MATLAB is a professional software suite and programming language that is commonly used by engineers to analyze data, create complex algorithms (more about these in Chapter 12), and more. MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory and is designed to work well with matrices and other types of arrays. MATLAB can help with digital signal processing, control systems, computer vision, and the list goes on. It is stable, robust, relatively fast, well optimized, and can run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and even on Embedded Systems. MATLAB is a pretty amazing bit of software that is well maintained, regularly updated, and well supported.
MATLAB is pricey. Currently, a single standard license is $2150. Obviously, any piece of software that can cost $2150 per user to a company must be worth learning about but I would understand the hesitation to purchase that as a student.
Luckily, if you are a student you can sometimes get MATLAB for the low, low price of $0. Some universities pay for their engineering students to have MATLAB licenses! Inquire with your University’s IT departments to see if you can download MATLAB for free on your personal computer. If your university does not have a site license, you can purchase a student license for $49, which isn’t that bad. Since this book is going to use MATLAB in every chapter, you will need to figure out a way to have access to a MATLAB installation.
In this chapter, we will explore the basics of MATLAB which will culminate in learning how to use MATLAB as an overpriced calculator. That means learning:
