Reviews of professor Tianshu Sun

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
The course description says this course is for those with no prior knowledge or experience in big data, which is a complete lie. The lectures cover pretty basic stuff, yet the group project requires you to find a public database and analyze it with some software you never learn in class, which is ridiculous. Absolute no if you're a beginner.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Tianshu knows A LOT about data analytics and it shows how passionate he is about data during lectures. He teaches various data analytical tools such as SQL Tableau BigQuery that is VERY VERY important to all jobs relevant to data to this day. Take his class if you have the chance!!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Tianshu is very caring towards his students and is very accessible outside of class. He brings in guest speakers from top firms (Google, Alibaba, LInkedIn, etc). Tianshu is very passionate in what he is teaching. I have learned SQL from zero knowledge and I have used it in my job interviews. He is the kindest professor I have ever met!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Honestly, he's one of the best professors I've had at USC. He cares about his students a lot. He brings donuts and coffee for us during the midterm and the final. He's very flexible and is willing to schedule a call with you to answer your questions outside of class, and all the concepts he teaches relate to the real world!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
The professor is approachable and knowledgeable about the field of data science. You will learn the skills of a data analyst. Textbooks optional, midterm and final are open books. The project is basically what you will do as a data analyst. Take this class if you are interested in the field of data analyst or working in tech.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Tianshu is great. Five stars because he's friendly, caring, approachable, and will go to any length for his students. Also has sooo much industry knowledge and connections. That said, lectures are extremely dry, and lecture slides are very jumbled. There are certain times when he doesn't explain technical concepts well enough. Ask whenever needed.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
very unclear

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Really enjoyed learning more about Data Science and big data. Tianshu has a lot of respect in the data science field and helped make the course materials easier by applying them to his experience. This class is a lot of work but definitely worthwhile.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Tianshu is a nice guy who has lots of relevant industry experience, but because he is so knowledgable in what he's teaching, it can be hard for him to teach in a way that students can understand. Gives convoluted explanations  could explain the same thing in a fraction of the time he does.