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MATLAB Student Version Release 12
Professional tools now available to
students worldwide
by Laura Ganson and Nausheen Moulana
What's the news?
In January 2001, MATLAB® Student Version Release 12 began shipping to students worldwide. MATLAB Student Version-which includes MATLAB 6, Simulink® 4, and symbolic math functionality-is available for students to purchase at a discounted price at The MathWorks Web Store and at campus bookstores in the US and Canada. Students visiting our Web Store can also purchase numerous add-on toolboxes and blocksets for use with the Student Version. To qualify for purchase, students must be enrolled at a degree-granting institution and have a valid student ID.
How did it all begin?
In 1992, The MathWorks partnered with Prentice Hall to introduce the Student Edition of MATLAB version 3.5. The Student Edition of MATLAB had matrix size limits and did not support add-on toolboxes and blocksets. Despite this, the Student Edition of MATLAB was widely adopted at colleges and universities over the next six years, becoming the most successful student engineering software marketed by Prentice Hall.
In 1998, The MathWorks made a decision to replace the Student Edition of MATLAB with a new student product. Requests from universities, instructors, and students fueled this decision. First, universities wanted their students to have the most current release of MATLAB available to them at the same time as the professional versions were available to the academic community and on-campus computing facilities. Second, instructors wanted their students to be able to tackle more realistic and complex problems, which were restricted by the matrix limits of the Student Edition. Third, instructors and students wanted to use companion products in relevant assignments. As a result, MATLAB Student Version Release 11 made its debut in the US and Canada in August 1999. It included MATLAB, Simulink, and symbolic math functions. The Student Version had no matrix size limits and also allowed students to add many toolboxes, such as Optimization, Signal Processing, Neural Network , and Control System, and blocksets such as DSP, Fixed-Point, and Power System. With the successful completion of the first launch, The MathWorks turned its attention to making the Student Version available internationally. A worldwide release, however, posed an interesting challenge: how do we protect our intellectual property in light of the various conceptual differences across the globe with respect to software piracy? Our solution was to require the presence of the documentation CD in the drive to launch MATLAB Student Version, an approach also used in computer games and other software.
What do students receive?
MATLAB Student Version Release 12 includes all the latest features of MATLAB 6 and Simulink 4 and has all of the same functionality as the commercially available Release 12 products, with a few exceptions. Simulink has a model size limit of 300 blocks per model and the symbolic math functionality provides limited access to the underlying Maple engine, compared to the professional Symbolic Math Toolbox. The Help system cannot be installed to a local disk with MATLAB Student Version.
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The new graphical user interface to the Simulink debugger makes it convenient to locate and diagnose bugs. |
And add-on products that facilitate the development and deployment of MATLAB based applications are not available for student purchase. Feedback from our academic user community and student usability testing determined that these limitations would not prevent students from using the software effectively for their coursework or research. This latest Student Version introduces students to new toolboxes and blocksets available with Release 12. These offerings, including Stateflow® and the Filter Design Toolbox, give students access to the latest commercial-strength products from The MathWorks.
Where does MATLAB Student Version fit in?
MATLAB is widely used in the engineering, science, and mathematics curricula at more than 2,500 colleges and universities worldwide. And, with the support of more than 400 MATLAB based textbooks, MATLAB has become a standard teaching tool. For example, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have recently standardized on MATLAB as their technical tool of choice for incoming freshman engineering students. Internationally, MATLAB is integrated in the technical curricula at a number of universities including Cambridge University and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, Technical University of Munich in Germany, and Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan.
At Georgia Institute of Technology, engineering students learn the fundamental concepts of discrete-time systems using the textbook DSP First by McClellan, Schafer, and Yoder, which uses MATLAB as the learning tool. This class-tested textbook is used in courses such as introduction to electrical engineering, and undergraduate digital signal processing. Another example of a popular textbook is Applied Numerical Linear Algebra by Noble and Daniel, a linear algebra text that includes MATLAB based problems and examples. It is designed for use in elementary courses in theoretical and applied linear algebra, as well as subsequent theory-oriented courses (see other MATLAB based books). With MATLAB Student Version, students have the flexibility of working on MATLAB based assignments outside the classroom or campus laboratory environments.
 The MATLAB 6 Help system is equipped with a search engine, context-sensitive help, and relevant links, which accelerate learning about MathWorks products. |
MATLAB Student Version is just one component of the academic licensing program that The MathWorks offers to students and academic institutions worldwide. This program includes licensing for classroom and teaching labs, as well as discounted group and concurrent-use licenses for professors and researchers. Further information on these and other academic license options can be found at www.mathworks.com/academia. |
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To obtain an instructor evaluation copy, visit: To order student copies from a bookstore, use the following ISBNs: |
