IA Minimum Computer Requirements

Innovation Academy requires students to have access to and on-going use of a laptop/mobile computer for IA courses in order to fully engage with in-class research and projects. We recommend purchasing a computer with as much memory and processing power as reasonably affordable. However, the Innovation Academy does not make any specific recommendations regarding your choice of Mac or PC computers.

The official UF policy for student computer requirements are provided by the UF Information Technology department. Due to the software students are expected to run, minimum computer requirements for Innovation Academy courses include:

MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

Operating System

Apple® macOS™ X Big Sur
Microsoft Windows Windows 10 (64-bit)

CPU Type

x86-based 64-bit processor (e.g. current generation i5 or AMD Ryzen equivalent or Apple M1), 1.7 GHz or greater; 32-bit not supported

Memory

8GB RAM

Graphics Card

512MB GDDR RAM or more

Display Resolution

1366 x 768 (1920 x 1080 or greater at 100% scale strongly recommended)

Disk Space

256 GB or higher

Pointing Device

Microsoft-compliant mouse, Apple Mouse, Magic Mouse, MacBook Pro trackpad

Additional Capabilities

Camera, microphone, speaker-headphone jack, and Wi-Fi capable

*Mac computers with Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports need a USB-C to USB Adapter

MINIMUM SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:

  • Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint – Available for UF Students
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Autodesk Fusion 360 – Educational Use free 3-year subscription
  • Arduino IDE (open-source)
  • Mail Client – Students are required to have and regularly check their Gatorlink email address. All official communication with a student is sent to this email address.
  • Web Browser – The most recent versions of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox are required. They are many online applications for registering for classes and downloading University-wide site-licenses software require theses browsers. Other browsers, such as Opera, Chrome, or Safari, may work but are not officially supported.