Spring 2027

Special Topics in Statistics

Special Topics in Statistics covers rotating special topics of interest to undergraduate students, with content varying by instructor and semester.

offering recorded1–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Kris Sankaran

The course included two midterms, a group project, and homeworks that were quite a bit of work, though spread out over the semester.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
STAT 479

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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

KARL ROHE is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KRIS SANKARAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SEBASTIAN RASCHKA is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

YAZHEN WANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014. 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 / 750
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 003Classroom Instruction0 / 750
LEC 004Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 008Classroom Instruction0 / 670

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 · Sebastian Raschka

Sebastian Raschka was described as a responsible professor who delivered amazing lectures and assigned meaningful projects.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.7% A/AB (n=38 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.97 GPA, 98.2% A/AB (n=110 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.49 GPA, 68.2% A/AB (n=88 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kris Sankaran

The course included two midterms, a group project, and homeworks that were quite a bit of work, though spread out over the semester.

Past student reviews · John Gillett

One student found the teaching process too fast and noted that the instructor performed many steps on his keyboard without explaining them.

Topics

  • Rotating special topics in statistics tailored to undergraduate interests.

Skills

  • Exploration of special topics of interest to undergraduate students.

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 3 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.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.13 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
STAT 479 · Spring 2027

Special Topics in Statistics

Recorded 2026-10-14
STAT 479 · Spring 2027

Interpretable Machine Learning

Recorded 2026-10-14
STAT 479 · Spring 2027

Stat Analysis of Network Data

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:932:023894",
    "course_id": "STAT 479",
    "course_uid": "course_1282dc8dbc1e7c5749f7cc41",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023894",
    "source_subject_id": "932",
    "title": "Special Topics in Statistics",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:932:023894.27",
    "course_id": "STAT 479",
    "course_uid": "course_1282dc8dbc1e7c5749f7cc41",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023894.27",
    "source_subject_id": "932",
    "title": "Interpretable Machine Learning",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:932:023894.31",
    "course_id": "STAT 479",
    "course_uid": "course_1282dc8dbc1e7c5749f7cc41",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023894.31",
    "source_subject_id": "932",
    "title": "Stat Analysis of Network Data",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Occasionally"
  }
]
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": "61396e309fcb3a91e85d20219046e64df77a9d3b095e46a0078ee0ac59745c39",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}