how to give effective scientific presentationszhanglab.wdfiles.com/local--files/advising/how to...

How to Give Effective Scientific Presentations


Tiffani L. Williams

Department of Computer ScienceTexas A&M University

http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/tlw

http://faculty.cs.tamu.edu/tlw


Part I

Introduction


Introduction

Why Do We Give Presentations?

Persuasive: Convincing your audience to follow a particularcourse of action.Instructional: Showing others how to perform a specifictask (e.g., laboratory demonstration).Informative: Presenting new findings of information.


Introduction

What Makes Giving a Presentation Difficult?

One chance for the audience to hear.The audience cannot look up background information.The audience is restricted to the speaker’s pace.Success is dependent upon the speaker’s ability to deliver.Training on how to give scientific presentations is often notprovided.


Part II

Overcoming Our Fears



Activity #1

What are your fears when giving a scientific presentation?



My Fears

Losing the audience’s attention.Lacking sufficient material.Appearing too simple.Presenting work to a mixed audience.



A successful presentation starts with a confidentspeaker.

Stay calm and relaxed.Know your material.Practice giving your presentation.You have a valuable message to share!


Part III

Structure: The Strategy You Choose

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Maps

Maps and Presentations

Every map has an intended audience.Maps are defined by what they include but are often morerevealing in what they exclude.It is impossible to show everything!No matter how hard you try to include everything, there willalways be something missing.However, whatever you decide to present should tell astory.



The Audience

What Story Will You Tell?

Remember, you will never be able to tell the full story.Instead, you must select the pieces that are the mostrelevant.But, how do you select what to present?



The Audience

Activity #2

Imagine that you are packing for a trip. What will you bring?



The Audience

I Need More Information!

What is my destination?What is my purpose (e.g., vacation, business trip)How long will I be gone?



The Audience

Packing and Presentations

You wouldn’t pack for a trip without knowing the destinationand the intended purpose of the trip.Similarly, you should never give a presentation withoutconsidering your audience and their needs.



The Audience

Thinking About Your Audience

What does the audience know?What are they unlikely to know?What kind of talk would the audience find appealing?



The Audience

My Audience

Composed mostly of students.Has given or seen a scientific presentation.Interested in learning about giving effective presentations.May have been strongly encouraged (or forced) to attendby their advisor.


Part IV

Sample Presentation


Sample Presentation

Audience Expectations

What Does the Audience Want to Know?

What’s the Problem? (Introduction)What are You Doing? (Experiment and Method)What Have You Found and What Does It Means? (Resultsand Discussion)Take-Home Message (Conclusions)Who Did and Paid for the Work? (Acknowledgements)


Sample Presentation

Outline slide

Get rid of the outline slide!

MotivationYour Algorithm or MethodologyExperimental ResultsConclusionsFuture Work


Sample Presentation

Reaching Multiple Audiences

Intro

FirstMajorTopic

SecondMajorTopic Ending

Nontechnical

GeneralTechnical

Specialist

time

depth

Figure: You can’t please everyone all of the time. Adapted from TheCraft of Scientific Presentations by Michael Alley.


Sample Presentation

What’s the problem?

ACCGC TCGCG

CGATA

TGCTA

TGGTC

AGCTC

CAGTGCAGTTAGCTT

Figure: Phylogeny:Illustration.


Sample Presentation


Phylogeny

Orangutan Gorilla Chimpanzee Human

From the Tree of the Life Website,University of Arizona


Sample Presentation


What’s so hard about reconstructing a tree?

We can’t verify the answer! We are trying to predict thepast.The number of possible trees for n organisms (or taxa) is(2n − 5)!! = 1× 3× 5× 7× · · · (2n − 5).How many possible hypotheses are there for 500 taxa?


Sample Presentation


Number of trees for 500 taxa

101152636853253307474012545536814184545953595103177817441326760575354540027354239923185120850729281452188845672454906078405199548334663555835357748979700404888152382777235828789778883827083879520379654335442692118284017668933765146297741290321491422188461934211322520490553755930128491420943083731473702853911575459092790187541739039779539968260469372709754907153967724213213301619211242677711757042116860278030246424393282604683928277544702004024525439745312625940855936045351781359433925232787668240389543059720773515213084928436546402475634030885682876051282569771792020997072230898150513179396946394522142159208349384664346962256120104483730916485543102772698545449577536942796787841027981718342034235251080912363733252495409554975559313272782465380621055314336272287166870064159034339277014925661499965120537691592061432825699618256792894495401900633880555360239418241295638642828064143651877071620389850413570868327006823979839417007571891860810831375937653051279717486968104181402271737999015446125297308847695505977363634413078780761890937449555118036210351806866727116790075717314422532435108543175076637978946516065697371580159930481479731383058494656194406090860578395451199918916887394920259212050615153793334686404827729255644086503451717362622730433940887451171875


Sample Presentation


What do we do now?

The problem isn’t going away.Grand Challenge problem: Tree of LifeEvolutionary history of all known species on the planet(estimates between 10 to 100 million)

We need heuristics!Recast as a optimization problem.Optimization criterion of interest: maximum parsimony


Sample Presentation


Remainder of Presentation

What am I Doing? (Experiment and Method)What Have I Found and What Does It Means? (Resultsand Discussion)Take-Home Message (Conclusions)Who Did and Paid for the Work? (Acknowledgements)


Part V

Visual Aids: Your Supporting Cast



Software

Presentation Software

PowerPoint

The most frequently used software for creatingpresentations.“Power corrupts. PowerPoint absolutely corrupts.” – EdwardTufte

Keynote (only available on Mac OS X)Latex-based tools

ProsperBeamer (used for this presentation)



Software

Keep It Short and Simple (K.I.S.S.)

Some people cannot resist the temptation to assert theirmathematical superiority.Consider the following equation

ln(e) + sin2 x + cos2 x =inf∑

n=0

2−n

and its more “trivial” form

1 + 1 = 2.



Plots

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n-gram, permuted n-gram, unrelated

Figure: A poorly designed plot.



Plots

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n-perm, permuted n-perm, unrelated

Figure: Another poorly designed plot.


Part VI

Delivery: It’s Showtime!



Speech

Show enthusiasm.Speak freely.Speak clearly.Speak slower than you would in a normal conversation.Make sure you are speaking the audience’s language.



Stay on Track!

Don’t go over your allotted time!



Surviving the Discussion Period

Handling Questions

You say: That’s a very interesting question.You mean: You obviously didn’t listen properly.

You say: I’m glad you raised that point.You mean: I’ll say it again, so listen this time!

You say: I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that one.You mean: Why did you have to ask that? It’s irrelevant here.

You say: Yes, the additional experiments you suggest are veryappropriate.You mean: I don’t care about running more experiments. Isimply want to graduate!



Surviving the Discussion Period

Don’t forget ...

You are the expert!A few people ask questions to be obnoxious.Many people ask questions because they are interested inyour work.The sign of a good presentation is a lively discussionafterwards.


Part VII

Wrap-Up


Concluding Remarks

Summary

The key to an effective presentation is concern for youraudience.Don’t overwhelm them, but don’t underwhelm them either.Say what you need to say and sit down. Everyone’sinternal clock is ticking.Relax, stay calm, and remember you are the expert!


References

Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Presentations: CriticalSteps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid, 2003.Claus Ascheron and Angela Kickuth, Make Your Mark inScience, 2005.Edward R. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, 2003.Peter Turchi, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer asCartographer, 2004.Justin Zobel, Writing for Computer Science, 2004.


Thank you for yourattention

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