This is intended to be a useful starting point for writing a PhD thesis at UIC. Its meant to replace the mix of outdated latex files, PDFs and websites that used to, collectively, define what was needed.

This template is broken up so you should only need to change a couple of files, but mostly not muck withe the layout / formatting / etc parts.

• thesis.tex: Edit this to fill in the title of your thesis, you name, information about any degrees you currently hold, and your committee. You'll also have to add references to the chapters and sections that'll make up the body of the thesis.
• sections/other/__commands.tex: A place to add any custom commands you'll use in your thesis. Don't use commands for abbreviations though, those go in the next section.
• sections/other/__preamble.tex: You likely won't need to make changes to this, but this contains all the stuff that goes before the document section of your paper, so its where you'd add references to any additional packages you need.
• sections/other/__abbrs.tex: Define all the acronyms you'll use in the paper in this file, using the format defined in the "glossaries" package. Abbreviations added here, and used in the body of your thesis, will automatically be formatted correctly to create the "Abbreviations" section of your thesis.
• sections/other/{_1_dedication.tex, _3_contribution_of_authors.tex, _4_summary.tex}: These files map on to the sections of the thesis you'd expect, with the template handing the formatting and placement of each page. All you need to do is add the relevant text.
• sections/other/_2_acknowledgement.tex: This section is just like the above, for the most part. Just add text describing who you'd like to acknowledge, and how. Just don't forget to add the \initials{XXX} line to the bottom of the file.
• tables/*, figures/*: Just a suggestions on how / where to store your tex table and figure files.

You'll need latexmk, makeglossaries and pdflatex on your system, along with a pretty standard set of latex packages. Once thats the case, building the PDF should just be a make clean && make.

• LaTeX macros for typesetting UIC theses Outdated, but very helpful prior template that this builds from. Its not structured in a way that you can easily start writing content, and its fallen behind many of the CS department's current requirements, but it was extremely helpful.
• UIC Thesis Page The department's thesis page. It has the final word on the formatting and submission requirements. It includes a link to the manual, which is hard to follow, but comprehensive.
• iThenticate Manual Oddly, some of the requirements for the (in almost all cases) required "Contribution of Authors" section is only found in the iThenticate Manual (as far as I could find).

Pete Snyder [email protected]