how to give a good (research) talk · giving a (powerpoint) presentation is different from writing...

Diego Gutiérrez

How to give a good (research) talk

Dr. Diego Gutierrez Associate Professor

Universidad de Zaragoza

Diego Gutiérrez

“We are very please to inform you that your paper: Migration patterns of the Iberian snail and their influence on the rotation period of the Earth has been accepted for publication at the 12th Symposium on Little Animals and the Rotation of Planets, SLARP 2012. Blablablah blablablah…”

“Dear author:”

Diego Gutiérrez

“OK, but how am I going to tell everything in only 20 minutes?”

Getting prepared

Diego Gutiérrez

Getting prepared

“OK, but how am I going to tell everything in only 20 minutes?”

Leave stuff out. Don’t get lost in the details

Diego Gutiérrez

Getting prepared

“No, but really this is all important, you don’t understand”

Diego Gutiérrez

Getting prepared

“No, but really this is all important, you don’t understand”

Yes I do. You don’t understand. Leave stuff out.

Choose your message

Diego Gutiérrez

Getting prepared

“No, really, the thing is [blahblahblah]”

Diego Gutiérrez

Choose your message. Tell a story

Diego Gutiérrez

Our goal is to communicate ideas not just to create them

Diego Gutiérrez

Our goal is to communicate ideas not just to create them

So communicate!

Diego Gutiérrez

Index

Introduction Previous work Our algorithm Part A Part B Part C

Results Conclusions Future Work Questions

Diego Gutiérrez

Index



Great, let’s check my e-mail…

Diego Gutiérrez

My talk

I will dive straight into the problem, assuming you know as much as I do about the topic in general and the specific problems I’m trying to solve in particular I will throw my solutions at you without a warning, without any motivation, or any insight about the key observations that lead to the proposed solution I will also write Every. Single. Word. I. Will. Articulate, thus limiting myself to simply reading the slides, while filling the space with lots and lots of words that you may or may not read but hey words are free right? So why not keep typing until I simply run out of space and then I’ll just add a new slide and continue

Diego Gutiérrez

My talk

I will dive straight into the problem, assuming you know as much as I do about the topic in general and the specific problems I’m trying to solve in particular I will throw my solutions at you without a warning, without any motivation, or any insight about the key observations that lead to the proposed solution I will also write Every. Single. Word. I will articulate, thus limiting myself to simply reading the slides, while filling the space with lots and lots of words that you may or may not read but hey words are free right? So why not keep typing until I simply run out of space and then I’ll just add a new slide and continue

Great, let’s check my e-mail…

Diego Gutiérrez

My talk

I will also fill the slides with tons of equations!

Diego Gutiérrez

My talk

I will also fill the slides with tons of equations! I wonder if I turned

the lights off before leaving…

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first

Giving a (powerpoint) presentation is different from writing a paper Although both do share some common ground

Different media: richer Use it, but don’t abuse it

Different audience: not so specialized Adjust to your audience

You: in the flesh Communication (not performance). Passion

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first

Motivation, motivation, motivation

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first

Motivation, motivation, motivation What is the problem you’re trying to solve

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first


Why is it important / difficult

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first


Why is it important / difficult What is your silver bullet

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first


Why is it important / difficult What is your silver bullet

Spending 5-7 minutes on this is OK

Diego Gutiérrez

First things first

Answer the whys before you explain the hows

Diego Gutiérrez

Getting prepared

Practice… but don’t become a robot. Keep things slightly off-balance Practice in front of an audience: Listen to their feedback Be convincing, be convinceable

If they didn’t get it, it’s your fault!

Diego Gutiérrez

The layout

Don’t simply transcribe the paper. I don’t need a PhD student for that!

Diego Gutiérrez

Diego Gutiérrez

The layout

Don’t clutter your slides Add more, they are free!

If needed, guide your audience

Diego Gutiérrez

The layout

Check your spelling. Be consistent with your fonts and style. Be professional. Use simple sentences, at one idea per sentence Large fonts please! (20-point and higher)

Six-eight lines per slide (-ish) Make them look clean

Diego Gutiérrez

Diego Gutiérrez

The layout

Diego Gutiérrez

Index



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Your (default) audience response

Time (or Slide #) Slide adapted from Ramesh Raskar

Diego Gutiérrez

Your (default) audience response

Time (or Slide #) Slide adapted from Ramesh Raskar

It’s OK to use stuff from other people.

Simply acknowledge it (we’re in the bussiness of making things public)

Diego Gutiérrez

Your (wanted) audience response

Slide adapted from Ramesh Raskar

Diego Gutiérrez


Similar to regular story-telling!

Diego Gutiérrez

Delivering the talk

You are part of the presentation. Your attitude, tone of voice, rhythm… it all counts Be confident. Your work has already been reviewed Believe and like what you talk about. Show enthusiasm Walk up to the slides. Use (carefully!) a pointer (mouse?) Look at the people. Not your monitor, not the screen Choose one or two?

Diego Gutiérrez

Delivering the talk

Better to leave out stuff, than to rush through everything Don´t oversell. Be honest with the scope of your contribution Don’t take all the credit. Avoid the my, myself and I If you make a mistake, say so and start over Make pauses. Change pace. Vary intonation. Keep people guessing

Diego Gutiérrez

np

Blinn-Phong shading: halfway vector · normal

Slide from [Reshetov et al. 2010]: Consistent Normal Interpolation SIGGRAPH Asia 2010

Diego Gutiérrez



Diego Gutiérrez

Motivate your audience!

Adapt the motivation (and the rest of the talk) to your audience

Why is the problem important / interesting? Why is it difficult? What is they key insight in your talk?

Diego Gutiérrez


2012 is a movie about natural catastrophes, directed by Ronald Emmerich and distributed by Columbia pictures. The shooting began in 2008 in Vancouver, and it premiered a bit later than expected The Earth, as predicted by the Mayan calendar, will be destroyed in 2012, due to some huge solar storm that will cause a series of fatal reactions which…..

Diego Gutiérrez


2012 is a movie about

Diego Gutiérrez


2012 is a movie about

Wow!!! How did they do that???

Diego Gutiérrez


Don’t start in a boring way! Drop the Index slide (at least up front)

Show me something that catches my attention instead It’s OK to start showing a (cool) result Think of it as of a movie trailer

If you can’t think anything exciting to say about your research… …it may be time to change topics?

Diego Gutiérrez



Diego Gutiérrez

And… here we go

Be positive (and brief) when discussing previous work Use it only to contextualize your work

Your paper

Previous work

Diego Gutiérrez

The math, the details…

You’re going to lose part of the audience. It’s unavoidable Build recovery points in your talk Summarize aspects covered so far Change pace/topic

Use equations in a sensible way. Walk your audience through them Powerpoint animations?

Diego Gutiérrez


Again: please don’t….

Diego Gutiérrez


Recast your equations into simpler chunks

Multiplexing

Angular samples

1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 00 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 11 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 00 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 00 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 10 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 11 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 11 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

yyyyyyyyy

= +

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

nnnnnnnnn

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

xxxxxxxxx

* 1,Y X n X Y−= + =W WAperture Pattern

9T

Slide from [Liang et al. 2008]: Programmable Aperture Photography: Multiplexed Light Field Acquisition (SIGGRAPH 2008)

Diego Gutiérrez


Don’t try to say too much You will not be able to explain all the details in the talk Reference people to your paper

Try to structure it in layers: add details for a few chosen ones, but don’t lose all your audience The Shrek model

Again: recovery points! Summarize! Give them a break!

Diego Gutiérrez



Diego Gutiérrez



(This is a recovery point, BTW)

Diego Gutiérrez

Ending the talk

It’s OK to begin Results with the same results from the beginning and close the circle And then some more of course

This is the easy part anyway… …but try to leave your audience wanting more Don’t dwindle away Don’t end with (sad) limitations The “wait, there is more!” teleshopping approach Make future work exciting!

Diego Gutiérrez

Ending the talk

Don’t finish with a “Thank you” or “Questions?” slide It’s boring… and this is what will be shown throughout the

whole Q&A session! But do thank your audience! You don’t open the turn for Q’s: the chair does

Instead: Take-home message Summary of the work Website for additional info Cool results

Diego Gutiérrez

During Q&A

Again: be confident Sometimes, ask them to repeat, or repeat yourself Large crowds Language issues Technical issues

If you don’t know the answer, simply say so If it gets too involved (or ugly), take the discussion off-line and move on The chair should help you with this

Diego Gutiérrez

In summary (take home message)

Choose your message. Tell a story Motivation, motivation, motivation Avoid lengthy derivations of the details

Build recovery points End your talk in a positive way

Diego Gutiérrez

Acknowledgements

Ramesh Raskar, Fredo Durand, Jim Blinn

http://giga.cps.unizar.es/~diegog/teaching.html To know more: Giving a research talk: http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/TalkAdvice.pdf How to give a talk: http://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/how-to-give-a-good-talk

http://people.csail.mit.edu/fredo/TalkAdvice.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/how-to-give-a-good-talk












how to give a good (research) talk · giving a (powerpoint) presentation is different from writing...

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