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Successful Presentations

Arno Puder arno@sfsu.edu Successful Presentations Outline: Preparation Slides Presentation Motivation and Goals Presentations are an important criteria for evaluation It is important to learn and practice to give successful presentations Goal: convey knowledge in an optimal way

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Successful Presentations

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  1. Arno Puder arno@sfsu.edu Successful Presentations • Outline: • Preparation • Slides • Presentation

  2. Motivation and Goals • Presentations are an important criteria for evaluation • It is important to learn and practice to give successful presentations • Goal: convey knowledge in an optimal way • You should learn to: • Gain an overview of a field and be able to present it in a structured fashion • Prepare the material for a specific target group • Be able to discuss and answer questions from the audience • Evaluate content of academic publications

  3. Preparing for a Presentation • Who is the target audience? • Target group • Prerequisit knowledge • Expectations • What is the message you try to convey? • Presentation room: • A/V material (projector, overhead) • Room lights and blinds • Blackboard • Test your slides • Handouts?

  4. Criteria for Presentations • Limited time frame (5, 15, 30 minutes) • Challenge: make skillful use of time. • If necessary, leave out material • Never speed up presentation • Think about milestones within the presentation • Do dress rehearsals • Allow questions • Citations • From where did you get your knowledge? • List all references on a separate slide • Only mention them briefly during the presentation

  5. „I think you should be more explicit here in step two“

  6. „Be silent about things you don‘t know“ • Goal: achieve complete understanding of the subject • Always be critical with all material • Use as many sources as possible • Academic articles are often more useful than web pages • Spare the embarrassment of incomplete or wrong knowledge Ludwig Wittgenstein

  7. Designing the Slides • Purpose of slides is to support your presentation • Usually only one thought per slide • Use big, readable fonts. Do not use too many different fonts or colors • Heading of slide should summarize the core point of that slide • Do not overload a slide: • Not too many bullet items • Not too much text • Use diagrams (a picture says more than a thousand words) • Plan to spend about 2-3 minutes per slide • Animation on slides often not useful

  8. First Bad Example There are two types of interfaces: a horizontal interface and a vertical one. The horizontal interface exists between an application and the middleware and defines how an application can access the functionality of the middleware. This is also referred to as an Application Programming Interface (API). The standardization of the interface between middleware and application results in the portability of an application to different middleware because the same API exists at each access point. In addition to the horizontal interface, there is a vertical interface that defines the interface between two instances of a middleware platform. This vertical interface is typically defined through a protocol on the basis of messages, referred to as protocol data units (PDU). The vertical interface separates technological domains and ensures that applications can extend beyond the influence area of the product of middleware. The standardization of this interface allows interoperability between applications.

  9. Second Bad Example • Interoperability • Portability

  10. Interoperability & Portability Client Server vertical interface horizontal interface Middleware 1 Middleware 2 Domain 1 Domain 2 • Horizontal interface (IDL & ORB-API) guarantees Portability • Vertical interface (IIOP) guarantees Interoperability • Vertical interface decouples technological domains

  11. Preparations • Finish the presentation on time (not the night before!) • Arrive early for your presentation • Check A/V material • Have a backup plan in case projector does not work • Prepare (setup laptop, erase blackboard, etc) • Have chalk/pens ready

  12. Presentation • Beginning the presentation is the most difficult • Introduce yourself • What is the topic of your presentation? • Why is it a cool topic? • What are the goals you are trying to accomplish with your presentation? • What is the outline of your talk? • Do not obstruct the projection of slides • Face the audience, not the slides • Use a laser pointer if necessary • Talk loud and clearly • Talk freely (don‘t memorize every word) • Try to lighten up the presentation • Try to engage the audience

  13. Presentation • Try to avoid forward references • Remain flexible: • React to audience • Allow questions • Remain calm (defer difficult questions to the end) • Conclude your talk with a summary and outlook

  14. Conclusions • Prepare well • Achieve full understanding of the topic of your talk • Clear and concise slides • Talk freely • Motivate and engage the audience

  15. References • This presentation is inspired by a similar talk given byProf. F. Mattern from the ETH Zurich.http://www.inf.ethz.ch/vs/publ/slides/vortragshinweise03.pdf • Ian Parberry: How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science: A Speaker's Guide for Students. SIGACT News, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 42-47, 1988 • Olivier Danvy: Some advice on giving a talk http://www.brics.dk/~danvy/talk.html

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