MATLAB vs Python for Engineers

[@Palon1983]

I am currently doing my BA degree for chemical eng. And i have to say that i do massively appreciate the “on ramp” course Matlab offers. It was such a huge help getting into scripting for the first time.

[@arshad0922]

where can i learn these, bro? Matlab youtube?

[@alan.m.rebeira]

@@arshad0922matlab website some of the courses are free

[@McFlashh]

Why BA and not BEng? It’s engineering not art.

[@bosunfarouk7588]

@@McFlashhI’m curious too

[@hussrizkk]

@@McFlashh he might mean BS in chemical engineering

[@SelectHawk]

I think it depends on what you are trying to do, but I generally agree. I definitely use python a lot more now that I am primarily in industry. The tools that Mathworks has developed are exceptionally good for some niche applications. It is vastly easier to model heat transfer, or tune a simulated PID, or dip your toes into deep learning, or do a variety of other tasks that Mathworks has built into MATLAB on that platform than it would be to build a similar application (gui included) in python. A professor COULD prebuild those tools in python, but that is a lot of work. I feel like, similar to how publishing companies offer pre-made slides and lectures to professors if they use their newest edition book, MATLAB makes professors lives easier for teaching their undergrads. Modelling heat transfer between two buried parallel pipes was one of the first things we did in my Intro to Mechanical Engineering class, and that would have been a semester project for a junior level class at least, if it had been required to be completed in python. In grad school, I have had classes that require both MATLAB and Python, and I have worked in labs that use both.

[@revifikri9609]

Can you tell me what should i learn to use python like like a matlab (replace matlab with python), my professor suggest us to use matlab for modelling dynamic system but i want to use python instead

[@ww_yao]

@@revifikri9609did you figure it out?

[@m_a_s6069]

Matlab is an entry level drug peddled by academic institutions and MathWorks is the supplier. I have worked at more companies that use Fortran than Matlab. And these days, almost everyone is using Python (an interpretid scripting language that is used to make C/C++ libraries like Numpy easy to use).

[@ParallaxDimensions-YouTubeYT]

I’ve been using python for 12 years (I was that nerd 11 year old kid who came from from school and learned to code) and matlab for just above 2 years for my mecheng degree. Goddamn, I cannot express my hate for numpy after extensive use of matlab. Matlab makes vector and matric operations intuitive and an absolute breeze. In comparison, numpy has so many conditions and shit it makes my head hurt when something doesn’t work because the shape is (12,) instead of (12,1)

[@Hshjshshjsj72727]

How about octave or scilab

[@EvrendenNotlar]

Octave is a great alternative. Matrix operations are really intiutive in MATLAB.

[@canyonrider9]

I‘ve used both Python and Matlab. For writing numerical code, I do prefer Matlab, but mainly because I‘m used to it. Python is a great alternative if you don’t have access to a license. I prefer Python for everything that extends beyond numerical data. It’s much easier to handle it. The main reason I use Matlab is because of Simulink, Stateflow and Simscape to design controls for real-time implementation. That’s for me the unique selling point. Debugable Simulation environment for your soon to be generated C-Code with all kinds of checks and CI-integration. There aren’t many alternatives to design real time control systems. Especially in Python.

[@prashkd7684]

I've had this conversation with MATHWORK support team and they're really embedded in this marketing model where they are focused on retaining Big corporates (Boeing , GE etc) and don't give rat's A** about students / Hobbyists. I pay $300 every year for their home license which , functionally speaking, is much inferior to what Python can do for FREE. The only reason I am paying for this license is because MATLAB is quite popular in my industry and I have to keep my MATLAB skills sharp.

[@alejandromartinez3475]

I swear they have a cheaper version, I think I looked into it and the base is like 100 for a perpetual license

[@jfabs]

You can use MATLAB online for free for a certain number of hours each month.

[@randallmcgrath9345]

Python appears to be the most popular language for Machine learning no doubt, based on job applications ive been reading.

[@sinan_islam]

Python is required on job applications not because it is better than Matlab, but because it is more compatible with other software used by commercial companies. Matlab Stats and ML toolbox is more organized and comprehensive than Python's Scikit Learn.

[@randallmcgrath9345]

@@sinan_islam I appreciate you sharing this. Makes sense.

[@urnoob5528]

@@sinan_islam because it s better than matlab not in performance or specification watnot but in actual fuckin user experience, like why did almost everyone still prefers to use windows even when they are told linux is better? only sweats actually use linux, most ppl avoid it if possible, which is not always possible in some cases since it s the only option same thing with matlab, except matlab can totally be replaced for an easier and simpler solution like python god even the matlab language itself is nonsense, im not talking about 1 indexing, but just in everything, everything is fuckin wrong and conforms to little of programming standards, like its verilog trying to be a normal language and ending up being worse than both, at this point i have a higher opinion of verilog than fuckin matlab, cant they just fuckin stick with what everyone already knows? why do they even have to invent a whole nonsense language altogether, even then sticking to c like syntax aint that hard, if they want to change it at least make half the stuff recognizable just look at the memes related to matlab, typically involving a picture of a google search on how to do for loop, so this speaks for many others as well

[@stace1967]

Valuable info!! Thank you!!

[@donharrold1375]

Octave?

[@ameniamerri2005]

Hello Mr. Vincent Stevenson, I am a student from Tunisia, I need your help please. Soon I will graduate. But I have problems with MATLAB simulation, please help me. I am very sad because I can not open the simulation, my project is control tolerant renewable energy recovery systems (wind chain) at the base generator synchronous permanent magnet pentaphase. The purpose is to drive the synchronous generator with pentaphase permanent magnet associated with the MLI rectifier. The MPPT-controlled MLI rectifier. The main purpose is to control the output power. The choice of control is vector control. I did my work on MATLAB SIMUlink. I did the simulation but didn’t get the result. I don’t understand what’s wrong

[@Dedurk]

I'm a fresh graduate of mechanical engineering and am interested in learning python. Please point me to the right source to learn this freely

[@amilkyboi]

The workspace environment in MATLAB is by far the thing I miss most when writing code in Python because it essentially acts as a variable debugger. If anyone can suggest a similar system for Python that would be great, but none exist as far as I know. Element-wise operations in MATLAB are more intuitive to me (even though the dot operator syntax is hot garbage) and large matrix operations seem to be considerably faster from my experience coding FEM and FDM solvers from scratch. Python is just better though and I'm fully making the switch. It's free, open-source, and can be used for fun projects on the side in addition to more serious computational work.

[@manuelweichelt528]

use interactive mode or jupyter notebooks handling becomes very similar

[@danial_amini]

@@manuelweichelt528 jupyter notebook has it's own issues & speed problems I think, ipython isn't very ideal if you want speed

[@Indonesia01ian]

Hi I am new in pyhton. I am mechanical engineering student as well. Do you know what topic should I learn? Thank you

[@MikleyL]

Spyder is python but has that matlab GUI look ?

[@potatomo9609]

@@MikleyLyeah I use spyder and I love it! It’s lighter and faster than Matlab’s gui, and faster than Jupyter notebook too. I also hate doing things in browser prefers to do it locally. The interface is also really pretty

[@robertgriffin30185]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I'm working on using a tool to design solar systems and one of the courses I looked up had topics on the use of matlab in their curriculum. Given the cost of matlab I think I will lean towards learning python and just apply the concepts using matlab to python. Appreciate your thoughts. 🙏

[@akashrana1593]

Thanks Vincent for sharing your thughts they are really insightful.

[@Robo_worrier]

I'm about to graduate as electrical engineering, so i know python but i don't know what's the option for Simulink.

[@hasben0]

💯💯💯 agree. I love matlab I hate to see fail, but it feels like that's where it's headed if they don't open it up to more people😔😔

[@Gusnake07]

Thanks for the video, what distro do you recommend? or what platform and editor work better together? Thank you!

[@bytecode5834]

Many thanks for the video

[@generalistengineer]

I'll be honest: I prefer Matlab. Even though I used Python a lot and multiple other technologies, I always found it a mess to work with most open source packages.

[@beenay18]

I know excel vba. How does it compare to matlab? Can i just use excel vba without learning matlab.

[@QuantumElectrodynamics_]

lol?

[@benbenameur8429]

Hello I am looking for the equivalent of : arduino.write("X="+str(200)+' ') in matlab .

[@bappabain2142]

popularity comes from ease of use.....windows is easier to use than linux, python is simpler than MATLAB....here comfort matters, not cost.

[@hellfridge4736]

Currently studying material engineering and I want to know which one is better for me to learn?

[@f22asr]

I’d go matlab first to get used to coding, then python. Based on my experience with both.

[@aleempashashaik3318]

@@f22asr what about Industrial and Systems Engineering ?

[@utilizator1701]

@@aleempashashaik3318 For System Engineering, in college my first programming language was C. Then it was (basic) Matlab. Basic means that we weren't provided with explanations about how arguments are passed, what kind of language Matlab is, how its memory work. In my college I wasn't taught how to program in Python.

[@ytusr37837]

Python

[@OskarNendes]

nice. been using python for a long time. I get a bit pissed off by it being too multidisciplinary, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. I see Julia as having a great potential as a programming language exactly because of this: it is not mixing the indie and professional world in a single box, and this is why I am learning Julia at the long term... Because... I don't know if you understand me. We start wanting to do a simulation and end writing an app in Flask... Have we missed the point? How far?

[@therewereattempts]

is there anything you cannot do in Python that you do in MATLAB?

[@SebastianINTJ]

Simulink. Model based Design. It's a game changer in many industries and Python doesn't have anything comparable

[@ankushmajoka1664]

Hey Vincent, Hope you are doing well. Just wanted to know your opinion on learning Python as an skill after mechanical engineering. As I am a mechanical engineer and looking for some add on skill for career enhancement. Kindly suggest

[@Indonesia01ian]

Hi I am new in pyhton. I am mechanical engineering student as well. Do you know what topic should I learn? Thank you

[@e.michael4200]

​​@@Indonesia01ianget the python crash course It's a book It will help you greatly

[@mechtorious]

@@Indonesia01ian to start with, literally any youtube channel is fine. to be more domain specific, you can just type the topic and find someone already have uploaded a video on that or there would be some github repository. or NPTEL lectures are great for python as a mechanical engineer. I am a MechE and I follow these too. for basics you can go with Mosh hamdani or amigoscode videos. they cover even upto ML concepts. so they are pretty good.

[@ankushmajoka1664]

Hey Vincent Hope you are doing Well Just wanted to have your opinion that what’s your view on learning Python after mechanical engineering (adding a skill for career enhancement)

[@moreywilkerson8378]

Do it!

[@aleempashashaik3318]

Hello, Thank you for the amazing explanation. My Masters in Industrial and Systems Engineering classes will begin from Aug 2023 and I want to know which skills should I learn?. Thank You.

[@gourishnarang4277]

Hey I'm an industrial and production engineering undergrad, can we connect?

[@AfifAjjan]

I would like to connect as well. Pursuing BSc in IPE

[@qwerty_____146]

Thank you Bro. Nice. Thank you.

[@MahmoudSalahkhalifa]

I am not with your opinion for some reasons, Yes I agree that Python is open source but MATLAB come with a huge advantage for example it is not only about the scripting language but Simulink/Stateflow give a huge advantage over the other candidates you can built a graphical-based control system that is above the high level language call it (High pro max +). so block diagrams are near to the language of mind the way we represent the initial ideas and you can also have a framework to test these ideas Automatically for validation and verification and also you can follow the requirements of your prog and change it flexibly easily and integrate your solution, after that you can generate codes with much lower bugs than hand-based, run it in real time all together, do PIL-HIL and validate your code. that right that MATLAB is really expensive but No one would buy something just because it is a standard but because what the product gives as I guess.

[@QuantumElectrodynamics_]

a los hombres de verdad nos gusta el código puro y duro, los bloques son para noobs inútiles...

[@aidansweeney9909]

I don't understand how someone who is such a champion of open source software can work at Amazon.

[@anonymoususer4356]

Thank you!

[@shchen7405]

What if Matlab is free? Which is preferable? Python or Matlab?

[@jimenezluis33]

Depending. I think that Matlab works very well when one writes code about dynamics systems such as computational fluid dynamics, control theory, and any object related with matrix operations. Numpy, scipy and matplotlib are very good alternatives, but I feel that they still lack a lot. The other thing is Simulink, is a power-up of Matlab, one can edit entire systems without write code directly. But if one don't have money to pay the license, well, one must code in python better, because each one of toolboxes of Matlab are very expensive. There is another advantage of Python over Matlab, besides it's open source, free and a language with a good syntax, is that there are libraries such as Pandas well constructed and supported with a big community, and other thousand of libraries of general purpose anywhere. Another thing is Jupyter Notebooks, and I can execute code anywhere, I love it, is better that its equivalent in Matlab. I'm an user of both, but I migrating my efforts to python.

[@ILLUSTRON-l5v]

Great

[@dimitrioskalfakis]

agreed. matlab is a bad habit, an arbitrary, proprietary, non-intuitive industrial garbage. python, at least, is free to use and somewhat more intuitive.

[@useruser7176]

Well, matlab version can be easily downloaded for free if you have correct link

[@edgaravalos]

Hi, I made a quick speed test of matlab vs python. Let A, B NxN matrices. Solve the linear problem Ax=B. For N=1000. Matlab is over 20 times faster (using simple backslash) than python using linalg.spsolve. Any comment on this?

[@WojciechowskaAnna]

Try use python with dask libary for matrices "Regular" python may not use the power of multicores in the CPU and that could be reason lower performance

[@danial_amini]

i was wrestling with the same issue, scipy has some good tools for solving sparse linear systems, but unfortunately they work on a single core, you'd probably have to either stick with matlab or look for more advanced linear algebra libraries for C++ or fortran.

[@hasben0]

I think its only a matter of time until python outperfors matlab in every aspect. It makes me sad😔

[@FLMKane]

It's impossible to answer that question without looking at your code unfortunately.

[@NavidonYoutube]

should wait for Mojo

[@user-co1xw7wg6o]

the reason many refuse to use python is because it is an inferior language

[@donharrold1375]

Matlab is expensive but if you’re an engineer it’s a no brainer

[@sinan_islam]

I noticed something guys! Python steals MATLAB ideas, then you find people saying Python is better. This is like Huawei stealing Apple market share after stealing Apple ideas lol.

[@WojciechowskaAnna]

Matlab "stoled/inspired" almost all from Fortran... its an egg or chicken question...

[@FLMKane]

​@@WojciechowskaAnna MATLAB and Python both use LINPACK for their linear algebra calculations. LINPACK is written in Fortran. Therefore neither MATLAB or python ripped off anything from each other. They just use Fortran libraries in both cases.

[@urnoob5528]

@@FLMKane tell tat to the op smh

[@urnoob5528]

fuck matlab python anyday