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| This is an overview of the basic components of a technical presentation as well as some common pitfalls to avoid. The list will likely evolve as new items come to mind. |
 Do not put too much information
on a page. Use large fonts (40 pt or more) and do not put more
than 1 or 2 pictures on a slide. The audience cannot read slides
that are too small or too busy. Use text and figures sparingly to
provide cues to remind yourself what it is that you want to tell us.
Do not fill the whole 8.5x11
inch area of the slide, since it will not project completely and be
visible. Many people prefer landscape format. Leave a least
one inch margins all the way around. You may increase the margins
on the bottom and sides a little more than one inch.
Allow 1-2 minutes per slide.
Thus,
for a 20 minute presentation, allow about 15 slides. Practice your
talk and time it to make sure it is 20 minutes. This is a realisitic
constraint for conference presentations. Expect to finish a little
faster during the actual presentation because of nervousness.
Prepare extemporaneously.
By that, I mean practice your talk; think about what you want to say, but
do not design it verbatim. This can backfire if you forget what you
want to say or you loose your place in your notes. You know your
research and will think of an effective way to comminicate it in real time.
Connect with your audience.
This is easy for some and hard for others. You know whether you need
to work on this by maintaining eye contact, looking for visual clues from
the audience that they are comprehending your talk, and relating to the
audience through personal experience. A joke or cartoon at the beginning
of a talk can be a wonderful "tension breaker."
Tell us from the very start
what you want us to get from your talk. e.g. "I have developed
a new tool for analyzing manufacutring processes using finite element analysis.
We are now able to accurately solve important problems such as ... for
the first time."
Basic essential components
of a presentation include: Title page, Outline page,
Overview
(what problem are you solving, why is it important?, What methods have
been applied so far? What methods will you apply? What is your
contribution to the field?), Methods and Accomplishments,
Results,
and Conclusions
Reiterate the problem, methods,
results, and contributions in the Conclusions Slide(s).
Don't excessively use equations.
Equations are often a necessary part of a presentation - verifying the
theory or approach that you've used or more importantly, illustrating how
the theory has been extended. It is easy to "hide behind" equations
because they can't be disputed typically. Don't risk loosing your
audience from grasping what it is you have accomplished by pounding them
with theory. Remember that it is more important that we understand
what you did than whether you can transcribe a bunch of equations from
text books and papers.
Define the terms in your
equations. Even if they are the standard symbols in your
field. We work in multi-disciplinary fields and ofter are not familiar
with standard symbols or often there are multiple "standard" symbols for
the same quantity. |
| Example
Presentation #1
Example
Presentation #2
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