Zhiru Sun

Zhiru Sun is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, affiliated with the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science. Their research focuses on the intersection of education, humanities, and data science, with expertise in Learning Analytics (LA), Digital Humanities (DH), and AI applications in education and humanities. Sun holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from The Ohio State University (2011–2015), alongside advanced degrees in Applied Statistics and Cultural Foundations of Technology.

Key research interests include student motivation and performance analysis, historical data mining in DH, and human-centered AI in education. They have received notable awards such as the Outstanding Proposal Award (2021) and the Loadman Outstanding Dissertation Award (2016). Sun leads projects like 'Empowering Humanities Education with Deep Learning' and 'Flipped Classroom Design for Self-Regulation.' Their work spans collaborative learning algorithms, flipped classroom efficacy, and generative AI policy analysis in education.

• Educations: Ph.D. in Educational Technology, M.Sc. in Applied Statistics, and M.Sc. in Cultural Foundations (all from The Ohio State University)
• Key Projects: FREI: The Danish Family Revolution, DH Visualization Tools
• Teaching: Courses include Digital Humanities, Data Science, and Web-mediated Communication

Recent publications address learner empowerment in online environments, negotiation skills in collaborative games, and group formation algorithms for optimal learning outcomes.