Instructor

Suneet Singh

Semester

Autumn ‘20

Course Difficulty

Content-wise, the course is not difficult. It involves solving a lot of differential equations and numericals. Past year papers are provided by the professor himself, the exams follow a very similar pattern.

Time Commitment Required

Moderate. Assignments were planned but due to large size of the class, this was scrapped. However we had unproctored mini quizzes once a week. Generally, students studied only 3-4 days before the midsem and endsem.

Grading Policy and Statistics

Moderate. 18 AAs, 21 ABs, 15 BBs out of 124. The professor was lenient in marking the answer scripts.

Attendance Policy

Due to online mode, attendance was not compulsory. Lectures were recorded.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites, but knowledge of differential equations would give an advantage since the course is heavy on it. Might have to revisit MA108.

Evaluation Scheme

10% mini quizzes
45% midsem
45% endsem
(however this is due to online mode, generally the course involves assignments too)

Topics Covered in the Course

Preliminary topics such as radioactivity, theory of nuclear reactors.
One speed neutron diffusion, followed by variations in different physical settings. Criticality, time dependent criticality, multi-group neutron diffusion, reflector reactors, reactor kinetics.

Teaching Style

Live lectures in class slot. Teaching was a bit monotonous. You might have to force yourself to stay awake. However, he was very responsive to doubts and answered them well. He is not strict or uptight, instead lenient and relaxed.

Tutorials/Assignments/Projects

Mini quizzes were quite easy if you follow the lectures and read the notes.

Feedback on Exams

Midsem and endsem were pretty much based on the past year patterns, you should be good to go if you have thoroughly gone through the past year exams.

Motivation for taking this course

Grading and course did not seem to be too difficult. However a lot of M.Techs and some research oriented UGs take up this course since it is a relatively hot topic.

How strongly would I recommend this course?

It is possible to get a good grade, but no free lunch in this case. Considerable effort is required but the course is not intellectually stimulating. If you do enough problems and numericals you should sail through the exams (words of the prof and I agree). I would recommend making notes since he did not provide slides last time (or at least be friends with someone who does).
Particularly for Autumn ‘20, this course had a lot of students enrolled which might make things a bit competitive.
Also, the course is not deep in theory. So you might not get a good theoretical knowledge.

EN 613 Review By: Arjun Kulshrestha