How do I grant write access to an API in Octave so it can create directories and files?

[RT]

I'm trying to run the

SOFA Matlab/Octave API version 1.0.1. Copyright 2013 Acoustics Research Institute

This API implements SOFA version 1.0.

I've emailed them and they said "I need to grant write access to the SOFA API directory"...it does look like the API doesn't have access to write and create directories (since the directory it tries to create isn't created), however I can create and delete directories with the account I start Octave with without an issue.  How do I grant access rights to this API in Octave to allow it to create and delete files in it's directories and sub-directories?

I'm using Octave 3.8.1 Ubuntu 14.04 64it

Thanks