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Learning MATLAB

I have come here to chew bubblegum and teach MATLAB. And I am all out of bubblegum. So let’s start

  1. If you want to learn MATLAB from an awesome teacher who wrote the above quote, get MATLAB for Brain and Cognitive Scientists
  2. Master MATLAB through Guided Problem Solving
  3. MATLAB onramp: Learn scientific coding with ChatGPT’s help
  4. Learn image processing and GUIs while having fun in MATLAB
  5. Generate and visualize data in Python and MATLAB Above courses are very affordable and give you a strong boost (especially when you come from non technical background)

Learning MATLAB may be little more than a practical means to an end for some of you (which is great, by the way; I’ve seen people in ivory towers (read: Pythonistas) sneer at MATLAB users). Their elitism has created a thick cranium that is difficult to break through. Many of us find programming to be difficult and irritating at first (I’ll tell you why later!) Common use cases are the following:

  1. After a graduate student leaves the lab, you’re given dozens of uncommented scripts to analyse data
  2. Previously you showed a kickass infographic (from one of the jungle journal) and PI wants YOU to visualise the lab data in the same (exact) way
  3. blah blah blah blah

You’re sweating bullets as you type the password (that too with CAPS lock ON) and the panic is palpable. I’ve been in your shoes before, so chill out. Read on!

  1. Relax; your first attempt at writing bug-free, lightning-fast code is unlikely to succeed
  2. Break off the code, please. Structure your code in manageable chunks, such as load the data, check the data, clean the data, get a small sanity check visualisation out, etc
  3. To get started, it’s fine to use copy/pasted code (but do comment it extensively)
  4. Remember the senior from the previous paragraph. You do not want to be that person.
  5. Ask for help
  6. You can find code samples on Github. email the journal authors for some code (may not be the entire set, some specific portions which can help you)
  7. If you know someone who has been helpful in creating tutorials, blogs, or documentation, you should definitely send them a thank-you note or at least buy them a cup of coffee with those crispy masala dosa
  1. Cody helped me a lot to become a better person in terms of code
  2. Checkout OCtave which is an open source, free equivalent to MATLAB. Some specific features may not exist in Octave