Hoffman2:MATLAB
MATLAB is not a small program and it can handle some fairly complex graphics. As such, this is not something suitable to be used on a login node of Hoffman2. But that's already been thought of by the great people at ATS.
GUI
To run a full GUI session of MATLAB, execute
$ matlab
That's it, no flags, no frills, nothing else. Hoffman2 will automatically check out an appropriate interactive node for you to run MATLAB on. All you have to do is provide a time limit (in hours) when they ask you
Enter a time limit for your session, in hours (default 2) <or quit>:
Command Line
If you don't need the fancy GUI and just want the command line, execute
$ matlab -nodesktop
and then supply a time limit when asked.
Since this uses interactive nodes, the maximum time limit you can request is 24 hours.
License Check
With so many people using Hoffman2 and MATLAB, sometimes licenses run out. Using this helpful script will give you some insight as to the license situation.