Presenting Your Research

Aleksey Zimin and James A. Yorke University of Maryland

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Types of Presentations

n  “Elevator talk” n  2-3 minute presentation, no visual aides

n  The goal is to get the audience interested in your

work

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Types of Presentations

n  Short presentation – 15-20 minutes n  No outline n  Covers single topic n  The presentation must contain the following:

n Motivation n Setting up the problem n Some results n Lots of pictures

n  10-12 slides

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Types of Presentations

n  30 – minute talk n  Optional outline n  Covers single topic n  The presentation must contain the following:

n Motivation n Setting up the problem n Some intermediate steps n Results

n  20-25 slides

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Types of Presentations

n  One-hour talk n  Has to have outline n  May cover multiple topics n  Contains everything mentioned before n  You should guide the audience through the

presentation n  Lots of pictures will minimize number of people

that fall asleep

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Designing the Slides

n  Slides must have Titles n  Use high-contrast color schemes in Powerpoint n  Use bullets n  Use large fonts n  Number the slides n  One slide per minute max n  Your audience will read your slides

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One topic per slide

n  Each slide must talk about a single topic

n  You can use multiple slides per large topic

n  Avoid “busy” slides

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Example “busy” slide

n  Types of talks: n  “Elevator talk”

n  2-3 minute presentation, no visual aides n  The goal is to get the audience interested in your work

n  Short presentation – 15-20 minutes n  No outline n  Covers single topic n  The presentation must contain the following:

n  Motivation n  Setting up the problem n  Some results n  Lots of pictures

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Graphs and images

n  Use large fonts for labels

n  One graph per slide (unless you have to compare two graphs)

n  Use arrows to point out the important parts

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Graphs and images

Gap size estimated correctly

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Conclusion

n  Restate and summarize your results

n  Acknowledge your colleagues and collaborators

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Practice

n  Practice in front of live audience n  All talks must be tested on live audiences n  Ask your test audience to speak up when they do not

understand what is being said n  In the end ask “what is wrong with my talk”?

n  If you give a practice talk that is judged a failure, don't worry about it; just fix it. It is the final talk that counts.

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Your Main Point

n  Ask yourself what you want your audience to remember six months after the talk.

n  Aim at explaining one central idea or

achievement n  Tell the mail point to the audience early in the

talk

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Apologies?

n  Do not apologize in your talk for anything n  Give an appearance of mastery n  If you forgot, just say "Now is a good time to

tell you ...".

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Speaking

n  Speak uniformly loudly. n  Make frequent eye contact with the audience. n  See if you can interact with the audience.

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Giving credit

n  Make sure the audience knows what YOU have done and have not done.

n  Don't be shy about claiming credit. n  Give credit to the people who did the

background work by name at least.