In a workforce landscape — and perhaps in the world overall — that’s consistently figuring out how to support better decision-making, the need for data analysts is greater than ever.

Professor Ming-Hsiang Tsou presents Glen Taparan with his degree (image provided by the SDSU BDA Department).

That was the message recent SDSU Online Big Data Analytics (BDA) master’s graduate Gian Taparan wants to share with people looking to make a tangible difference in their careers.

“In our increasingly complex world, more and more data is being produced,” said Taparan, who graduated in May from the SDSU Global Campus program. “While the vast majority of this data will turn out to be noisy and unintuitive, the rest will be used to make decisions that shape the world.” 

Taparan is currently working at a privately owned dermatology clinic in the Bay Area. He works directly with patient healthcare data and the healthcare providers in order to create and affirm the best healthcare plan for the hundreds of patients the office sees every week. 

One of the questions students are asked when starting every new class in the BDA program is, what interests you about data analysis?

“My answer was always “discovering the intersection between healthcare/medicine and data,” said Taparan, who finished the entire program from his home in the Bay Area. “The BDA program helped me to approach problems like the ones I encounter in this role from not only a purely objective standpoint, but from an empathetic and ethical one as well.”

Last spring’s graduation featured just the second cohort in the BDA program specific to the Global Campus group. 

Amir Reza Ahrabi graduated from San Jose State with bachelor’s in business analytics and a master’s in statistics from Cal Poly.

He works full-time at Google as a program manager, directing all Google Pixel accessories. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area so the flexibility of the 100 percent online program was a large factor in his decision to pursue a second master’s degree.

“I was really looking to expand my educational background,” Reza Ahrabi said. “I saw this opportunity, and was like, hey, how do I build on top of that? In my current role I travel a lot. I was looking at how do I continue this education without having the strain of going to class in person? That was my No. 1 sticking point.”

What stuck out for Reza Ahrabi was how hands-on BDA Program Director Ming-Hsiang Tsou was throughout the program.

It’s a concerted effort for the geography professor to focus on student development without losing sight of the goal of career preparation.

“Our online Global Campus students are more diversified with a different background, but that’s actually our purpose for this interdisciplinary program,” Tsou said. “So we welcome students from sociology, from public health, from economics. They have different backgrounds, but they come here to train and learn those data analytic skills, the data science tools, programming skills, machine learning, AI. Even after coming from different backgrounds, they become very capable of solving those real world problems.”

SDSU Global Campus 2026 BDA Graduates (image provided by the SDSU BDA Department).

Originally from San Diego, Pilar de Haro had six years of professional experience when entering the BDA program.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Cal State Northridge and wanted her advanced degree from the university she set as a goal growing up here. 

“(In Gabriella Fernandez’s class) I was able to explore the social inequities faced for those living near the San Diego/Tijuana border,” de Haro said. “I was able to end-to-end collect and analyze the data, presenting the data at several conferences. It wasn’t just about gaining the technical skills and applying them, it was really cool to have those insights while understanding the gaps in services for those based around the border.”

Taparan chose SDSU because of its reputation for being a world-class research institution. While deciding where to apply, he saw the news SDSU had achieved R1 status. 

As an undergrad, he knew he wanted to focus more on research if he ever went back to school. 

SDSU Global Campus checked all of his boxes — remote, strong research presence, and having a program he would enjoy being a part of so he could continue his path of changing the world for the better.

“The advent of AI demands better human decision making,” said Taparan, who earned a 4.0 in the program. “Who better to take on this challenge than new data analysts with fresh perspectives? Political uncertainty, economic volatility and social change are all issues people around the world experience. And while it is easy to give up and accept the negatives of the world, data analysts — like the ones prepared by institutions like SDSU — have the tools to help make these better decisions.”