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Mathematica

Online Options

Olin now has site-wide licenses for Wolfram Mathematica Online and Wolfram|Alpha Pro, which will last until August 15, 2020. To access them, please make sure you have created a WolframID first. To do so, go to https://user.wolfram.com/ and use your Olin email to create your ID. You will need to access the email they send you to validate your Wolfram account.

Once you know you have an account, follow these links to request access to these online services:

Sign in to the account you made with your Olin address if it asks you to, then fill out the form, students making sure to say Yes, you are a student (the default is No). Wolfram will then send you an email for you to complete your verification. Note: it can take several minutes for the email to send. Follow the link in the email, sign in if asked, and click Go To Product next to the service you're verifying. You will be taken to the product's website, where you will need to sign in with your Wolfram account again. Your access is now verified, and you will be able to use these services until August 15.

You can access either service at its website:

Offline Options

If you have an existing Mathematica installation, we recommend you uninstall your current version and reboot your computer prior to installing the latest version.

Mathematica 11.3 is now available via the instructions below.

Wolfram Research has discovered a potential security vulnerability in Mathematica 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3 on Linux operating systems. Under certain circumstances, users of a system running these versions could execute arbitrary Wolfram Language code as root.

Updated installers are now available in the Wolfram User Portal: http://user.wolfram.com

Site users can also address this vulnerability on their local machines by following the steps outlined here: http://support.wolfram.com/kb/41501

If you have any questions, please contact Wolfram Research: https://wolfr.am/technical-support

Installation instructions

Linux

Please note: Mathematica 11.3 for Linux no longer supports 32-bit Linux. Mathematica 11.2 for Linux does support 32-bit Linux and can be installed by selecting Mathematica 11.2 for Linux instead of Mathematica 11.3 for Linux when following the instructions below.

For a complete list of supported Linux distributions and system requirements, visit: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/system-requirements.html

Olin Dell Laptops

Follow the directions below to download software from Wolfram and request the appropriate activation key.

  1. Create an account (New users only):
    1. Go to http://user.wolfram.com and click “Create Account”
    2. Fill out form using a @olin.edu or @students.olin.edu email, and click “Create Wolfram ID”
    3. Check your email and click the link to validate your Wolfram ID
  2. Request the download and key:
    1. Fill out this form to request an Activation Key
    2. Click the “Product Summary page” link to access your license
    3. Click “Get Downloads” and select “Download” next to your platform
    4. Run the installer on your machine, and enter Activation Key at prompt

Please note: Mathematica 11.3 for Linux no longer supports 32-bit Linux. Mathematica 11.2 for Linux does support 32-bit Linux and can be installed using the same instructions below.

For a complete list of supported Linux distributions and system requirements, visit: http://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/system-requirements.html

Faculty and staff - personally owned machines

Fill out this form to request a home-use license from Wolfram.

Student personally owned machines

Follow the directions below to download from the Wolfram User Portal.

  1. Create an account (New users only):
    1. Go to http://user.wolfram.com and click “Create Account”
    2. Fill out form using a valid @students.olin.edu email, and click “Create Wolfram ID”
    3. Check your email and click the link to validate your Wolfram ID
  2. Request the download and key:
    1. Fill out this form to request an Activation Key
    2. Click the “Product Summary page” link to access your license
    3. Click “Get Downloads” and select “Download” next to your platform
    4. Run the installer on your machine, and enter Activation Key at prompt

Computing Clusters

The Mathematica license at Olin College allows for grid computing for dedicated research clusters or in ad-hoc, or distributed grid environments. To get started, please contact Paul Winterbotham at Wolfram Research

Mathematica Tutorials

The first three tutorials are excellent for new users, and can be assigned to students as homework to learn Mathematica outside of class time.

    • Follow along in Mathematica as you watch this multi-part screencast that teaches you the basics—how to create your first notebook, calculations, visualizations, interactive examples, and more.
    • Learn Mathematica at your own pace from authors with 50+ years of combined Mathematica experience—with hands-on examples, end-of-chapter exercises, and authors' tips that introduce you to the breadth of Mathematica with a focus on ease of use.
    • Provides examples to help you get started with new functionality in Mathematica 11, including machine learning, computational geometry, geographic computation, and device connectivity.
    • Access step-by-step instructions ranging from how to create animations to basic syntax information.
    • Search Wolfram's large collection of materials for example calculations or tutorials in your field of interest.

Teaching with Mathematica

Mathematica offers an interactive classroom experience that helps students explore and grasp concepts, plus gives faculty the tools they need to easily create supporting course materials, assignments, and presentations.

Resources for educators

    • Learn how to make your classroom dynamic with interactive models, explore computation and visualization capabilities in Mathematica that make it useful for teaching practically any subject at any level, and get best-practice suggestions for course integration.
    • Learn how to create a slideshow for class that shows a mixture of graphics, calculations, and nicely formatted text, with live calculations or animations.
    • Download pre-built, open-code examples from a daily-growing collection of interactive visualizations, spanning a remarkable range of topics.
    • Access on-demand and live courses on Mathematica, SystemModeler, and other Wolfram technologies.

Research with Mathematica

Rather than requiring different toolkits for different jobs, Mathematica integrates the world's largest collection of algorithms, high-performance computing capabilities, and a powerful visualization engine in one coherent system, making it ideal for academic research in just about any discipline.

Resources for researchers

  • Mathematica for University Research — Free video course
    • Explore Mathematica's high-level and multi-paradigm programming language, support for parallel computing and GPU architectures, built-in functionality for specialized application areas, and multiple publishing and deployment options for sharing your work.
  • Utilizing HPC and Grid Computing — Free video course
    • Learn how to create programs that take advantage of multicore machines or available clusters.
    • Learn what areas of Mathematica are useful for specific fields.