Tik-111.590 Presentation Instructions

To pass the seminar students must write a paper and give a presentation about their topic. This page has instructions regarding the presentation.

The sessions mimic the sessions in scientific conferences. We thus follow the strange and strict conventions of scientific presentations.

Language

All presentations will be held in English.

Length

We have not set the exact length of the presentations yet. Each presentation will have about 25 minutes of time and 35 minutes for 3 cr presentationts.

18 minutes for presentation
5 minutes for discussions
2 minutes for feedback

For the people with longer presentation the figures are:

28 minutes for presentation
5 minutes for discussions
2 minutes for feedback

Content

The presentations should describe the same things that have been said in the paper. You can emphasize things differently if you feel that is is appropriate.

Presentation material

It customary to use slides and discuss each slide for a few minutes. You may use any media (video, audio etc.) you want if you find that useful -- successful use of imagination gives you extra points.

Things to keep in mind

What do you want to tell? You cannot tell too many things in half an hour, so you must choose. Also tell what you are wbout to tell. You can also tell about the things that you are not going to talk about.
Are text and images on the slides large enough? There is no point trying to write a novel into one silde. Six lines of text per slide is a reasonable maximum.
You cannot exceed the given time. It is ok to make the presentation shorter, but you should be able to use the time with accuracy of a few minutes.
Introduce yourself
When the presentation is over, give a clear sign. "Thank you, any questions" may well be enough.
The introduction should not take two thirds of the time.
The real content should take at least two thirds of the time.

Presentation technology

We will bring a video projector and a laptop computer that can be used. You can also use your own computers. You are welcome to use real tranparencies as well.

If you have special requirements (slide, video, sound), please contact Tommi well in advance.

If you use computer, please keep in mind:

Video projectors tend to lose n pixels at the end of the picture. You should not try to fill the screen hysterically, but leave wide margins at each end.
It is good have transparencies at hand -- just in case.
If you want to make slides in one machine and show show them in another be prepared to have problems with fonts and colors.
Use sans-serif fonts (helvetica, arial), instead of Roman type (Times, Courier). Video projector often introduce nasty aliasing problems and the more complex fonts will inevitable look ugly.
If you wish to use laboratorys computer, make sure well in advance that things work ok. The machine has Power Point version X.

Grading

We will give feedback instantly after the presentation.

The following things will be taken into account (in this order):

Did the message get thru
Clarity / understandability
Consistency - were the topics presented in good order
Was it interesting - it is possible to give more boring or interesting presentations about any topic
Was it pleasant - pretty slides etc.. Not pretty clothes how-ever

This page is maintained by Tommi Ilmonen - Tommi.Ilmonen_at_tml.hut.fi.
Last update 23.11.2001.
URL: http://www.tml.hut.fi/Studies/Tik-111.590/2001s/presentation.html