Mathematical Software at WCU

MATLAB Release 14	Maple	Geometer's Sketchpad
MINITAB	SPSS	Fathom
Vensim PLE

      

    The Department and/or University have purchased licenses to several pieces of software.  The number of licenses and type of license vary from application to application, as do installation proceedures.  Please see the details regarding each particular software.  Note, IT Services has indicated that these applications will not run from the residence halls due to fire wall issues with Resnet.  They are however available from the university computer labs.

MATLAB:

The Department has purchased 35 concurrent (floating) licenses for the high-performance numeric computation and visualization software, MATLAB, and 25 concurrent licenses for the Symbolic, Bioinformatics, Image Processing, Neural Network, Signal Processing, Statistics, and Wavelet Toolboxes.  These are available on a university server.  You must first email IT Services (itshelp@email.wcu.edu) to request installation as they have the CD needed to complete the process described in the installation instructions.

    IT Services Installation Guide for MATLAB Release 14 on Windows XP:  MATLAB Guide

Maple:

The Department has purchased 15 concurrent (floating) licenses for the Computer Algebra System (CAS),  Maple.  These are available on a university server.  There is no need to contact IT Services for this installation.  Simply follow the instructions provided below to install the needed client software on your machine.

Geometer's Sketchpad:

The Department has purchased a university-wide license for the dynamic geometry software, Geometer's Sketchpad.  Geometer's Sketchpad is available on a university server.  Instructions for installation on faculty machines have been adapted from the IT Services directions for installing Fathom.

The University has purchased 100 concurrent (floating) licenses for the statistical software, MINITAB.  These are available on a university server.  You must first email IT Services (itshelp@email.wcu.edu) to request installation and generate a remedy ticket as they have the CD and authorization codes needed to complete the process described in the installation instructions.

The University has purchased 60 concurrent (floating) licenses for the statistical software, SPSS.  These are available on a university server.  You must first email IT Services (itshelp@email.wcu.edu) to request installation and generate a remedy ticket.

Fathom:

The Department has purchased a university-wide license for the statistical software, Fathom.  Fathom is available on a university server.  Instructions for installation on faculty machines have been provided by IT Services.

Vensim PLE:

Vensim PLE (Personal Learning Edition)  is a fully functional system dynamics tool that is free for personal and educational use.  Vensim PLE is available on a university server for students working in the lab or computer classroom.  Faculty are welcome to download your own copy  (available at the Vensim PLE website) on any machine used for academic purposes.  IT Services have created directions to help with this process:

Introductory Information on MATLAB and Maple

• Introduction to MATLAB (with Examples):     MATLAB is a technical computing environment for high-performance numeric (and not typically symbolic) computation and visualization.  The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory.  The information provided in this paper is intended to familiarize the user with the basics of MATLAB:
  
• Performing Basic Calculations;
  
• Expressions and Parameters;
  
• Matrix (and Vector) Calculations;
  
• Functions;
  
• Plotting; and
  
• m-files (simple text files of MATLAB code, saved with a .m extension).

• Introduction to Maple (with Examples):     Maple is a computer algebra system (CAS), indicating that it can carry out most mathematical computations symbolically and exactly (i.e. not using floating-point arithmetic).  The information provided in this paper is intended to familiarize the user with the basics of Maple:
  
• Performing Basic Calculations;
  
• Expressions and Parameters;
  
• Matrix (and Vector) Calculations;
  
• Functions;
  
• Plotting; and
  
• Procedures.

MATLAB References:

• A link to the MathWorks academia web site.  MathWorks is the creater of MATLAB.
  
• A link to some MATLAB Tutorials on the Mathworks web site.
• The MATLAB Primer (3rd Edition) by Kermit Sigmon -- It's out of date, but still very useful.
  

Maple References:

• A link to the MapleSoft web site.  MapleSoft (formerly Waterloo Maple) is the creater of Maple.
  
• A link to some Maple Tutorials on the MapleSoft web site.

• A link to Curriculum Exchange for Mathematics Course Materials, a MathWorks web site.  This page contains links to material developed by other university faculty and that can be used in teaching a variety of mathematics courses.  Courses include:
• Linear Algebra
• Mulitivariable Calculus
• Differential Equaitons
• Mathematical Modeling in Biological Sciences
• Introduction to Scientific Computing
• MATLAB files I developed for various classes:
• The Predator Prey Example: PredPrey.m script file and PredPreydYdt.m file
• The Direction Field Plotter: dirfield.m, dxdt_eqn.m, dydt_eqn.m, DirFieldScript.m
• Euler's Method: In 1D (Euler.m) and in 2D (Euler2d.m) with sample derivative files (dydt1d.m and dYdt2d.m) and script files PlotEulerSol_1d.m and PlotEulerSol_2d.m
  
• Newton's Method and Muller's Method for Introduction to Scientific Computing
• SOR (Successive Over Relaxation) Method and Conjugate Gradient Methods for solving systems of linear systems iteratively.
  

Last modified: August 19, 2005