CS 573 - Presentions

Each student in this class will be required to present one paper to the class. The papers will be presented in the order students appear on my class list; the presentation calendar is here.

Your presentation will be graded on a ten point scale. The criteria will be (equally weighted):

You will be able to use an overhead projector or the classroom LCD projector; however, in that case you will need to supply your own laptop.

The intent of the presentation is that you should be able to give everyone in the class a clearer understanding of the material in the paper than they would be able to get just by reading the paper itself. To that end, here are some notes on giving an effective presentation in this class:

  • Don't just read the paper: make sure you've got some value-added. Where the paper is unclear, clarify. Where it is overly terse, expand. Don't try to cover every word in the paper, either: figure out what's important, and make sure you do a good job presenting that part of it.

  • Bring in extra information: this is really an expansion on the first point. Papers frequently assume familiarity with material that not everyone in the class may be familiar with. Bring in that extra background. There were also frequently competing projects at the same time as the paper you are presenting. How were they different? How were they similar? Look up the paper's references and look up later papers that reference your's.

  • Make sure your visual aids are in fact aids. Your slides should be terse outlines of what you're saying, not the full text. Figures you can explain are much more effective than written text. Don't build a text-only PowerPoint presentation, and then go to the blackboard to draw figures; do the whole talk in the same medium (blackboard, overhead slides, PowerPoint, whatever) unless there is a compelling reason not to (so a PowerPoint presentation with examples presented on the blackboard looks really unprofessional. A blackboard presentation that breaks away to a simulation on a laptop is fine).

  • Practice. Know what you're going to say before you say it.

  • Don't say anything you don't understand. Make sure you fully understand every point you're going to mention from the paper. Start preparing early enough that you can come by my office hours or email me with questions.

  • Know more than you intend to talk about. If you know both the material you're presenting, and more information "around" that material, your presentation will be more confident and you'll be better able to field questions.

  • Relax. This is your hour. Have fun with it.

    • One of the students in the class was generous enough to share an article he found on giving presentations - there's a link to it here. Looks like some good information!

    Last modified: Tue Feb 15 10:35:20 MST 2005