Julia is a free interactive package - with a syntax similar to that of matlab -- but that is a real language becoming quite popular. You can also Octave [which is very similar to matlab].

Getting Matlab on your laptop at the U :

The university of Minnesota has a group matlab license and those students taking CSE courses can have access to matlab (for free) with a one-year license. See the following page:
https://wwws.cs.umn.edu/download_software/matlab/

• First: See my short matlab tutorial (from csci2033) MatlabTut.pdf
• Kermit Sigmon's Matlab Primer, 3rd edition [a little old but a good reference still]