IT Tools

Communication
slack icon

CSMI uses Slack to communicate with promotions and on projects.

You can install slack and create your account with your email @etu.unistra.fr once you have it. You’ll receive an invitation at the start of the school year.

The Slack workspace used is that of Feel++, the numerical simulation software developed by Cemosis. The channels used are

#csmi-202x

for 202x promotions

#csmi

for questions about the CSMI Master’s program

Join CSMI Slack Channels
Operating systems
Linux

img ubuntu img debian

Windows 1x

img win

MacOs

img macos

  • Install Homebrew that offers a lot of packages either on Intel or ARM processors

programming environment

We’ll be using the following tools in several courses

Programming languages

img cpp img python

Here are the programming languages you’ll be using:

  • - C

  • - C++

  • - Python3

    and others you may use in your projects

  • - Rust

  • - Julia

    and use advanced programming environment based on

  • - CMake

Visual Studio Code

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Github

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The number one platform for open-source projects using git as a version control system, the platform also offers a lot of tools for project management.
We’ll be using Github management tools to keep track of projects and assignments.
You need to create an account on Github, a form will be sent at the beginning of the M1 year and your account will follow you during the 2 years. It will be used

  • - for projects in S2 and S3

  • - during internships, to submit your reports and presentations

  • - during internships for some of you, for follow-up purposes

  • - during EDP (S2) and CS3 courses, via the github classroom platform, to hand in your assignments.

    One reference: lab.github.com/ but there are plenty of others.

    Apply for the GitHub Student Developer Pack — free access to GitHub Copilot, cloud credits, and many developer tools.
JetBrains IDEs

img jetbrains

Project management and collaboration
Overleaf

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  • - Overleaf: collaborative LaTeX (reports, theses)

  • - Real-time co-editing and version history

GitHub Projects

img github projects

  • - GitHub Projects: kanban boards inside GitHub (Issues, PRs, milestones)

  • - Ideal for course projects; integrates with Classroom and Actions

Zotero

img zotero

  • - Zotero: reference manager with web importer

  • - Exports to BibTeX for LaTeX

  • - Integrates with Word, LibreOffice, and LaTeX editors

Cloud and HPC access
JupyterLab / JupyterHub

img jupyter

  • - JupyterLab: Python notebooks for data analysis and ML

  • - Works locally or on remote servers

  • VS Code extension: Jupyter to run and edit your notebooks directly in Visual Studio Code

Google Colab

img colab

  • - Google Colab: quick access to GPUs/TPUs in notebooks

  • - Practical for small ML experiments

AI and productivity tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now an everyday assistant for coding, documentation, and research. Use it to accelerate — but keep traceability and academic integrity (see note below).

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

img chatgpt

  • - Code generation, refactoring, and debugging

  • - Writing support for LaTeX/AsciiDoc (summaries, outlines)

  • - Explaining algorithms and HPC concepts ChatGPT

Claude (Anthropic)

img claude

  • - Strong with long documents and reasoning

  • - Good for reviewing scientific text and creating drafts Claude

Mistral AI

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  • - Open models (Codestral, Mixtral); works well for coding

  • - Available via LeChat or Mistral AI

Google Gemini

img gemini

  • - Google Gemini: multimodal model (text, images, code)

  • - Integrated with Google ecosystem (Drive, Docs, Gmail)

  • - Advanced reasoning and analysis capabilities

GitHub Copilot

img copilot

  • - In-editor AI pair-programmer (VS Code / JetBrains)

  • - Code completion, inline explanations, tests generation

  • - Free or discounted via GitHub Student Developer Pack

Checkout