UNH Today

Roger Grinde has learned a lot in his 30 years of teaching at the University of New Hampshire, but he has not grown complacent with that knowledge.

An associate professor of management science, Grinde recently earned the 2023 Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics Excellence in Teaching Award for Tenure Track Faculty. 

His courses primarily revolve around business analytics and information systems, and Grinde’s colleagues praise him for his ability to stay up-to-date with the latest technology while adjusting his curriculum.

“Professor Grinde is an inspiring, challenging and extraordinarily effective and versatile teacher,” said Jing Wang, associate professor of decision sciences, who nominated Grinde for the award. “He regularly reviews, improves and develops the course contents to ensure that the course materials are current, relevant and aligned with the needs of the market. His students have applauded his dedication to rigorous and high-quality teaching.”

Grinde attributes his teaching versatility to his commitment to continuous learning. He encourages his students to embrace learning as a process, and challenges as opportunities for growth.

“To me, the most rewarding times are working one-on-one, or with a few students at a time, and they’re showing what they’ve done on their model or analysis, and you can help them with their questions ... they start to realize what they don’t know and that’s when we have these jumps in understanding,” Grinde says. “Hitting those bumps or hurdles is normal and learning is not always an easy path.”

Grinde consistently receives positive evaluations from students, who say Grinde’s courses were challenging, but he was able to break down complex subjects while always being available, both in and out of class, to help them.

“Professor Grinde did an excellent job. The aspect of this class I really appreciated was utilizing modern–day tools (a few of them) to perform data visualizations. I really enjoy a class that does not just follow a textbook and this class kept my interest the entire time. It was also awesome that some of his presentations included updated information from the past few days or even day,” one student wrote.

While technology plays a key role in Grinde’s courses, he often reminds students that it’s useless without domain knowledge. For example, a student working on a housing market exercise can use artificial intelligence or other technology to analyze data, but industry knowledge is needed to accurately interpret and explain the data or identify inconsistencies and inaccuracies.

“I think one of the challenges we face as educators is to impress upon our students that to be a good decision maker, you need some of those technical skills, but you need the knowledge of why you’re doing that analysis and the domain knowledge about what you’re studying,” he says.

Grinde has always valued the balanced focus on teaching and research at UNH and views his award as a reflection of the supportive Paul College and UNH communities.

“It’s the people that make the institution,” Grinde says. “I'm blessed to be in a department that has very good teachers and I rely on them for bouncing ideas off and using and adopting some of their ideas.”