Soft skills for Research

Why soft skills?

Extra skills necessary for efficiency
Time and efficiency is crucial for progress and meeting deadlines
Presentation skills are a must
Free/lag time is the opportunity to pick them
Sometimes ideas come from how extensive your toolkit is!

Organizing your data

Keeping data organized and retrievable
Concept of Spread sheets
Format of cells, locking, sorting
Built-in functions
Export to csv, txt for data safety and portability
Sometimes Excel is not preferred for data safety

** spread sheet software **

[[http://www.openoffice.org/product/calc.html OpenOffice.org Calc]] (free)
[[http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010858001033.aspx Microsoft Excel]]
[[http://www.originlab.com Origin]]
[[http://www.systat.com/products/SigmaPlot/ SigmaPlot]]

===== Databases =====

Data management for literature, searchable information
Think big, modular and growable

==== Database software ====

[[http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857911033.aspx Microsoft access]] for windows platform. Not free.

[[http://www.mysql.org

MySQL]] with [[http://phpmyadmin.net

phpMyAdmin]] over [[http://www.apache.org

apache server]] for any platform. These are open source software and free of cost.

===== Numerical analysis =====

Solution of linear set of equations
Numerical Integration, differentiation
Matrix operations
Image processing
Normalization, statistical analysis
Power of scripts over clicks !!!
Learn a (free) language of your choice. Make sure the compiler is available easily.

** Low level programming languages **

It is a good idea to choose to learn a language for which the compiler or the software is available for all platforms

[[public:fortran:start Fortran]] language, a must for computational science.

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_programming_language

c programming language]]: The wikipedia site has lot of useful links and information. [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/

gcc]] compiler is free, robust, opensource and available for all platforms.

** High level programming environments **

[[http://www.mathworks.com/ Matlab]]: object oriented programming language and a commercial package for all platforms.
[[http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Octave]]: Open source software and free of cost for all platforms. Almost like matlab.
[[http://www.scilab.org SciLab]]: Open source software and free of cost for all platforms.

** Scripting languages **

[[http://www.perl.org/

perl]]: object oriented programming language for scripts, pattern matching and extracting. Available freely for all platforms.

[[http://www.python.org

python]]: object oriented programming language available free for all platforms. Particularly useful for numerical computation.

===== Post-processing =====

Plotting: 2D, 3D, 4D
Rendering : Mesh, Surface, Colormap, Contours, Streamlines, Quivers etc.,
Image formats: Vector, Raster
- Vector: wmf, emf, ps, eps, pdf, psd
- Raster: jpg, gif, png, tiff
- Transparency: gif, png, most vector formats
Concept of bits in raster image formats

Use of software like gnuplot, matlab, mayavi, opendx, paraview etc. to visualize data. ==== Software ====

[[http://www.mathworks.com/ Matlab]]: Commercial software for all platforms.
[[http://www.originlab.com Origin]]: Commercial software for windows platform.
[[http://www.systat.com/products/SigmaPlot/ SigmaPlot]]
[[http://www.tecplot.com/ Tecplot]]: Commercial software for all platforms. Particularly useful for CFD.
[[http://www.gnuplot.info/ Gnuplot]]: Open source software for all platforms, free of cost.

[[http://www.visualstats.org/

viSta]]: An excellent software for statistical data analysis, ViSta (Visual Statistics, Seeing Data with Dynamic Interactive Graphics) is available free.

===== Working with analytical expressions =====

Mathematics is the language of engineers
Nature of functions, Minima, Maxima, Integration, Differentiation etc.,

Tools:

[[http://www.maple.com/ Maple]]: First symbolic computation software.

[[http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/index.html

Mathematica]]: User friendly symbolic computation software.

===== Writing it up =====

When you write an article or your thesis, check out if you are able to do the following.

Tables, Figures with captions and auto-numbering
References and cross-references with auto-numbering and sequencing
Table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, list of References to be inserted automatically
Equations and symbols that dont change their appearance from machine to machine
Page setup that is configurable from chapter to chapter and does not change from machine to machine

==== Software ====

[[http://www.openoffice.org/product/writer.html OpenOffice.Org Writer]]: WYSIWYG interface, for all platforms, open source and free of cost.
[[http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857991033.aspx Microsoft Word]]: WYSIWYG interface, for windows platform, commercial.

[[http://www.ctan.org/

Latex]]: Programmable, available for all platforms, open source and free of cost for professional looking output. Warning: you may need to use your brain. Take a look at [[http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/

who]] wrote it.

===== Other tools =====

Digitizing data from literature: e.g., Windig
Schematics and Flow charts: e.g., OpenOffice.Org Dia, Draw, Microsoft Word as a drawing tool, xfig
Accurate diagrams: autoCAD etc.,
Working with a server: eXceed to display remote windows on your m/c