Resources

Bookmarks

There are a number of great resources about operations research, computation, academia, etc. available online.

Dr. Tucker keeps a list of links that may be helpful to others on her github site.

Getting started on research

Software that will be helpful:

A reference manager

• • Mendeley and Zotero are two good (and free) options

Programming interface

Once you've decided which programming language to use (e.g., Python, Julia, R), download the associated user interface. Here are her recommendations:

• Python: Anaconda; iPython

• R: RStudio

• Julia: Juno

• AMPL: generally it comes bundled with a user interface (IDE)

If you want to run the software in the terminal/shell, pick a text editor as well. 

• She uses Atom.

Version control

If you're working with multiple people, use a version control system. This will help you manage code when multiple people are working on it.

• •  Github is probably the most popular option.

Even if you're going solo, keep your work backed up externally (e.g., Box) and save old copies of it. She uses github for solo projects, too. For writing projects, she keeps old versions of the text in a folder called "old." It's not uncommon to need to revert to old text.

Writing

Math-heavy writing is often done using the LaTeX script.

• There are many editors that folks use to write with it. She uses TeXstudio.

• If you're collaborating with multiple folks, Overleaf is a good online software (it's like Google Docs for LaTeX).

Dr. Tucker also sometimes writes papers in Word. It's often easier for collaborators in other disciplines to use.