What students say
My teaching philosophy is to connect rigorous academic content with practical relevance, to keep students actively engaged, and to keep improving through student feedback. Here is how students rate and describe the result.
The highest teaching evaluation among all faculty at UCL School of Management in 2018–19 (67 students). The course evaluation, 4.85, was also the highest.
Average across all years of Product, Technology and Operations Management, against a school average of 4.27.
Every course I have taught at UCL in the last 11 years, from undergraduate to MBA, has been rated 4.6 or higher by students.
Practical relevance
Frameworks tied to real decisions, through cases, real-world examples and pre-work.
The module [i.e., course] is great. It is easy to follow and the lecturer is engaging. We can quickly see how you can apply course concepts to reality, which makes it even more interesting.
This module taught me more about business than all of my modules in UCL so far together.
I appreciated the practical and interactive nature of the module. The case studies and real-world examples helped me understand how new product development is applied in practice. The teaching style encouraged participation and critical thinking, and the group activities provided valuable opportunities to collaborate with classmates. The pre-work activities were useful in preparing for class discussions and helped make the sessions more engaging and productive.
Engagement and participation
Drawing every student into the discussion.
Ersin himself - makes the subject very interesting/engaging when it could easily be taught in a very boring way.
Very enjoyable and nice teaching, please continue to spread this enthusiasm for learning!
Care and responsiveness
Patience, clear explanations and listening to feedback.
You’re the most responsible professor I have met!
The module overall is really interesting and you can see that the subject taught in class will be useful in our future, the teaching method is great. Ersin goes into details and is here for everyone, he is patient and will explain something as many times as needed. Best module of the first semester.
In the 2018/19 evaluation of Product, Technology and Operations Management, 54 of 55 students (98%) rated the lecturer “Very Good”. In 2019/20, 62 of 66 (94%) did. Comments are anonymous, from the School’s end-of-course questionnaires. UCL students use “module” to mean “course”.
Evaluations by course
| Course | Program | Format | Years | Average rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Product Development | UCL MBA elective | Recorded lectures and live sessions | 2021–2026 | 4.83 |
| Product, Technology and Operations Management | BSc/MSci Management Science, core | Face-to-face | 2015–2020, 2023–2025 | 4.89 |
| Product, Technology and Operations Management | BSc/MSci Management Science, core | Hybrid (224 students) | 2021–2022 | 4.85 |
| Product, Technology and Operations Management | BSc/MSci Management Science, core | Fully online (76 students) | 2020–2021 | 4.80 |
| Production and Operations Management | Carnegie Mellon Tepper, undergraduate core | Face-to-face | Summer 2013 | 4.80 |
Teaching recognition
- Named one of the World’s Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors by Poets&Quants, 2024 (81 nominations).
- Ranked 2nd in student votes for the BSc/MSci Management Science Best Teacher Award, 2018 and 2019.
- UK Higher Education Academy Fellowship, 2017.
- 3rd prize, INFORMS Case Competition, 2013, for the case “Redesigning Pittsburgh Port Authority’s Bus Transit System”.
Courses and programs
New Product Development
UCL MBA elective · 2021–2026
I co-designed and co-taught this course. It covers design thinking, lean start-up and business model innovation. Professionally recorded lectures are paired with live sessions, case discussions, business games and simulations. The course brings in my own research on crowdsourcing, open innovation and business model innovation.
Product, Technology and Operations Management
BSc/MSci Management Science, core · 2015–present
I designed this course. It combines core operations topics with case-based learning and scenario weeks, in which students develop product strategies and present them to industry experts. I have delivered it face-to-face, hybrid and fully online, to cohorts of 70 to 230 students.
MSc Supply Chain Management with Sustainability and Analytics
New program · launching 2027
I co-designed this new MSc, from market analysis and curriculum planning to stakeholder feedback and university approval. The program has been approved and launches in 2027. I led the design of several courses, including System- and Customer-Centric Operations in Supply Chains, Digital Transformation and Technology in Supply Chains, and Global Supply Chains and Logistics Strategy.
Teaching material
My case study “Redesigning Pittsburgh Port Authority’s Bus Transit System” (with F. Kılınç-Karzan) won 3rd prize at the 2013 INFORMS Case Competition and appears as a chapter in Advances in Business, Operations, and Product Analytics (PH Professional Business, 2015).
My research papers are used as course material at INSEAD, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, London Business School, UCLA and UCL.
Supervision, Service, and Mentoring
PhD students
- Asli Sena Bozkurt (with Yi-Chun Akchen)
- 2025–present
- Elif Cengiz (with Siddharth Singh)
- 2024–present
- Yupu Sun
- 2022–present
- Shuaishuai Yang
- 2022–present
- Ramazan Kızılyıldırım
- 2019–2025
- Sıdıka Tunç Candoğan (with Bilal Gökpınar)
- 2016–2021
Ramazan, who graduated in 2025, is now a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, and Sıdıka is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. I was also second supervisor to Nilam Kaushik (2015–2019), now an Assistant Professor at IIM Bangalore.
Postdoctoral fellows
- Antoine Feylessoufi
- 2021–2024
Antoine is now an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University.
Service and mentoring at UCL
I have served UCL in several capacities, such as recruitment committee chair (twice), member of the ethics committee, member of the promotions committee and O&T PhD coordinator, as well as serving as an official mentor for several faculty members.