What software do I need to install?

Use this as a guide to prepare for lower division courses. Also refer to course catalog and schedule.

All Engineering Students

ENGR-General Engineering

ENGR 7A/7B - Freshmen Design Course

ENGR 54


EECS Students

  • All EECS:

  • EECS 10, CSE10 and CPE 10

        • Laptop running Microsoft VisualStudio, Apple XCode 4.1, or NetBeans 7.3 or newer IDEs

            • Microsoft Visual Studio (for Windows users)

            • Xcode (for Mac users)

            • Laptop with terminal emulation software with X forwarding client

                • See links above for Putty, Mobaterm, or use whatever terminal emulation you prefer.

                • Some faculty teach C with linux using the EECS linux cluster

                • Check with course website and canvas for details

  • EECS 12

        • Laptop running Python (latest most stable version).

  • EECS 20

  • EECS 22 & 22L

      • Open-source toolchain.

  • EECS 31LA

  • EECS 40

  • EECS - Upper Division


MAE Students


Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)


Biomedical Engineering (BME)


Chemical & Biomolecular Students (CBE)

  • CBE

      • currently no software requirements for first-year ChemE students unless you are enrolled in ENGR 7A/7B.

  • CBE - General

  • CBEMS 110

      • Polymath

      • Obtain from your instructor.

      • Polymath requires Windows version of Excel - does not work on Mac version of Excel

  • CBE 145

      • Invensys Pro/II

      • Obtain from your instructor

      • Requires Microsoft Windows


Materials Science (MSE)

  • Currently no software requirements for first-year MSE students unless you are enrolled in ENGR 7A/7B.

  • Expect to use the following software

  • FEA software

      • You will likely use FEA software in your upper division courses.

      • Options include: