This document provides recommendations for software and programming languages that undergraduate students of agricultural engineering should learn. It recommends that students develop intermediate to advanced skills in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint for data analysis, report writing, and presentations. For computer-aided design, it suggests learning AutoCAD to an intermediate or advanced level. For geographic information systems, it recommends beginning to learn QGIS. The document also provides an overview of programming languages like Python that are useful for data science and subject-oriented software that address different areas of agricultural engineering.

1. Software & Programming Languages
for Undergraduate Students of
Agricultural Engineering
Md Moudud Hasan
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural and Industrial Engineering
Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University
Dinajpur, Bangladesh

2. Basic requirements
• All students should have intermediate/advance level skills on
• Data analysis
• Report writing
• Presentation
• Engineering student:
• Computer Aided Design (CAD)
• Geographic Information System (GIS), etc.
• Research/Higher education (MSc/PhD):
• Programming language
• Languages for data Science
• Subject oriented code/software/program

3. Data analysis
• Microsoft Excel
• Free alternative:
• Google Docs Spreadsheet
• Apache OpenOffice
• LibreOffice
• Excel Web Application, etc.
• Excel Functions:
• Concatenation, Find & Replace, Filter & Sort, Conditional Formatting, Index
Match, Remove Duplicates, Logic Functions, IfError, Macros, Pivot Tables,
Cross Reference Table, LOOKUP Functions, Data filters, Advanced Charts,
Graphics, SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, Solver, Data Analysis tool (T-test, Anova)
etc.
• For higher education: R, Python

4. Report writing
• Microsoft Word
• Free alternative:
• Google Docs
• Apache OpenOffice
• LibreOffice
• MS Web Application, etc.
• Word Functions:
• Styles, Creating a table of contents from styles, Use the document map to
navigate, Headers and footers, Cross referencing, Hyperlinks, Bookmarks,
Footnotes and endnotes, Page numbering, Track changes, etc.
• For higher education: LaTeX, Markdown
• Writing assistant: Grammarly, ProWritingAid, etc.
• Reference management: Mendeley, Zotero, etc.

5. Report writing
• Reference management: Mendeley, Zotero.
wikipedia

6. Presentation
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Free alternative:
• Google Docs
• Apache OpenOffice
• LibreOffice
• MS Web Application, etc.
• PowerPoint Functions:
• Changing theme, layout & background, Inserting Picture & Multimedia, Slide
Transitions, Animation & Timing, Slide show mode, etc.
• LaTeX, Markdown

7. Computer Aided Design (CAD)
wikipedia
Skills:
• Creating basic objects
• Manipulating objects
• Annotating the drawing
• Dimensioning
• Plotting your drawings
• 2D & 3D drawings, etc.

8. Geographic Information System (GIS)
wikipedia
• Basic GIS operations: Making a Map, Working with Projections, Digitizing Map Data, etc.
• Intermediate GIS operations: Performing Table Joins, Performing Spatial Queries, Creating Heatmaps, etc.
• Advanced GIS operations: Nearest Neighbor Analysis, Interpolating Point Data, Sampling Raster Data using Points or
Polygons, etc.
• Python Scripting (PyQGIS) qgistutorials.com/en/

9. Programming Languages (for data Science)
• C/C++
• Python, R, MATLAB

10. Programming Languages (for data Science)
• Python • R
Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-r/modules/learn-r-introduction/cheatsheet
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python-3/modules/learn-python3-syntax/cheatsheet

11. Subject oriented code/software/program
Crop-water
model
Soil-water
model
Surface-
water model
Groundwater
model
Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD)
EPANET: water
distribution system
modeling
……. 100s More
Structural analysis
and design of
buildings
Yield Editor Farm Works Laboratory Virtual
Instrument Engineering
Workbench (LabVIEW)

12. Other tools
• Google Search Operators:
• “…”; AND; OR; -; *; ( ); site: ; filetype: ; define: ; etc.
• Search Engines for Academic Research:
• Google Scholar
• Microsoft Academic, etc.
• Bash Commands in the Terminal:
• Print Current Working Directory (pwd)
• Change Current Working Directory (cd)
• ls, mkdir, rm, cp, etc.

13. Learning platforms
• Academic course :
• C/C++, AutoCAD, GIS
• Online Learning platforms:
• Edx.org
• Udemy
• Coursera.org
• Codecademy
• YouTube

14. Recommendations
• Data analysis: MS Excel  Advance
• Report writing: MS Word  Advance
• Presentation: MS PowerPoint  Advance
• Computer Aided Design (CAD): AutoCAD  Intermediate/advance
• Geographic Information System (GIS): QGIS  Beginner/intermediate
• Reference management: Mendeley  Beginner/intermediate
• Programming language: Python  Beginner/intermediate

16. hasan_moudud@hstu.ac.bd