Nuclear topics that helped a non-Nuclear Engineering major learn a lot.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.83 GPA, 93.3% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.71 GPA, 89.3% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 63.5% A/AB (n=63 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · John Murphy

Students reported no work for the entire semester except for one 10-page paper, with no exams.

Past student reviews · Charlie Hirst

One student found the instructor nice and noted that he clearly cared about student success.

Topics

  • Nuclear fission, fusion, medical applications of radiation, and radiation safety
  • Socio-economic topics, environmental justice, community engagement, and nuclear policy
  • History and controversies in nuclear engineering
  • Career paths, engineering ethics, and professional communication

Skills

  • Professional communication and team-based deliverable design
  • Analyzing nuclear engineering ethics to determine defensible actions
  • Identifying career paths in nuclear engineering

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
NE 231 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Nuclear 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": "1274:684:013792",
    "course_id": "NE 231",
    "course_uid": "course_44ed25955269321ff988502b",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "013792",
    "source_subject_id": "684",
    "title": "Introduction to Nuclear Engineering",
    "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": "be2c491368e6f30f5be8478d4afeb6af252a037616d370fe9d87dd01d5127a7d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}