diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 9cbb3ae..c60ceb7 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ ArgParse = "1"
 DataStructures = "0.18"
 StatsBase = "0.33, 0.34"
 Reexport = "1.2"
-julia = "1.6"
+julia = "1.9"
 Logging = "1"
 Printf = "1"
 Random = "1"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 91b76b9..c56adad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 
 _This project is still in early development, any feedback is much appreciated!_
 
-`MHLib.jl` is a collection of modules, types, and functions  in Julia 1.8+ supporting
+`MHLib.jl` is a collection of modules, types, and functions  in 
+[Julia](https://julialang.org/) supporting
 the effective implementation of metaheuristics and certain hybrid optimization approaches
 for solving primarily combinatorial optimization problems.
 
diff --git a/test/Manifest.toml b/test/Manifest.toml
index 4e1855f..06901cd 100644
--- a/test/Manifest.toml
+++ b/test/Manifest.toml
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # This file is machine-generated - editing it directly is not advised
 
-julia_version = "1.9.3"
+julia_version = "1.9.4"
 manifest_format = "2.0"
-project_hash = "d9d8c925d8b9cd384af97182abce7840b5a77b8f"
+project_hash = "abcfb88e7ba55bf29a078f455e129dc81a165646"
 
 [[deps.ArgParse]]
 deps = ["Logging", "TextWrap"]
@@ -102,19 +102,19 @@ version = "0.2.2"
 
 [[deps.JuliaInterpreter]]
 deps = ["CodeTracking", "InteractiveUtils", "Random", "UUIDs"]
-git-tree-sha1 = "0592b1810613d1c95eeebcd22dc11fba186c2a57"
+git-tree-sha1 = "e49bce680c109bc86e3e75ebcb15040d6ad9e1d3"
 uuid = "aa1ae85d-cabe-5617-a682-6adf51b2e16a"
-version = "0.9.26"
+version = "0.9.27"
 
 [[deps.LibCURL]]
 deps = ["LibCURL_jll", "MozillaCACerts_jll"]
 uuid = "b27032c2-a3e7-50c8-80cd-2d36dbcbfd21"
-version = "0.6.3"
+version = "0.6.4"
 
 [[deps.LibCURL_jll]]
 deps = ["Artifacts", "LibSSH2_jll", "Libdl", "MbedTLS_jll", "Zlib_jll", "nghttp2_jll"]
 uuid = "deac9b47-8bc7-5906-a0fe-35ac56dc84c0"
-version = "7.84.0+0"
+version = "8.4.0+0"
 
 [[deps.LibGit2]]
 deps = ["Base64", "NetworkOptions", "Printf", "SHA"]
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ uuid = "76f85450-5226-5b5a-8eaa-529ad045b433"
 [[deps.LibSSH2_jll]]
 deps = ["Artifacts", "Libdl", "MbedTLS_jll"]
 uuid = "29816b5a-b9ab-546f-933c-edad1886dfa8"
-version = "1.10.2+0"
+version = "1.11.0+1"
 
 [[deps.Libdl]]
 uuid = "8f399da3-3557-5675-b5ff-fb832c97cbdb"
@@ -153,9 +153,9 @@ uuid = "56ddb016-857b-54e1-b83d-db4d58db5568"
 
 [[deps.LoweredCodeUtils]]
 deps = ["JuliaInterpreter"]
-git-tree-sha1 = "60168780555f3e663c536500aa790b6368adc02a"
+git-tree-sha1 = "c165f205e030208760ebd75b5e1f7706761d9218"
 uuid = "6f1432cf-f94c-5a45-995e-cdbf5db27b0b"
-version = "2.3.0"
+version = "2.3.1"
 
 [[deps.MacroTools]]
 deps = ["Markdown", "Random"]
@@ -195,15 +195,27 @@ uuid = "4536629a-c528-5b80-bd46-f80d51c5b363"
 version = "0.3.21+4"
 
 [[deps.OrderedCollections]]
-git-tree-sha1 = "2e73fe17cac3c62ad1aebe70d44c963c3cfdc3e3"
+git-tree-sha1 = "dfdf5519f235516220579f949664f1bf44e741c5"
 uuid = "bac558e1-5e72-5ebc-8fee-abe8a469f55d"
-version = "1.6.2"
+version = "1.6.3"
 
 [[deps.Pkg]]
 deps = ["Artifacts", "Dates", "Downloads", "FileWatching", "LibGit2", "Libdl", "Logging", "Markdown", "Printf", "REPL", "Random", "SHA", "Serialization", "TOML", "Tar", "UUIDs", "p7zip_jll"]
 uuid = "44cfe95a-1eb2-52ea-b672-e2afdf69b78f"
 version = "1.9.2"
 
+[[deps.PrecompileTools]]
+deps = ["Preferences"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "03b4c25b43cb84cee5c90aa9b5ea0a78fd848d2f"
+uuid = "aea7be01-6a6a-4083-8856-8a6e6704d82a"
+version = "1.2.0"
+
+[[deps.Preferences]]
+deps = ["TOML"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "00805cd429dcb4870060ff49ef443486c262e38e"
+uuid = "21216c6a-2e73-6563-6e65-726566657250"
+version = "1.4.1"
+
 [[deps.Printf]]
 deps = ["Unicode"]
 uuid = "de0858da-6303-5e67-8744-51eddeeeb8d7"
@@ -224,9 +236,9 @@ version = "1.3.0"
 
 [[deps.Revise]]
 deps = ["CodeTracking", "Distributed", "FileWatching", "JuliaInterpreter", "LibGit2", "LoweredCodeUtils", "OrderedCollections", "Pkg", "REPL", "Requires", "UUIDs", "Unicode"]
-git-tree-sha1 = "ba168f8fc36bf83c8d0573d464b7aab0f8a81623"
+git-tree-sha1 = "6990168abf3fe9a6e34ebb0e05aaaddf6572189e"
 uuid = "295af30f-e4ad-537b-8983-00126c2a3abe"
-version = "3.5.7"
+version = "3.5.10"
 
 [[deps.SHA]]
 uuid = "ea8e919c-243c-51af-8825-aaa63cd721ce"
@@ -259,10 +271,10 @@ deps = ["Libdl", "LinearAlgebra", "Random", "Serialization", "SuiteSparse_jll"]
 uuid = "2f01184e-e22b-5df5-ae63-d93ebab69eaf"
 
 [[deps.StaticArrays]]
-deps = ["LinearAlgebra", "Random", "StaticArraysCore"]
-git-tree-sha1 = "0adf069a2a490c47273727e029371b31d44b72b2"
+deps = ["LinearAlgebra", "PrecompileTools", "Random", "StaticArraysCore"]
+git-tree-sha1 = "5ef59aea6f18c25168842bded46b16662141ab87"
 uuid = "90137ffa-7385-5640-81b9-e52037218182"
-version = "1.6.5"
+version = "1.7.0"
 weakdeps = ["Statistics"]
 
     [deps.StaticArrays.extensions]
@@ -309,12 +321,6 @@ version = "1.10.0"
 deps = ["InteractiveUtils", "Logging", "Random", "Serialization"]
 uuid = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
 
-[[deps.TestEnv]]
-deps = ["Pkg"]
-git-tree-sha1 = "8216a7f6946fb52123d0a178742003429897c21a"
-uuid = "1e6cf692-eddd-4d53-88a5-2d735e33781b"
-version = "1.101.0"
-
 [[deps.TextWrap]]
 git-tree-sha1 = "9250ef9b01b66667380cf3275b3f7488d0e25faf"
 uuid = "b718987f-49a8-5099-9789-dcd902bef87d"
@@ -340,7 +346,7 @@ version = "5.8.0+0"
 [[deps.nghttp2_jll]]
 deps = ["Artifacts", "Libdl"]
 uuid = "8e850ede-7688-5339-a07c-302acd2aaf8d"
-version = "1.48.0+0"
+version = "1.52.0+1"
 
 [[deps.p7zip_jll]]
 deps = ["Artifacts", "Libdl"]
diff --git a/test/Project.toml b/test/Project.toml
index 16b993d..6dee156 100644
--- a/test/Project.toml
+++ b/test/Project.toml
@@ -9,4 +9,3 @@ Random = "9a3f8284-a2c9-5f02-9a11-845980a1fd5c"
 Revise = "295af30f-e4ad-537b-8983-00126c2a3abe"
 StatsBase = "2913bbd2-ae8a-5f71-8c99-4fb6c76f3a91"
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
-TestEnv = "1e6cf692-eddd-4d53-88a5-2d735e33781b"
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 9b39927..ff721fe 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,11 +1,6 @@
 # always run this code in the test directory and the test environment
 cd(@__DIR__)
-using Pkg; Pkg.activate(".")
-using TestEnv
-Pkg.activate("..")
-TestEnv.activate()
 
-# using Revise
 using Test
 using Random
 using MHLib