News Detail

Tepper School’s David Bergman Wins CMU Graduate Student Teaching Award

Contact: Mark D. Burd 412-268-3486

Release Date: Apr 06, 2012

PITTSBURGH— Tepper School Ph.D. Candidate David Bergman has been selected as this year's recipient of Carnegie Mellon University’s 2012 Graduate Student Teaching Award.  The annual award, which was presented at a ceremony held on April 5 in the Rangos Ballroom at the University Center, recognizes teaching excellence demonstrated by outstanding teaching in the classroom, creation of innovative courses, materials or teaching methods and effectiveness in communications, review and feedback.

“Teaching has always been a passion of mine, and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach here at CMU,” said Bergman. “The students I have had the pleasure of teaching at this university are excited about learning and their enthusiasm cultivates a stimulating learning environment.  I would like to thank everyone who wrote letters on my behalf and I would especially like to thank Professor Francois Margot for nominating me for this award and for organizing my nomination packet.”

Bergman plays an active role in the Operations Research Group at the Tepper School of Business.  He is a member of the Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization program, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program administered jointly by the Tepper School of Business and Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences Departments. 

In his four years at Carnegie Mellon, Bergman has principally taught at the Tepper School of Business.  He was the primary instructor for the reinstatement of an elective course on Data Mining in the undergraduate business program, where he rewrote the course materials in their entirety.  He has also served as the recitation teacher and head Teaching Assistant for four MBA classes and as a teaching assistant for more than ten other MBA classes.  In these capacities Bergman provided individualized instruction to students and assisted in the development of course materials for core MBA classes.   His work in the MBA program includes instructing students in the Flexmode MBA Program, a long-distance learning MBA program delivered at company sites across the United States by live video conference technology

Bergman’s dedication to learning at Carnegie Mellon extends beyond his classroom instruction.  He serves on the Academic Review Board, a committee charged with reviewing cases of academic dishonesty and recommending sanctions to the Dean of Students Affairs.  He also initiated and organized the Operations Research / Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization Ph.D. student seminar series, where students from across multiple disciplines meet and give seminars based on their research.

Bergman’s nomination for the award was endorsed by more the than thirty students and faculty members at the Tepper School including Francois Margot, professor of operations research, R. Ravi, Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research and Computer Science, and Willem-Jan van Hoeve, assistant professor of  operations research and winner of the Tepper School’s 2011 George Leland Bach Teaching Award.

About the Tepper School of Business - Founded in 1949, the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University (www.tepper.cmu.edu) is a pioneer in the field of management science and analytical-decision making. The school’s notable contributions to the intellectual community include eight Nobel laureates. The school is among those institutions with the highest rate of academic citations in the fields of finance, operations research, organizational behavior and production/operations. The academic offerings of the Tepper School include undergraduate studies in business and economics, graduate studies in business administration and financial engineering, and doctoral studies. 

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