22.13  Nuclear Energy Systems

Dear 22.13 Students,

Now that the semester is over and it's time to relax, or get more research done, I want to thank all of you greatly for providing such detailed course evaluations like we discussed. This is only the second time (the first being this fall's 22.033 design course) that I have received truly useful evaluations, which will actually help us improve the course right away. I am also delighted by the 79% response rate, one of the highest I've ever seen.

Many of you commented on the fast pace of the course, and you may or may not be surprised to know that I agree with you. In my opinion, 22.13 should actually cover a whole semester, or should be split up into two modules, one covering just neutronics and heat transfer (like a light version of 22.211 and 22.312), and one covering the system overview, operation, maintenance, and design choices of fission and fusion systems.

With your highly detailed and thoughtful comments as concrete evidence, I'll be suggesting this to the rest of the faculty right away.

Cheers,
-Mike

Dear Students,

For those of you who submitted something on stellar, about 85% percent of you, I've posted the final exam grades. I have also posted a set of solutions. Please note that if you arrived at a correct answer by different means (for example, straight from heat conduction in #2, or skipping the T-s diagram in #3), you can still receive full credit for a correct methodology and answer. As always, there are many ways to solve a problem. The solutions represent the methodology closest to that discussed in class.

Thanks also for the interesting "anything" posts, I've left individualized comments for everyone who sent in something neat. This was a fun exercise, I think I'll do this in the future!

Cheers,
-Mike

Dear Students,

To save everyone time waiting for the final exam grades (and by some of your requests), I've posted a Final Exam "assignment" on Stellar. However, I can't assign a grade without a submission. Therefore, I'm asking you to post absolutely anything, even an empty text file, on the site. Then I'll be able to record a grade. If I don't see a submission, I'll assume you're OK to wait for your exam to be scanned.

This is in my opinion a deficiency in the Stellar system, which I hope will be addressed shortly.

Cheers,
-Mike

Dear Students,

I've finished grading your 22.13 exams, and I've posted a grade distribution here: web.mit.edu/hereiam/Public/2213-S15-Final-Grades.png.

The letter grade cutoffs are as follows:

A:    83-100
B:    60-82
C:    40-59

Please check your inboxes later this week for your scanned exams. Don't worry if you don't see them today, we also need to have someone else check over the grades for consistency.

Cheers,
-Mike

Dear Students,

My apologies for not getting the 22.13 exams graded as quickly as we all would have liked. I had put off a number of papers and proposals while teaching the modules, which could not wait any longer. Those are finished now, and I'm in the Charlotte airport grading as we speak. My hope is that I'll have them to you by the end of this weekend, including scanned copies for you to see.

On Monday, I'll also send out the overall grade statistics for both the 22.13 and 22.14 exams, so you can see how you compare to the rest of the clss.

Thanks as always for your patience, and I'll be back in town on Monday if anyone has any questions.

Cheers,
-Mike

PS: If anyone gets this email twice, or up to eight times, it's because Stellar just threw an "unknown system error" when I tried to send. I've been trying to send this since Wednesday night. Let's see if it happens again!