Giving a Quality Presentation

You must attend at least one CSS Student Colloquium prior to the quarter you will present so that you can get a sense of expectations and what good and bad presentations/posters look like. Practice your talk and show drafts of your poster and presentation to your advisor. Moreover, it is expected that students presenting will stay for the whole colloquium and view others' presentations.

For the presentation, go over the organization and your project:

• First is the usual intro slide with title, names, what you will talk about, etc.
• If you are doing an industry-sponsored capstone, describe what the company does (only as much as is needed to know how you fit in), then describe your work. If you are doing research or a project, give background and then describe your work.
• If you need to present an overview (outside of your work), that's fine. Aim for clarity.

Presentations can get a bit technical, but not too much as there's not time. Presentations are 10 minutes so be organized. Aim for around 9 minutes as there usually aren't too many questions. If there is time, end with a summary, things such as:

• What you learned
• Parts of the capstone you particularly liked or disliked
• What Bothell courses helped with your work
• Any pitfalls
• And any other miscellaneous, but appropriate information

The UWB Office of Research offers oral presentation workshops; see Office of Sponsored Research for their calendar of events.

Evaluate, as your advisor will be, if you put together a good presentation -- Presentation Rubric

Here are a few tips for the day of the talk:

• Bring your Powerpoint on a USB thumb drive that you can plug into the podium computer. Try to copy your talk to the podium computer before the session begins. Do not count on downloading your talk from your email.
• Go to the room your session will be in sometime before the session starts. If you aren't sure how to control the podium computer (e.g., how to turn on the projector(s), how to start Powerpoint, how to adjust the volume, etc.), find out how to do that before the session begins. Your advisor should be able to help you.
• Stick to the time limit! If it took you 3 minutes to download your talk from your email, you do not have 9 minutes to speak but rather 6. You have a total of 10 minutes from when you walk up to when the next speaker walks up; if you have a/v difficulties, it comes out of your speaking time, not the next speaker's.