Software and Hardware Requirements for Applied Artificial Intelligence Program

Hardware Requirements: A laptop or desktop with Windows 11 operating system and at least 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD hard drive, and Gen 12 or later Pentium i7 or i9 or equivalent ADM Ryzen 7 processors. Note: MacBook and iMac and some recent lightweight laptops that come with ARM processors may not support all the programs we use in classes. 

Software Requirements:

Utilities:

• Notepad++: for write all types of code. Download from https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

• Visual Studio Code: for write code and integrate with IDE. Download from https://code.visualstudio.com/download

• Adobe Reader: for viewing PDF files. Download from https://get.adobe.com/reader/

• Java Development Kit: for compiling and running Java programs. Download from https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/ 
  • Set up JAVA_HOME environment variable for your other programs to use Java. Download this file, extract JavaHomeVar.bat file, right click on the batch file to run as administrator. Alternatively, you can go to Control Panel => System => Advanced System Settings => Environment Variables, add a new or edit existing System Variable, called JAVA_HOME to point to your JDK location such as  C:\Program Files\sqldeveloper\jdk. Then restart your computer (Follow https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=5822 to add and change environment variables.) 

• Microsoft Teams: for taking online classes. Download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app

Productivity Tools:

• Microsoft Office: purchase from Microsoft 
  • MS Word: viewing and editing Word documents
  • MS Excel: for spreadsheet models and calculations 
  • MS PowerPoint for making presentations
• MS Office Professional Extensions:  
  • MS Access for learning databases, download from https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools
  • MS Visio: for creating professional charts and model, download from https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools
  • MS Project: for project management, download from https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools

Programs for Classes:

• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler: download the Version for Windows 64 bit with JDK at https://www.oracle.com/tools/downloads/sql-data-modeler-downloads.html). After downloading, open the zip file and extract the contained folder into a permanent location like C:\Program Files\datamodeler. Follow https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=5827 for more details.

• Oracle SQL Developer: download the version for Windows 64 bit with JDK at https://www.oracle.com/tools/downloads/sqldev-downloads.html. After downloading, open the zip file and extract the contained folder into C:\Program Files. Follow https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=5827 for more details. 

• Oracle Instant Client: for connecting to Oracle databases. Follow the instruction here: https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=487

• MongoDB for document-oriented databases: follow the instruction at https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=5020

• Neo4j for graph databases: https://neo4j.com/download/

• SQLLite Browser: download from https://sqlitebrowser.org/dl/

• IBM Rhapsody 8 or 9 or 10 (follow https://ecourse.org/news.asp?which=1848 to download and install)

• Microsoft Visual Studio: for C# Programming. Download from https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools. follow https://ecourse.org/news.asp?which=5040 for installation instructions. Make sure to include the following components during the installation:
  • ASP.NET and Web Development (plus Windows Communication Foundation services to be selected on the right part of the Workloads panel)
  • .Net Desktop Development
  • Desktop Development with C++

• Microsoft Power BI: download from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=58494 and follow the on-screen installation instructions

• Langflow Desktop: This is a low-code tool for developing AI agents. Download Langflow Desktop from https://www.langflow.org/desktop. Make sure you install C++ compiler (Visual Studio with C++), stop Anti-Virus program, and open Power Shell as Administrator and run the command "Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope LocalMachine -Force" in the Power Shell command line. Then run the downloaded msi file to install Langflow Desktop and run the setup. 

• Python:  
  • Standard Method: Download and install JupyterLab Desktop (https://github.com/jupyterlab/jupyterlab-desktop?tab=readme-ov-file). Install Python when prompted when running JupyterLab Desktop. 
  • Custom Method: Install Miniconda with Python version 3.9 with the following extensions. Follow this guide to install, configure, and test: https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=6501 
    • Jupyter Lab
    • PyCharm Professional
    • Tensor Flow
    • PyTorch

• R:
  • Install the current version of R-core from https://cran.r-project.org such as R 4.2.1. (If you want to download an earlier version for some reason, go to https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/old/3.6.0/.) Run the downloaded file to install. 
  • Install R Studio from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download
  • Install Rtools from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/ (make sure to download the version that matches your R version)
  • Install ROracle package by following the instruction at https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=3233. Note: most packages will be installed whenever as needed, but ROracle entails extra installation effort. ROracle allows us to link your Oracle databases for external data sets
  • Install Tensor Flow packages for R: follow this guideline to install: https://www.ecourse.org/news.asp?which=6021

• R Tools: for compiling R libraries. Download from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/rtools44/rtools.html. Make sure to install a version that matches the version of R to be installed (see later). 
• R Studio: for integrating R console for better R coding environments. Download from https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/