diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index e8bd351ab..215f58047 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)
 
 project(orchestra)
 
+set(THIRDPARTY_DIR "${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/thirdparty")
+
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake/Modules)
 
 find_package(Protobuf REQUIRED)
@@ -71,7 +73,7 @@ set(GENERATED_PROTOBUF_FILES ${ORCHESTRA_PB_H_FILE} ${ORCHESTRA_PB_CPP_FILE}
     ${TYPES_GRPC_PB_H_FILE} ${TYPES_GRPC_PB_CPP_FILE})
 
 include_directories(${GENERATED_PROTOBUF_PATH})
-link_libraries(grpc++_unsecure grpc pthread ${PROTOBUF_LIBRARY})
+link_libraries(grpc++_unsecure grpc pthread protobuf)
 if (UNIX AND NOT APPLE)
    link_libraries(rt)
 endif()
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index be044884c..ad5d738a4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,62 +11,8 @@ For a description of our design decisions, see
 
 ## Setup
 
-**Install Arrow**
-
-1. `git clone https://github.com/apache/arrow.git`
-2. `cd ~/arrow`
-3. `git checkout 2d8627cd81f83783b0ceb01d137a46b581ecba26`
-4. `cd ~/arrow/cpp`
-5. `bash setup_build_env.sh`
-6. `cd ~/arrow/cpp/thirdparty/flatbuffers-1.3.0`
-7. `export FLATBUFFERS_HOME=~/arrow/cpp/thirdparty/installed` (or equivalent)
-8. `cd ~/arrow/cpp/build`
-9. `cmake ..`
-10. `make`
-11. `sudo make install`
-12. add `export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib` to your `~/.bashrc`
-13. `source ~/.bashrc`
-
-**Install GRPC**
-
-1. Follow the instructions [here](https://github.com/grpc/grpc/blob/master/INSTALL), though some of the instructions are outdated.
-2. `cd ~/grpc`
-3. `mkdir build`
-4. `cd build`
-5. `cmake ..`
-6. `make`
-7. `make install`
-8. `cd ..`
-9. `python setup.py install`
-
-**Install Numbuf**
-
-1. `git clone git@github.com:amplab/numbuf.git`
-2. `cd numbuf/cpp/`
-3. `mkdir build`
-4. `cd build`
-5. `cmake ..`
-6. `sudo make install`
-7. `cd ../..`
-8. `cd python/`
-9. `mkdir build`
-10. `cd build`
-11. `cmake ..`
-12. `sudo make install`
-13. `cd ..`
-14. `sudo python setup.py install`
-
-
-**Install Orchestra**
-
-1. `git clone git@github.com:amplab/photon.git`
-2. `cd photon`
-3. `mkdir build`
-4. `cd build`
-5. `cmake ..`
-6. `make install`
-7. `cd ../lib/orchpy`
-8. `python setup.py install`
-9. `cd ~/orch/test`
-10. `bash gen-python-code.sh`
-11. `python runtest.py`
+1. sudo apt-get update
+2. sudo apt-get install git
+3. git clone https://github.com/amplab/photon.git
+4. cd photon
+5. bash setup.sh
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3736ee5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+six >= 1.10
+typing
+subprocess32
+grpcio
diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b0aae4fc1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+sudo apt-get update
+sudo apt-get install git cmake build-essential python-dev python-numpy automake autoconf libtool python-pip libboost-all-dev unzip
+sudo pip install --ignore-installed six # getting rid of an old version of six, if it is installed (needed for Ubuntu 14.04)
+sudo pip install -r requirements.txt
+cd thirdparty
+bash download_thirdparty.sh
+bash build_thirdparty.sh
+cd numbuf
+cd python
+sudo python setup.py install
+mkdir -p ../../../build
+cd ../../../build
+cmake ..
+sudo make install
+cd ../lib/orchpy
+sudo python setup.py install
diff --git a/thirdparty/build_thirdparty.sh b/thirdparty/build_thirdparty.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..937259c90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/thirdparty/build_thirdparty.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -x
+set -e
+
+TP_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE:-$0}")"; pwd)
+PREFIX=$TP_DIR/installed
+
+# Determine how many parallel jobs to use for make based on the number of cores
+if [[ "$OSTYPE" =~ ^linux ]]; then
+  PARALLEL=$(grep -c processor /proc/cpuinfo)
+elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
+  PARALLEL=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
+else
+  echo Unsupported platform $OSTYPE
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "installing arrow"
+export FLATBUFFERS_HOME=$TP_DIR/arrow/cpp/thirdparty/installed/
+$TP_DIR/arrow/cpp/thirdparty/download_thirdparty.sh
+$TP_DIR/arrow/cpp/thirdparty/build_thirdparty.sh
+mkdir -p $TP_DIR/arrow/cpp/build
+cd $TP_DIR/arrow/cpp/build
+cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
+make VERBOSE=1 -j$PARALLEL
+sudo make VERBOSE=1 install
+
+echo "installing numbuf"
+mkdir -p $TP_DIR/numbuf/cpp/build
+cd $TP_DIR/numbuf/cpp/build
+cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release  ..
+make VERBOSE=1 -j$PARALLEL
+sudo make VERBOSE=1 install
+mkdir -p $TP_DIR/numbuf/python/build
+cd $TP_DIR/numbuf/python/build
+cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
+make VERBOSE=1 -j$PARALLEL
+sudo make VERBOSE=1 install
+
+echo "installing GRPC"
+cd $TP_DIR/grpc/third_party/protobuf
+./autogen.sh
+export CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -fPIC"
+./configure --enable-static=no
+sudo make install
+sudo ldconfig
+cd python
+sudo python setup.py install
+cd $TP_DIR/grpc
+make VERBOSE=1 -j$PARALLEL
+sudo make VERBOSE=1 install
diff --git a/thirdparty/download_thirdparty.sh b/thirdparty/download_thirdparty.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..219048cd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/thirdparty/download_thirdparty.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -x
+set -e
+
+TP_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE:-$0}")"; pwd)
+
+if [ ! -d arrow ]; then
+  echo "Fetching arrow"
+  git clone https://github.com/apache/arrow.git
+  cd arrow
+  git checkout 4bd13b852d376065fdb16c36fa821ab0e167f0fc
+  cd ..
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d numbuf ]; then
+  echo "Fetching numbuf"
+  git clone https://github.com/amplab/numbuf.git
+fi
+
+if [ ! -d grpc ]; then
+  echo "Fetching GRPC"
+  git clone https://github.com/grpc/grpc.git
+  cd grpc
+  git submodule update --init
+  cd ..
+fi