Welcome to the team. This guide is designed to help you get up and running with MATLAB, a core tool for our analytical and engineering workflows. MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment specifically engineered for numerical computation, visualization, and programming. It serves as the foundation for much of our modeling, data analysis, and algorithm development.

In professional science and engineering, MATLAB’s strategic importance comes from its ability to rapidly move from concept to implementation. It is used across a range of applications, including signal processing, control systems design, financial modeling, and computational biology. MATLAB stands for “matrix laboratory,” and its power stems from its matrix-based language. This makes the mathematics underlying fields like linear algebra, signal processing, and control systems intuitive and efficient to implement.

The primary objectives of this onboarding guide are to equip you with the foundational skills necessary for proficiency:

• Navigating the MATLAB interactive environment.
• Understanding fundamental syntax and commands.
• Managing variables and data effectively.
• Creating basic scripts for repeatable workflows.
• Producing simple data visualizations.
• Establishing best practices for code maintainability.

We will begin by exploring the MATLAB desktop, which is the primary interface for all your work.