This is going to come as a really random post, but in an age where everyone uses a computer for coursework I've found that certain skill-sets (soft skills) are particularly useful to have. Things like knowing how to do a bit of graphic design, or a bit of programming, can make a difference for a project or even as an addendum to your CV. You can also pick these skills up in your spare time, so it does not take a genius, or structured lessons to learn them. Some of the software I will mention below are open source, and others can cost a fortune, but you'll find for most that do that your school or faculty may have them on campus IT facilities.
Graphic Design
Useful when you need to design the occasional poster, nice powerpoint slides, programme booklet, logo, or front cover for a report. Depending on how proficient you are this can range from the very simple (like cropping, sharpening and changing brightness/contrast) to the very complicated (vectoring, redrawing, collaging and interface design), but it tends to save the day when you have a picture just perfect for your report but an ugly polar bear is sitting in the corner and detracting from the main purpose.
Programs: Adobe Photoshop, GIMP (free), Paint.NET, CorelDraw, MS Paint
Typesetting
MS Word or iWorks Pages are fantastic tools for writing that 1000 word essay, but if you happen to be working on a 50 page academic document or a 100 page convention booklet, using either of the above can get pretty iffy. For the scientifically inclined, I've found LaTeX to be a very good alternative so long you can get pass the steep learning curve. It's essentially a word processor that uses programming commands, so it's like typing programming code, except this code when "compiled" gives you your document. It is really good at handling references, bibliographies, and typesetting mathematical equations as quickly as possible. If you want to put in a lot of artsy images and have very strategically arranged text in one place or another, outsourcing text in one document to another, go for Adobe Indesign.
Programs: LaTeX2E (free), Adobe Indesign, MS Word, iWorks Pages
Sound
Knowing how to trim the first few seconds of silence in a soundtrack, or boost the overall volume, or record a narration for that video project has come in useful for me a good number of times in the six years I've been in NUS High.
Programs: Audacity (free), Logic, Reason, Adobe Soundbooth
Video/Movie
Somewhere in the NUS High curriculum is a couple of video projects, most of which generally result in cobbled together YouTube videos. Not altogether a bad option, but knowing how to rearrange videos, fade stuff in and out, throw in a bit of text overlays and export at a high resolution gives your work that much more "omph" and makes it stand out from the others. If you do want to take it further, the current state of technology is such that you can generate many things, from rain, to particles, to people, to bullet trails, all using computer graphics. Figuring out how to do so takes a significant amount of commitment, but your stuff can look really cool if you do it right.
Programs: Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Studio, iMovie, Sony Vegas
Engineering/Physics
This is going to be a slightly niche area, but still very relevant for many of us. If you happen to be doing some kind of physics or mathematics related work you'll want to look at either Mathematica or MATLAB. These are programs which can conduct complex and detailed simulations based on almost any parameters you put in. You can use them to model the airflow around an airplane, predict the trajectory of a bouncing ball, or simply add 1+1. Mathematica is great for symbolic evaluations, whilst MATLAB is good for analytical solutions and matrices (which is it's namesake after all)
Programs: Mathematica, MATLAB, Maple, Octave (free but stripped down version of MATLAB)
Programming
I've found knowing a programming language or two extremely handy when you need to design something, either on a webpage or for a specific project. The actual needs in this area for every individual vary quite greatly, but most Science students get by knowing at least one or two for contingencies. The whole idea is that people now tend to go for "Computational Biology" or "Computational Physics" or "Computational Chemistry", and essentially where "Computational-" is appended to the front of a field, you use a programming language, which is linga franca of the computer in front of you right now.
Programs: JAVA, C++, C#, HTML/JavaScript, PHP, Visual Basic, the list goes on...
So at this point you might ask: why would I need to go master/learn any of these things? Can't I just submit a normal report, maybe spending a bit more time formatting my word document, or having a movie with just a bit less effects, or just leaving a couple of seconds of silence in my sound clip? The fact is, it all boils down to presentation. For the grade-oriented, aesthetic appeal can make a difference in the work you submit, because it is so much more pleasing to view. Everyone has seen the jerky video, the boorish, flashy poster with mismatched fonts and the screechy sound track. Apart from the grades, knowing techniques which are relevant to the field you intend to study in the future can make your life in University easier, because you don't spend time learning all of it. As an example, a good number of universities worldwide use LaTeX as their main publishing method. Also, if say you are applying to Computer Science, being able to state that you know a few programming languages does show your interest in the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment