diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
index d9f9c0df74c7cc4d378e55e5d570588908a62408..de56cd6553cac9b958d792f39a9d22e072f11dc0 100644
--- a/setup.sh
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -29,4 +29,7 @@ cd $SCRIPT_DIR
 
 # put the HLS tools on the PATH
 echo "ML@L1T Setup: prepending $SCRIPT_DIR/bin to PATH"
-export PATH=$SCRIPT_DIR/bin:$PATH
\ No newline at end of file
+export PATH=$SCRIPT_DIR/bin:$PATH
+
+# install pyarrow for parquet file handling
+pip3 install pyarrow
\ No newline at end of file