Author: Aditi Verma, Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: Socially Engaged Design of Nuclear Energy Technologies What prompted the idea for the course? The two of us had some experience with participatory design coming into this course, and we had a shared interest in bringing virtual reality into a first-year design class at the University of Michigan. It seemed like a good fit to help students learn about nuclear technologies, given that hands-on experience can be difficult to provide in that context. We both wanted to teach students about the social…