By James Fay
David Gurzick, professor of Management Science, chair of the George B Delaplaine, Jr. School of Business and director of Data Driven Frederick received his undergraduate degree in computer science from Frostburg State University, a master’s in computer science from Hood College and a Ph.D. in information systems from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The Frederick native also received certification in business analytics at Harvard University. He has been teaching at Hood since he was 25.
Q: What got you into teaching?
A:I call myself an accidental academic. While on campus at Hood one day I was talking with one of my professors. Dr. Anita Jose ran across the quad to reach my professor and said, ‘Hey we have a class that starts tomorrow, and the professor canceled on us, do you have anyone that can teach?” And my professor said “Hhey maybe this guy can do it,” and with one day’s noticed I started teaching and haven’t looked back since.
Q: What is the reason you enjoy teaching?
A: We learn as much if not more from our students than you learn from us. By that I mean you are sharing all those experience with us and as we come up with ideas, we can see them into the classroom and get immediate feedback, maybe that’s why to two groups work best together.
Q: What research are you interested in?
A: I like to think of myself of the technologist in the business school. A lot of my research focuses on data analytics and data science. Where there is a great intersection is artificial intelligence. Prior to my time at Hood, I founded and grew a company that was specialized in natural language processing and artificial intelligence before AI was cool and I continue to work in the AI field.
Q: What is your biggest challenge here with artificial intelligence?
A: A lot of students see these tools like AI and only scratch the surface when answering a prompt and give up. But by utilizing these more and understanding how they work you can really benefit from what the tools provide and understand the limitations.
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