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The author of this post is in academia, so Matlab outside of academia may be as rare as you think.

Ragib_Zaman 7y ago
I know of a few major trading firms that use MATLAB for a lot of their analysis. In many companies that hire engineers they also often use MATLAB as it's sufficient for what they need those engineers to do (and programmers at those companies use different languages), and many engineers come out of their degree feeling most comfortable with MATLAB for scientific computation.
galangalalgol 7y ago
it is widely used in the rf signal processing community. communications, radar, that sort of thing
- markmark 7y ago
  That's where I used it, although it was a while ago now. Processing results from EMI/EMC testing.
6thaccount2 7y ago
I think it is actually prevalent in a lot of industry. They don't make a lot of money off academia with those ~$30 student licenses.
- analog31 7y ago
  Historically, the free or cheap student licenses were believed to pay them back when those students moved into industry and were inclined to install what they were familiar with. There's still a lot of MATLAB in college teaching curricula. Part of when I help on-board newly graduated colleagues (typically engineers and scientists, not hired as programmers) is to reassure them that they can get a MATLAB license if will help them get productive quickly. This has happened once or twice. Many of them never bother, as they get busy enough with CAD and basic design work, that they don't really find a use for scientific computation. But to an increasing extent, they're willing to make the hop to Python, possibly just because it's a popular buzzword, but in any event, they are able to get themselves up to speed pretty quickly.
  - 6thaccount2 7y ago
    Oh I have no doubt that the cheap license is to get folks hooked, but as I said, it is not where they make money. A single user license and a few toolboxes brings in more cash than all the student licenses my University probably used that year.
Robotbeat 7y ago
MATLAB is common at NASA, although Python is starting to be used a lot, too. Julia is really interesting... I'd love for it to become a standard.

I know of a few major trading firms that use MATLAB for a lot of their analysis. In many companies that hire engineers they also often use MATLAB as it's sufficient for what they need those engineers to do (and programmers at those companies use different languages), and many engineers come out of their degree feeling most comfortable with MATLAB for scientific computation.

galangalalgol 7y ago

it is widely used in the rf signal processing community. communications, radar, that sort of thing

markmark 7y ago
That's where I used it, although it was a while ago now. Processing results from EMI/EMC testing.

6thaccount2 7y ago

I think it is actually prevalent in a lot of industry. They don't make a lot of money off academia with those ~$30 student licenses.

analog31 7y ago
Historically, the free or cheap student licenses were believed to pay them back when those students moved into industry and were inclined to install what they were familiar with. There's still a lot of MATLAB in college teaching curricula. Part of when I help on-board newly graduated colleagues (typically engineers and scientists, not hired as programmers) is to reassure them that they can get a MATLAB license if will help them get productive quickly. This has happened once or twice. Many of them never bother, as they get busy enough with CAD and basic design work, that they don't really find a use for scientific computation. But to an increasing extent, they're willing to make the hop to Python, possibly just because it's a popular buzzword, but in any event, they are able to get themselves up to speed pretty quickly.
- 6thaccount2 7y ago
  Oh I have no doubt that the cheap license is to get folks hooked, but as I said, it is not where they make money. A single user license and a few toolboxes brings in more cash than all the student licenses my University probably used that year.

Robotbeat 7y ago

MATLAB is common at NASA, although Python is starting to be used a lot, too. Julia is really interesting... I'd love for it to become a standard.