Matlab Engine in Pycharm works Debug mode but not Run mode

I am experiencing a very odd behavior when importing the matlab engine inside of pycharm. I can run the script from the terminal, or with the Debug (bug icon) in Pycharm. However I cannot run the script with the 'Play' button in Pycharm and I have no idea what the cause is. Here is the script I am trying to run

import matlab.engine

eng = matlab.engine.start_matlab()
x = 4.0
eng.workspace['y'] = x
a = eng.eval('sqrt(y)')
print(a)

Again this works perfectly fine from the terminal or with the Pycharm Debugger, but with the regular 'Run' button I get this message

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/markd/.pyenv/versions/airsim/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 45, in <module>
    pythonengine = importlib.import_module("matlabengineforpython"+_PYTHONVERSION)
  File "/home/markd/.pyenv/versions/3.6.11/lib/python3.6/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 953, in _find_and_load_unlocked
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'matlabengineforpython3_6'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/markd/.pyenv/versions/airsim/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 63, in <module>
    pythonengine = importlib.import_module("matlabengineforpython"+_PYTHONVERSION)
  File "/home/markd/.pyenv/versions/3.6.11/lib/python3.6/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 658, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 571, in module_from_spec
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 922, in create_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
ImportError: /usr/local/MATLAB/R2020b/extern/engines/python/dist/matlab/engine/glnxa64/../../../../../../../bin/glnxa64/libssl.so.1.1: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc, version OPENSSL_1_1_0

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/markd/Projects/TestProject/matlab/EngineTest.py", line 1, in <module>
    import matlab.engine
  File "/home/markd/.pyenv/versions/airsim/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matlab/engine/__init__.py", line 66, in <module>
    'MathWorks Technical Support for assistance: %s' % e)
OSError: Please reinstall MATLAB Engine for Python or contact MathWorks Technical Support for assistance: /usr/local/MATLAB/R2020b/extern/engines/python/dist/matlab/engine/glnxa64/../../../../../../../bin/glnxa64/libssl.so.1.1: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc, version OPENSSL_1_1_0

My configuration:

• ubuntu 20.04
• Matlab 2020b
• Python 3.6 as a virtual environment located at .pyenv/versions/airsim
• I have write access to matlab and python installation directories, and installed by activating the virtual environment in a terminal and executing 'python setup.py install' and had no errors come up when installing
• Pycharm project interpreter is set to my virtual environment python (again it works in debug mode just fine!!!)
• Pycharm Professional Edition 2020.3.3

Any ideas? I've tried setting python path environment variable in pycharm to explicitly include 3.6/site-packages/matlab directory but that did not seem to help (and still doesn't explain why it works fine in Debug mode/terminal). Thank you!

[Mark Debord]

For anyone else experiencing this, my temporary fix for this is to edit the run configuration:

• Under Run/Debug configuration->Configuration->Execution->Check 'Run with Python Console'

This drops you into a seperate console where the script will work fine, but not within the regular Pycharm environment