October 14, 2008 -- The MathWorks today announced the availability of MATLAB and Simulink Student Version Release 2008b, which provides major updates that address student demand for an easy-to-learn, powerful environment for both numeric and symbolic computations.

New object-oriented programming capabilities include full support for classes and objects, inheritance, methods, properties, events, and packages. These enhancements to MATLAB make programming more intuitive for the majority of science and engineering students who are already familiar with object-oriented programming in languages such as C++, C#, and Java.

The new Student Version includes Symbolic Math Toolbox Version 5.1 with a new MuPAD notebook interface that supports embedded text, graphics, and typeset math for documenting and managing symbolic mathematics computations performed with the MuPAD language. It also provides methods and functions to link MuPAD notebooks and language with the MATLAB environment. With this capability, students gain a single integrated environment for working with both numeric and symbolic computations.

To help students ramp up faster, The MathWorks has produced free, self-paced online video tutorials designed to familiarize students on MATLAB and Simulink in less than two hours.

MATLAB & Simulink Student Version R2008b is available immediately to qualified students for the Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Macintosh platforms through authorized campus and online resellers, or it can be purchased and downloaded directly from The MathWorks web site. To qualify for purchase, students must be enrolled at a degree-granting institution and have a valid student ID. The student price is $99 in the U.S. and Canada. Pearson Education Limited distributes MATLAB & Simulink Student Version to university bookstores in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Bookstores in these regions should contact Pearson.

Go to the The MathWorks, Inc. website for product details.