Twice a year we have students presentations. Here are some tips that will help you make a good impression and get a good grade. The most important part is to do a dry-run. If your supervisor doesn't ask you, you should ask him!
General:
- look at the audience (but not always at the same person), not at the screen
- present yourself with your name, your section and bachelor/master/phd and the lab you worked with
- don’t talk too fast, breathe, imagine yourself talking to the wall at the other side of the room to be loud enough
- make your thoughts follow the slides - point to the slides, to the part you’re talking about
- send your PDF of the presentation to the responsible _before_ the presentation
Computer:
- turn off all notifications on your computer
- if you use an online service, be sure to have a backup PDF
- remove screen-blanking and/or screen-locking
Presentation:
- have a story to tell, a motivation
- a simple solution is to have an overview with 5-7 bullets. you can repeat the overview every time you get to the next bullet
- the most difficult part is to chose what _NOT_ to present - everything is important, but your time is limited. Chose wisely, throw away, simplify, lie (a little bit, anyway, and be ready to correct if you’re asked about it).
Slide content:
- the first slide needs to have: title, your name, lab, Professor's name, supervisors’ names
- don’t stop with a “thank you” slide, but with a “conclusion” slide that allows the audience to reconnect to the different parts of your presentation
- get some images, figures, drawings in your presentation. Instead of having a slide with full-blown sentences, show a drawing or a figure with some annotation.
Slide layout:
- put slide-numbers, so we can easily comment and tell you “go back to slide x”
- all text to be read should be no smaller than 1/8th of the slide height, else it’s unreadable.
Figures:
- annotate the axes
- decide if you want to have a bar (for showing multiple values per x-cordinate) or a simple line
- write what they show on the slide
- don’t hesitate during the presentation to point out parts of a figure
Experiments:
- what are the parameters (network, CPU, nodes, ...)
- what did you simplify?
- how can you interpret the results?
Demo:
- prepare the demo
- run it twice before the presentation
- describe _before_ the demo what you will be showing
- show the result of the demo on the screen, not on your smartphone!
Avoid:
- formulas without explanation of what the variables are
- jumping back and forth between slides
- ignoring your spellchecker