Oral Presentations and Written Project Proposals - Deadline Reminders and Guidelines

Some reminders of pending deadlines and related items:

1. The Fall Term Oral Presentations will be held in Hill Seminar Room (LeBow 240) on Friday, 12/7/07.

- Please inform any external Co-Advisors on your project of the date (a detailed schedule will be circulated nearer the date, since the times are subject to change as faculty juggle potential conflicts etc.) and formally invite them to attend your presentation. They are most welcome to attend ALL of the presentations and to be part of the scoring and feedback process...their input and participation will be most welcome.

- I encourage you to begin work on your presentations as soon as possible, and to practice your delivery ahead of time...use your friends and colleagues as an audience. If you wish I can also be available to critique and provide feedback on content, style and delivery, just let me know.

- Your Advisor, Co-Advisor, Mentor and I should each be provided with a hard copy of your PowerPoint slides, printed 6 per page on the day. B&W is fine.

- Your presentation should set out the What, Why and How of your project, and include any preliminary data/results that you may/should have already (hint!). Avoid too much text, rather use bullets. Use good quality graphics that are relevant and clear, and, if "borrowed" from other sources, properly and appropriately referenced.

- Your presentations should be 15 minutes long, plus 5 minutes for Q&A.


- Before the day of the presentations, make sure to test out your talk ON THE COMPUTER actually located in Hill...to make sure the fonts are all OK, any embedded videos and/or graphics work OK, etc.

- Use a laser pointer to highlight things, but don't waggle it around all over the place.

- Avoid excessive PowerPoint animations and sound effects...done professionally animations can enhance a presentation and really help you in its delivery, overdone it's commonly known as "PowerPoint Hell".

- Practice talking to the audience, not to the podium or screen, and don't just read out what's on the screen...as soon as you put up a new slide the audience will have read it long before you can read it out. Use the bulleted text on your slides as "prompts" to remind you of what to talk about, in more detail that is shown on the screen.

- Include and discuss your timeline (Gantt Chart) and budget in your presentation.

- Emphasize the design aspects of the project, and consult the "presentation score sheet" included in the course syllabus and ensure that you EXPLICITLY address all of the ABET a-k items listed there. If your particular project has no major "environmental" or "ethical" issues then say so...on a slide and in your delivery...that then shows the audience that you are aware that a project could have those, that you have considered them and have decided that they do not apply to your particular project. The key thing is that you address them explictly, rather than not appearing to be aware of them.

- Speak at a moderate pace, remember to breathe, and speak loudly enough to be heard at the rear of the room.

- Your presentation should set out the What, Why and How of your project, and include any preliminary data/results that you may/should have already (hint!). Avoid too much text, rather use bullets. Use good quality graphics that are relevant and clear, and, if "borrowed" from other sources, properly and appropriately referenced.

- Spell check, spell check, spell check!!!!!!!!!

- VERY IMPORTANT: Everyone should, unless they have a class schedule clash, attend ALL of the presentations during the day...that way you get to see/hear what your fellow students are doing, and to hear the Q&A and any other faculty comments and feedback. The latter often contains information useful to many of you, regardless of your particular topic.

2. Written Project Reports/Proposals are Due on 12/6/07.

- E-mail one (1) copy of the first draft of your written project proposal (Word format only) to the WIT Tutor (Valarie Pelletier) by 5:00 pm on 11/19/07...that's next Monday folks!

- One (1) copy of your written project proposal is due to me by 5:00 pm on Thursday 12/6/07 - the day before the oral presentations. No late proposals will be accepted. You are also responsible for delivering a hard copy of your project proposals to their Advisor(s) and the MSE faculty member(s) of the evaluation committee. These written proposals can/should be expanded versions of your Pre-Proposals, taking on board comments and feedback provided by me, your Advisor(s), Mentors and Valarie.

- Spell check, spell check, spell check!!!!!!!!!