Off-Campus and Home Use

If you encounter any issues accessing MATLAB from off-campus, please establish a connection through the VPN (Virtual Private Network). This will get you around any firewalls that may be blocking the connection.

Scientific Computing with MATLAB

MATLAB is a high-level interpreted programming language particularly suited to calculations involving vectors and matrices.

For example:

    Fs = 1000;
    t = [0 : 1/Fs : 10];    % t-values are 0.001 apart

    y = sin(t);             % sin of vector of t-values
    plot(t, y)

MATLAB is a product of The MathWorks.

Matlab Licenses

License fees must be paid through the Scientific Computing Webstore to use Matlab for research. More information.

Matlab Course

An introduction to Matlab course is regularly offered through IST's Software for the Academic Workplace program. The course notes and sample Matlab files from the course are available. You can register for courses online.

Online Matlab Training

The MathWorks provides a self-paced tutorial that runs a total of 90 minutes. You can take the entire tutorial or select an individual chapter specific to your needs.

Using MATLAB for Research?

• MATLAB may be used for $75 per user (per calendar year) for research on UW-owned computers. You can not share your MATLAB license with others. Licensed users are entitled to install and use MATLAB on more than one computer and more than one operating system, provided the computers are on-campus and University-owned. Faculty and staff may additionally install MATLAB on their own personal computers.
• Visit the Scientific Computing Webstore to obtain the software, purchase a license and for important information.
• Instructions to associate yourself with the UW site license and download Matlab from the Mathworks (authentication required)
• Includes access to a large number of toolboxes.
• Requires a connection to the Internet while MATLAB is running.


• Stand-alone licenses are US$500/user (perpetual; maintenance costs extra but is optional). Toolboxes are extra, typically US$200 (and up) for each toolbox. Available through The MathWorks.

Using MATLAB for Coursework?

• MATLAB may be used at no charge for coursework on UW-owned computers:

• Students may use MATLAB on Nexus computers from:
  • On campus computers, or

  • Off campus computers, using Remote Desktop to a terminal server, if supported by their faculty.

• Students may use MATLAB on Unix/Linux teaching systems from:
  • On campus computers, or

  • Off campus computers, using X-Windows or other methods supported by their faculty.

• Students may purchase their own copy of Student MATLAB from:
  • MathWorks.com.

• Instructors may obtain a copy for course preparation purposes (only) from:
  • IST Scientific Computing Support
  • An Internet connection is required for instructor licenses.

On-line MATLAB Documentation

• MATLAB Documentation
• Examples in the MATLAB Documentation
• Other Support resources (search, user-contributed file exchange, Mathtools.net, etc.).
• Some local examples
• Simulink Tutorial

Parallel MATLAB

• NEW MATLAB Distributed Computing Toolkit
  • If you are interested in evaluating this Toolbox, please contact IST Scientific Computing Support.

  • Example of computing "pi": pi_dist.m and piece.m .

Notes to Mac OS X users

• Known problems running MATLAB on Mac OS X and work-arounds

Notes to SGI users

• Known problems running MATLAB on SGIs and work-arounds

Octave: a MATLAB Work-alike

• Octave is a free MATLAB-like program.

• Most commonly-used MATLAB commands work in Octave.

• Octave is available for Windows, Linux, etc.

Last updated January 21, 2013 .

Maintained by: IST Scientific Computing Support.