diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index fbd3915b515..c702dbd8f4d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -29,10 +29,12 @@ matrix:
             - libwww-perl
             - clang-3.7
             - libubsan0
+            - libc++-dev
+            - libstdc++-5-dev
       before_install:
         - mkdir bin ; ln -s /usr/bin/clang-3.7 bin/gcc
       # env: COMPILER=clang++-3.7 SAN_FLAGS="-fsanitize=undefined -fno-sanitize-recover=undefined,integer -fno-omit-frame-pointer"
-      env: COMPILER=clang++-3.7
+      env: COMPILER="clang++-3.7 -stdlib=libc++"
     - os: osx
       compiler: gcc
       env: COMPILER=g++
@@ -45,6 +47,6 @@ matrix:
 script:
   - if [ -L bin/gcc ] ; then export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH ; fi ;
     make -C src minisat2-download &&
-    make -C src CXX=$COMPILER CXXFLAGS="-Wall -O2 -g -Werror -Wno-deprecated-register -pedantic -Wno-sign-compare" -j2 &&
+    make -C src CXX="$COMPILER" CXXFLAGS="-Wall -O2 -g -Werror -Wno-deprecated-register -pedantic -Wno-sign-compare" -j2 &&
     env UBSAN_OPTIONS=print_stacktrace=1 make -C regression test &&
-    make -C src CXX=$COMPILER CXXFLAGS=$FLAGS -j2 aa-symex.dir cegis.dir clobber.dir memory-models.dir musketeer.dir
+    make -C src CXX="$COMPILER" CXXFLAGS="-Wall -O2 -g -Werror -Wno-deprecated-register -pedantic -Wno-sign-compare" -j2 aa-symex.dir cegis.dir clobber.dir memory-models.dir musketeer.dir
diff --git a/src/util/unicode.cpp b/src/util/unicode.cpp
index 4502605c600..12ea8d04a0f 100644
--- a/src/util/unicode.cpp
+++ b/src/util/unicode.cpp
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ Author: Daniel Kroening, kroening@kroening.com
 \*******************************************************************/
 
 #include <cstring>
+#include <locale>
+#include <codecvt>
 
 #include "unicode.h"
 
@@ -253,3 +255,41 @@ const char **narrow_argv(int argc, const wchar_t **argv_wide)
 
   return argv_narrow;
 }
+
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_big_endian(const std::string& in)
+{
+  std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t> > converter;
+  return converter.from_bytes(in);
+}
+
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_little_endian(const std::string& in)
+{
+  const std::codecvt_mode mode=std::codecvt_mode::little_endian;
+
+  // default largest value codecvt_utf8_utf16 reads without error is 0x10ffff
+  // see: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/locale/codecvt_utf8_utf16
+  const unsigned long maxcode=0x10ffff;
+
+  typedef std::codecvt_utf8_utf16<wchar_t, maxcode, mode> codecvt_utf8_utf16t;
+  std::wstring_convert<codecvt_utf8_utf16t> converter;
+  return converter.from_bytes(in);
+}
+
+std::string utf16_little_endian_to_ascii(const std::wstring& in)
+{
+  std::string result;
+  std::locale loc;
+  for(const auto c : in)
+  {
+    if(c<=255 && isprint(c, loc))
+      result+=(unsigned char)c;
+    else
+    {
+      result+="\\u";
+      char hex[5];
+      snprintf(hex, sizeof(hex), "%04x", (wchar_t)c);
+      result+=hex;
+    }
+  }
+  return result;
+}
diff --git a/src/util/unicode.h b/src/util/unicode.h
index edad95039f0..1e5040344d0 100644
--- a/src/util/unicode.h
+++ b/src/util/unicode.h
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ std::wstring widen(const std::string &s);
 std::string utf32_to_utf8(const std::basic_string<unsigned int> &s);
 std::string utf16_to_utf8(const std::basic_string<unsigned short int> &s);
 
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_big_endian(const std::string&);
+std::wstring utf8_to_utf16_little_endian(const std::string&);
+std::string utf16_little_endian_to_ascii(const std::wstring& in);
+
 const char **narrow_argv(int argc, const wchar_t **argv_wide);
 
 #endif // CPROVER_UTIL_UNICODE_H