Scientific Writing with LaTeX, Overleaf & OpenAI Prism — 3-Day Workshop

3-day workshop: LaTeX writing, Overleaf, AI-assisted writing (Prism).

Instructor: Dr. Yaé Ulrich Gaba Duration: 3 days (18 hours) Level: Beginner to Intermediate Language: English

Overview

This workshop equips researchers, graduate students, and academics with the tools and techniques for professional scientific writing. Participants learn LaTeX from scratch, collaborate in real-time on Overleaf, and leverage AI-assisted writing with OpenAI Prism — the new LaTeX-native workspace with integrated GPT-5.2 for scientific research.

Prerequisites

  • No prior LaTeX experience required
  • Familiarity with academic papers (having read or written reports/essays)
  • A free account on Overleaf (create before Day 1)
  • A free account on OpenAI Prism (requires ChatGPT account)
  • Laptop with internet access

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Write complete LaTeX documents (articles, theses, reports)
  2. Typeset mathematical equations, tables, and figures professionally
  3. Manage bibliographies with BibTeX/BibLaTeX
  4. Collaborate in real-time using Overleaf
  5. Use OpenAI Prism for AI-assisted drafting, literature search, and revision
  6. Structure a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX

Software & Accounts

  • Overleaf — Online LaTeX editor (free tier)
  • OpenAI Prism — AI-powered scientific workspace (free with ChatGPT account)
  • Optional local install: TeX Live + VS Code with LaTeX Workshop extension

Day-by-Day Program

Day 1: LaTeX Fundamentals

Objectives: Write a first LaTeX document, understand document structure, typeset mathematics.

Time Topic
09:00–10:00 Why LaTeX? — Comparison with Word, advantages for scientific writing, the LaTeX ecosystem, document compilation workflow
10:00–10:45 First Document — \documentclass, preamble, \begin{document}, sections, paragraphs, special characters, comments
10:45–11:00 Break
11:00–12:30 Text Formatting — Bold, italic, fonts, lists (itemize, enumerate, description), footnotes, cross-references (\label, \ref)
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:30 Mathematics — Inline vs. display math, fractions, subscripts/superscripts, Greek letters, operators, matrices, align environments, theorem environments
15:30–15:45 Break
15:45–17:00 Figures & Tables — \includegraphics, figure environment, captions, positioning, tabular, booktabs, multirow/multicolumn

Lab 1: Reproduce a provided 2-page mathematics paper excerpt — complete with title, abstract, sections, equations, a figure, and a table.

Homework: Begin writing the introduction of your own paper/thesis/report in LaTeX.

Day 2: Advanced LaTeX & Overleaf

Objectives: Master bibliographies, collaboration, and document templates for theses and articles.

Time Topic
09:00–09:30 Homework Review
09:30–10:30 Bibliography Management — BibTeX files, \cite, \bibliography, natbib vs. biblatex, citation styles (APA, IEEE, numeric), Google Scholar BibTeX export
10:30–10:45 Break
10:45–12:00 Overleaf Deep Dive — Creating projects, real-time collaboration, track changes, review mode, version history, sharing permissions, templates gallery
12:00–12:30 Journal Templates — Using publisher templates (Elsevier, Springer, IEEE, AMS), submission-ready formatting
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:30 Thesis Structure — Multi-file projects (\input, \include), front matter, chapters, appendices, table of contents, list of figures/tables, glossaries
15:30–15:45 Break
15:45–17:00 Advanced Features — Custom commands (\newcommand), packages (hyperref, cleveref, algorithm2e, listings, tikz basics), beamer for presentations

Lab 2: Set up a collaborative Overleaf project with a partner. Create a mini-paper using a journal template with: title page, abstract, 2 sections, 3+ equations, bibliography with 5+ references, and a figure.

Homework: Add a bibliography to your own paper/thesis using BibTeX entries exported from Google Scholar.

Day 3: AI-Assisted Writing with OpenAI Prism

Objectives: Use AI tools responsibly for scientific writing — drafting, revision, literature search, and diagram generation.

Time Topic
09:00–09:30 Homework Review
09:30–10:30 Introduction to Prism — What is Prism, how it differs from ChatGPT, the LaTeX-native interface, creating a project, importing from Overleaf
10:30–10:45 Break
10:45–12:00 AI-Assisted Drafting — Using Prism to draft sections, refine arguments, suggest structure. Prompt engineering for scientific text. Converting whiteboard sketches to LaTeX
12:00–12:30 Literature Search — Using Prism to search academic literature, add references directly to manuscripts, verify citations
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:00 Revision & Editing — AI-assisted proofreading, style improvement, clarity checks, voice-based editing. Comparing Prism with Grammarly/Writefull for academic text
15:00–15:15 Break
15:15–16:00 Ethics & Best Practices — Responsible AI use in academia, disclosure requirements, journal policies on AI-generated text, what to delegate vs. what to write yourself, avoiding plagiarism
16:00–17:00 Capstone & Wrap-Up — Complete a polished 3-page paper draft using LaTeX + Overleaf + Prism. Presentations, Q&A, certificates

Lab 3 (Capstone): Produce a submission-ready paper draft (or thesis chapter). Workflow:

  1. Structure and outline in Prism
  2. Draft sections with AI assistance
  3. Add equations and figures manually in Overleaf
  4. Use Prism for literature search and bibliography
  5. Final proofreading and formatting

Assessment

  • Daily labs (50%) — Quality and completeness of LaTeX documents
  • Capstone paper (30%) — Polished draft produced on Day 3
  • Participation (20%) — Engagement and collaboration

Resources

Certificate

Participants who complete all labs and the capstone paper receive a certificate of completion.