Tools & Links to learn and inspire

• What characterises academic writing?
• Academic Writing in English at University by Lund University platform : Abbreviations, Emails, Abstracts , and Predatory reading
• Tips and tools - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Web of Science Journal Title Abbreviations

The framework presents the knowledge, behaviour and attributes common to researchers in higher education. The access to the framework is highly reccommended if you are doing a doctorate, are a member of research staff, pursuing an academic career or thinking about applying the skills developed during your PhD in another career. It sets out the wide-ranging knowledge, intellectual abilities, techniques and professional standards expected to do research, as well as the personal qualities, knowledge and skills to work with others and ensure the wider impact of research. - source

• Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) 2011
• Post about the RDF: "The Researcher Development Framework: Sow’s ear or silk purse?"

Researcher Development Skills Framework - source from University of Canberra website

Wolfram Mathematica (usually called simply as Mathematica) is a computational software program used in many scientific, engineering, mathematical and computing fields, based on symbolic mathematics. The Wolfram Language is the programming language used in Mathematica. - source

LaTeX is a document preparation system. When writing, the writer uses plain text as opposed to the formatted text found in WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") word processors. LaTeX is widely used for academic purposes, mostly communication and publication of scientific documents in several fields. It also has a prominent role in the preparation and publication of books and articles that contain complex multilingual materials, such as Sanskrit and Greek. LaTeX uses the TeX typesetting program for formatting its output, and is itself written in the TeX macro language.

LaTeX is intended to provide a high-level, descriptive markup language that accesses the power of TeX in an easier way for writers. In essence, TeX handles the layout side, while LaTeX handles the content side for document processing. LaTeX comprises a collection of TeX macros and a program to process LaTeX documents, and because the plain TeX formatting commands are elementary, it provides authors with ready-made commands for formatting and layout requirements such as chapter headings, footnotes, cross-references and bibliographies. LaTeX is free software and is distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL). - source

Useful links:

Coursera is an American online learning platform founded in 2012 that offers massive open online courses (MOOC), specializations, and degrees. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, specializations, and degrees in a variety of subjects, such as engineering, data science, machine learning, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, and others. - source

Coursera offers several mechanical engineering short courses for free and available with plans to charge for certifications.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. - source

Why should students watch TED talks? - source

• There is something for everyone. Whether you’re interested in improving an area of your life, learning something new, get inspired or just want to have a laugh, TED talks have it covered.
• The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. This way, you get a boost from learning something new and remember it. “18 minutes is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention.”
• Students can better grasp topics they might not fully understand at first glance, think critically about how they think about the world, and discuss other big ideas alongside their own.
• It may be used for improving the English vocabulary and presenting a talk.
• TED talks are available on any device (smartphone, laptop or tablet) and totally free.

In the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program helps communities, organizations and individuals produce TED-style events at the local level. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis, under a free license from TED. - source