LibGuides: Wolfram Mathematica Software: Home

Tutorials

(videos) Hands-on-Start to Mathematica
A series of short video instructions linked to the very basic programming book by the same name. Covers—how to create your first notebook, calculations, visualizations, interactive examples, and more.
(book) Hands-on Start to Wolfram Mathematica and Programming with the Wolfram Language
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.

YouTube videos on how to do small, specific projects with Mathematica

How Does Your Discipline Use Wolfram?

Use Cases Overview

Specific examples:

Engineering
Aerospace Engineering

Chemical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Materials Science
Mechanical Engineering

Alternative Open Source - Jupyter

Project Jupyter

About Wolfram Mathematica

Mathematica is a symbolic computation platform that is used across many engineering fields for data processing and visualizations among other things. It employs high-level commands that more closely resemble scripting than conventional programming. The publicly available "lite" version, Wolfram CDF Player, is provided for running Mathematica programs and interactive visualizations that have been saved in the Computable Document Format (CDF). See elsewhere on this page for details on how to get the full Drexel site-licensed "author-ware" version of Mathematica for coding original work.

Getting Started with Wolfram Mathematica

STEP ONE: Explore Industry-Specific Uses of Mathematica
How does this tool apply to your discipline? Note: this page also mentions Wolfram's "SystemModeler" add-on which is not currently site licensed to all of Drexel, but is licensed by the DUO Learning Technology Group.
STEP TWO: Create a Wolfram Account (New users only)
1. Go to user.wolfram.com and click “Create Account”
2. Fill out form using a @drexel.edu email, and click “Create Wolfram ID”
3. Check your email and click the link to validate your Wolfram ID
STEP THREE: Download your Mathematica Desktop Software
This is the same College of Engineering link that is listed first on this page (above).
STEP FOUR: Install Wolfram Computable Document Format Player
Recommended for users who want to view the interactive visualizations using Wolfram's Computable Document Format (CDF) without doing any coding. (No Drexel credentials required.)
STEP FIVE: Explore Interactive Output of Mathematica
Browse to examples in topical areas with which you are familiar. See the "Everyday Life" or "Fun" categories for non-specialist examples.
STEP SIX: Explore Tutorials or Schedule Hands On Lab Demonstration
Explore the self-guided tutorials listed at the left of this page, or email the librarians listed on the right to schedule an introductory orientation or hands-on lab.

Desktop VS. Cloud Accounts

You have several options: Mathematica Desktop OR Wolfram Cloud OR BOTH!

If you intend to just use the WolframAlpha features, then go to www.wolframalpha.com and create an account using your Drexel email.

If you are new to programming, the Cloud account poses some advantages for getting started because you install nothing on your own desktop. The tradeoff is that Wolfram Cloud accounts have less robust features and because Drexel did not site license the cloud version, your storage will limited. But if you are just getting started with coding, you will likely not encounter the storage limitation very soon. In contrast, experienced coders will want to download the desktop version and get started with the most full features from the start.

About Wolfram "Alpha"

Wolfram Alpha is called a “computable knowledge engine” that supplies structured data via web search or API and is the data licensed to Apple behind its Siri product. See the Wolfram Alpha guide for more information on this Drexel site-licensed service.