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Software Licences

In addition to the open-source software available on the department's Linux clusters and users' laptops, some commercial packages are available through licences belonging to the department or to UCL. This page lists some that are particularly relevant for physics research and teaching. MAny others are listed in the UCL Software Database.

COMSOL Multiphysics

COMSOL Multiphysics is a general-purpose software toolkit for simulating physical systems. The base package provides limited capabilities which can be extended using add-on modules. The software is installed on a PC in the teaching labs, but the department has a floating network licence that allows use of the software on other machines subject to a limit of two simultaneous users. This licence covers

  • COMSOL Multiphysics (2 concurrent users)
  • AC/DC Module (2 concurrent users)
  • CAD Import Module (1 concurrent user)
  • Material Library (1 concurrent user)
  • Heat Transfer Module (1 concurrent user)

Because this software is limited (because of its cost) to two concurrent users, we do not include full instructions here but you should contact Ben or Fahad at physast.itsupport@ucl.ac.uk if you would like access. You should also close the application when not actively using it so that someone else can use the licence.

Mathematica

Mathematica from Wolfram is a popular system for technical computing, and is particularly useful for symbolic mathematical calculations. It is available on Desktop@UCL and can be used on other devices under a UCL site licence: for details see details for Mathematica on the UCL Software Database.

Matlab

Matlab from MathWorks is a widely used programming and numeric computing platform. It is available on Desktop@UCL and can be used on other devices under a UCL site licence: for details see package details for Matlab on the UCL Software Database.