Thursday 3 January 2019

Is it acceptable to require a student to use the supervisor's preferred software/tools?


I'm about to supervise my first bachelor student and I'm not quite sure what is acceptable and what is not.


The thesis will contain math formulas, illustrations, images, graphs and tables - like any other paper / thesis in physics. The question is, shall I force my student to use (and learn how to use) certain SW tools (LaTeX, Matlab,...) instead of commonly used office packages (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,...)?


Is it acceptable to provide source files of my thesis and/or Matlab functions/scripts to the student? Note that the field of research is not connected to typography nor data analysis.



Edit considering JeffE's answer:



Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to require students to use the software tools that are standard in your field when they begin working in your field, even as undergraduates.



There aren't defined standard, or mandatory, tools to use. Just only vague rules how the thesis shoud look like.


Tools for specialized work, say microhardness measurements and analysis, are set and there can't be any doubts and discussions.



Answer



I would like to answer this question for the best interest of the student's, not yours.


You are supervising bachelor students. They may go to academia or industry after graduation.


If the student will pursue academic career after he graduates, then you should tell him to use the tools that are widely used in academia because it's for his best interest. I think force is a too strong word. To convince him is what you would do.



However, if he will go to industry, why waste his time to learn something he probably will never use for the rest of his life?


If the student doesn't know what he wants to do after he graduates, it's time for him to think about it now. Isn't it?


Here is my personal experience while I was in industry. I had to produce some document which contained math equations. I wanted to use LaTex. MS word was the tool I was told to use because of maintainability issue (no one else in my department knew how to use Latex). I had to follow the order. Matlab is another story. It's also used in industry.


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