diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 3564883..39013c3 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ install:
   - source activate test-environment
   - pip install pytest-cov python-coveralls pytest-xdist coverage==3.7.1 #we need this version of coverage for coveralls.io to work
   - pip install pep8 pytest-pep8
+  - conda install mkl mkl-service
   - pip install theano
   - pip install git+git://github.com/fchollet/keras.git
 
@@ -63,6 +64,7 @@ install:
 
 # command to run tests
 script:
+  - export MKL_THREADING_LAYER="GNU"
   # run keras backend init to initialize backend config
   - python -c "import keras.backend"
   # create dataset directory to avoid concurrent directory creation at runtime