LaTeX for Students, Engineers, and Scientists

Programme Overview

LaTeX, a document preparation system, is widely used for publishing in many scientific fields like mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, chemistry, physics, economics, linguistics, etc.. It is a powerful and open-source system that provides numerous facilities for automating typesetting of the document: i.e. structuring page layout, listing and auto-numbering of sections, tables, figures, generating a table of contents, managing cross-referencing, citing, and indexing.

Unlike other WYSIWYG editors, the content is written in plain text along with appropriate commands, thus, allowing the user to concentrate on the content rather than the aesthetics (the way it looks). The TeX typesetting program which LaTeX uses, was designed such that anyone can create good quality material with less efforts.

This course introduces the basic concepts of LaTeX. Participants taking this course will be able to create and design documents in LaTeX and presentations in Beamer with confidence.

Course content

In this course you will learn to:

• Handle different types of documents
• Organize documents into different sections, subsections, etc..
• Formatting pages (margins, header, footer, orientation)
• Formatting text
• Write complex mathematical formulae
• Include tables and images
• Cross-referencing, bibliography, and Indexing
• Read error messages as and when required
• Create presentations using Beamer

The detailed description is given below:

Topic 1: Introduction

This topic introduces the learner to LaTeX, its installation, and different IDEs. The learner creates the first document using LaTeX, organizes content into sections using articles and book class of LaTeX.

Topic 2: Styling Pages

In this topic, the session starts by reviewing different paper sizes, examines packages, formats the page by setting margins, customizing header and footer, changing the page orientation, dividing the document into multiple columns. The topic ends with reading different types of error messages.

Topic 3: Formatting Content

This topic concentrates on formatting text (styles, size, alignment), adding colors to text and entire page, and adding bullets and numbered items. It concludes by explaining the process of writing complex mathematics.

Topic 4: Tables and Images

The topic starts by creating basic tables, adding simple and dashed borders, merging rows and columns, and handling situations where a table exceeds the size of a page. The sessions then continue to add an image, explore different properties like rotate, scale, etc..

Topic 5: Referencing and Indexing

In this topic, the learner learns to add cross-referencing (refer to sections, table, images), add bibliography (references), and create back index.

Topic 6: Presentation using Beamer

Introduction to creating slides, adding frames, dividing the slide into multiple columns, adding different blocks, etc..

Teaching Faculty

Prof. Deepak B Phatak, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay

Ms. Firuza Karmali (Aibara), Project Manager,Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay

Mr. Nagesh Karmali, Sr. Manager (Research), Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay

Duration and Venue

This course will be conducted in a self-paced mode, i.e. all the lecture videos, slides, reading material, activities, and graded assignments will be released when the course starts. There will be recommended deadlines that you are encouraged to follow but ultimately you have the flexibility of progressing and completing the graded assignments at your own pace. However, you will need to complete them before the course ends.

Who Should Attend

There are no prerequisites for this course, except knowledge of editing text. The course can be taken by any learner who wants to create documents using LaTeX but especially for those who need to write articles or books, create project reports, submit papers to national/international conferences, etc..

Course Fee and Certification

The registration fee for the course is Rs. 450/-. However, register before 30 July 2021 for Rs. 400/- only to avail an early bird registration discount.

Important Payment Instruction:

Please note that the registration fee once paid is neither refundable nor adjustable under any circumstances.
While making a payment for the course,
(i) If you receive a transaction failure message and your amount is NOT debited, please pay again by logging in to IITBombayX-LAKSHYA programme(https://www.it.iitb.ac.in/lakshya) website.

(ii) If your amount is debited and you still receive a transaction failure message, please DO NOT make another payment. Send a mail to workshopfund@cse.iitb.ac.in with cc to Eoutreach eoutreach@it.iitb.ac.in with a subject "Transaction failure but amount debited". Also, provide the transaction details in the mail. You will soon receive a reply from us on the same.

Honor Code e-Certificates will be issued on successful completion of the course based on the grading policy mentioned in the course. Please note that all e-certificates will be issued online after the course ends on 21 November 2021. No hard copies will be given.

How to Apply

Enrollment will be strictly online, and no other mode of application will be entertained. The online registration is available from 28 June 2021 till 15 August 2021.

Course registration steps for the IITBombayX-Lakshya portal: 

• Once you select the course of your interest from the homepage. A page will open where Click on the link “Click here for registration form” to get enrolled for this course.
• You will be prompted to enter your email address.
1. If you have already registered in our earlier courses: Use your existing email id and password to get enrolled.
2. If you are here for the first time: A form will open where you have to enter the OTP (received in the entered email), password and other required details and press SUBMIT button (for your account creation).
• You will be routed to Registration form of this course and select your appropriate ‘Audience type’, (if not selected earlier) and Press on ‘Pay Now’ button.
• Once the payment is successful , you will receive an automated email. Also, your name will be listed in the ‘List of Participants’ page in Course page.
• Register on IITBombayX site (https://courses.iitbombayx.in/register) using the same email id to access the course content (if already registered in IITBombayX site with same email, then you may skip this step).
• You will be mapped in IITBombayX of this course within 2 to 3 working days.
• You will be able to access the course in your IITBombayX dashboard after login.

Accommodation

Note

The course content is released under Open Source License. All participants must agree that the content contributed by them in any form, (assignments, questions, etc.) would be released under Open Source Licence, by accepting the terms mentioned under ‘No Objection Certificate’. All contributors will be acknowledged.

Address For Communication

Dr. Kalpana Kannan
Project Coordinator, ESOS Project
Department of CSE, Kanwal Rekhi Building,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay,
Mumbai - 400 076.
Tel.: +91 9833594905 (Mahendra)
Email: eoutreach@it.iitb.ac.in
Website - www.it.iitb.ac.in/lakshya/ www.iitbombayx.in