Presenting with Power: Effectively and Dynamically Communicating Technical Info

1
Presenting with Power Effectively and
Dynamically Communicating Technical Info

• Christina Bourgeois
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

2
80 of Your Presentation Will Be Forgotten

• People tend to remember
• Tone
• Pace
• Nonverbal expressions

3
Todays Objectives

• Presentation content
• Slide and speaker aesthetics
• Performance dos and donts

4
Planning Your Presentation

• What key points do you want your audience to
  remember?
• Structure your talk around those points and find
  ways to illustrate them.
• Have a clear beginning, middle, and end to your
  talk.

5
What? Why? How?

• The purpose of a design presentation is to
  summarize
• WHAT your technical approach is
• WHY you chose that approach
• HOW you implemented the design
• Notice that the focus is on the solution, not the
  problem

6
Customize Content for the Audience

• Who will be in the audience?
• What are their expectations?
• Are you presenting new material or building upon
  prior knowledge?
• How many attendees?
• Will the talk be interactive?
• How much time is allotted for the talk?

7
Content Guidelines for a Design Presentation

• Title slide (Highly descriptive title)
• Problem Statement or Objectives/Goals
• Technical Approach
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions and/or Future Work
• Questions slide

8
PowerPoint Dos

• Include a descriptive title/heading line on every
  slide.
• Keep slides simple and uncluttered by using short
  phrases, not long sentences.
• Use consistent capitalization and punctuation on
  all slides.
• Use consistent verb tense on all bullet items.
• Number your slides.

9
Choosing a Font
10
Font Guidelines

• Avoid distracting or unprofessional fonts such as
  Comic Sans or Monotype Corsiva.
• Use Arial, Helvetica or any sans serif font.
• (these slides use Arial font)
• 44, 40, or 36 point titles.
• 32, 28, or 24 point text for most lines.
• (nothing less than 24 point text)
• Use italics or color for emphasis, bold text is
  not effective.

11
Effective Font Size
12
Choosing the Right Contrast and Colors

• White background with dark text is the norm at
  professional conferences.
• Dark backgrounds with light text project well.
• Red, orange, or blue lettering become unreadable
  when projected on dark background.
• Avoid busy slide designs, those with
  distracting borders or graphics keep it simple
  and clean.

13
To Upper Case or to Lower Case, That is the
Question
14
Display Speed and Special Effects

• Slow slides and complicated special effects
  distract the audience.
• Slide transition effects should not be used.
• Do not use sound effects (crashing glass canned
  applause).

15
When to Show When to Tell

• Make use of visuals wherever you can!
• People like to see what youre doing
• Diagrams
• Photos
• Flow charts
• Tables
• Use text when you present concepts that you cant
  show or when words help to describe the visual.

16
How to Show Effectively
17
Using Diagrams

• Keep diagrams simple, easy to understand.
• Lines must be thick to be visible when projected.
• Text must be large enough to be readable.
• Guide the audience to the important aspects of
  the diagram by using a pointer or standing next
  to the screen and pointing (with your hand) to
  the important data.

18
What Works
Specimen 2 6.35mm/0.25 diameter hole drilled in
11 increments
Specimen 1 6.35mm/0.25 long edge
notch introduced in 10 length increments (notch
width of 0.025mm/0.01)
12.7 mm
89.6 mm
101.6 mm
50.8mm
Aluminum 50.8mm x 152.4mm x 4.76mm (2 x 6 x
3/16)
152.4 mm
2.25 MHz, 12.7mm diameter piezoelectric discs
bonded to top surface
19
What Doesnt Work
Medtronic Delta Valve
Codman Hakim Programmable Valve
Medtronic Strata Valve
20
Ultrasonic Signals from Nominally Identical
Samples
Undamaged Specimen 1 at Room Temperature
Undamaged Specimen 2 at Room Temperature
21
Vague Project Objectives

• Follow the wall
• Detect collisions
• Detect beacons
• Finish safely

22
Better Project Objectives

• Design robot to independently patrol a given
  walled area
• Identify and react to friendly, foe, and neutral
  beacon agents
• Avoid collisions with interior walls, exterior
  walls, and beacons

23
Technical Details are Expected

• Uses Braitenberg positive feedback fear method to
  speed from obstacles
• Reads sonar sensors continually to locate objects
  that come within 350mm
• Processes sensors in prioritized order 2, 3,
  1, 4, 0, 5 (6 and 7 are ignored)
• Deals reliably within any environment where
  accurate sonar readings occur

24
Too Much Text is Overwhelming

• Method 1 used Pythagorean theorem and law of
  cosines - failed in design
• Method 2 used state transition table with known
  area values failed in test
• Method 3 used turn count also failed

25
Vague Conclusions

• Hardware programming is a complex challenge
• Combinations of solutions seemed to work best
• Teamwork is vital to group project completion

26
Presenting With StyleLooking as Good as Your
Slides

• Think conservative.
• Clean, pressed shirts and slacks/skirt.
• Menwhite t-shirt under button down or polo
  shirts.
• Shoes and belt should be same color.
• Womenslacks or knee length skirts, moderate
  heel, minimize accessories.
• Nothing tight or trendy.

27
Unprofessional Business Attire What Not to Wear
28
Fine for Going Out NOT for Going to Work
29
Fine for Going Out NOT for Going to Work
Too revealing
Too short
Denim is too casual
Too high
30
Sloppy, ill-fitting clothes are unprofessional
31
Too baggy
Shirt fits well
Professional White t-shirt under button down
and collared shirts
Button up
32
What Business Casual Looks Like Men
Tie hits belt line
Light colored shirt
Belt and shoes are same color
33
What Business Casual Looks Like Women
Conservative shirts/tops
Conservative, muted make up
Low heeled shoes
34
Business Formal
35
(No Transcript)
36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
Giving Your Talk

• 8 minutes is a short, formal talk.
• Not enough time to say everything about your
  project
• Must plan your comments for each slide
• Stick to your slidesdont digress
• Dont read the slides to the audienceslides
  should be used as prompts, not as a script.
• Remember to project your voice, maintain eye
  contact, and avoid filler words (um, ah, like).
• Be prepared to answer questions.

39
Performance Techniques Bringing Your A Game

• Take several deep breaths.
• Stand up straightpay attention to your posture.
• Make eye contact with your audience.
• Project your voice.
• Pace the rate of your speech so that it is
  natural and moderate.
• Monitor your gestures and avoid habitual
  behaviors (hands in pocket, playing with your
  hair, pacing).

40
Presentation Nevers

• Never run over your time limit. Ever!
• Never apologize for any aspect of your
  presentation. If you have to apologize, you
  arent prepared.
• Never respond aggressively to a question or
  comment. Even if you are right, the whole
  audience will resent you for picking on that poor
  questioner.

41
Top 5 Secrets of the Pros

• Tour the space youll be presenting in prior to
  your talk.
• 4. Make sure the rooms technology is compatible
  with yours.
• 3. Stand to one side of the projection screen
  instead of behind the podium.
• 2. Use the meteorologist chop instead of a
  laser pointer or a cursor.

42
And the 1 Secret

• Practice!
• A lot!

43

• Questions?