Goals of a Talk • Goals: Why Are We Here? – keep audience’s interest (and attention) – convey technical material • For your work to have significant impact, it is essential that you can convey results to your community – communicate a key idea of work How to Give a Good Research Talk ∗ – provide intuition • Your technical reputation depends on colleagues’ reaction to your talk – convince audience to read your paper Stephen D. Scott • When on the job market this skill will be crucial in • Non-Goals: getting a research position in academics or industry – show people how smart you are – expect audience to understand most key details of • Giving a good talk is a skill you can learn your work • I will give you guidance and tips on giving a good talk • Note that this meta-talk focuses on giving a confer- ence presentation or job talk; other scenarios, such as teaching, can have different contexts, goals, and ∗ Adapted from Sally Goldman’s slides. approaches 1 2 3 Outline Scheduling (if you can) • Goals of a talk Planning Stages • If possible, schedule your talk at 10:00 • Planning stages • Know your audience: – most people are awake – What is their background? – few have gone back to sleep • Structuring your talk ∗ general CS (or math, or EE) • Bad times to schedule talk: • Slide preparation ∗ somewhat specialized audience – right before lunch since the audience is thinking – What to do ∗ highly specialized audience about food – What to avoid – after lunch since the audience is more likely to be • If someone has spoken before you: sleepy • At the talk – Look at paper/abstract of relevant talks that – late afternoon since people will be running out of preceeded yours – What to do steam – Prepare to use context provided – What to avoid • Best to have room that will be comfortably crowded • Concluding remarks 4 5 6
The Introduction Concept Class of One-Dimensional Patterns • Define the Problem • The instance space X n consists of all configurations of n points on the real line – minimize use of terminology Structuring Your Talk • A concept is set of all configs. from X n within unit – use pictures/examples/props if possible distance under Hausdorff metric of some “ideal” con- figuration of k points, where Hausdorff distance be- tween configs. P and Q is • Use a top-down approach: • Motivate the audience (give a “carrot”) ⇢ ⇢ � ⇢ �� H ( P, Q ) = max max min q ∈ Q { d ( p, q ) } , max min p ∈ P { d ( p, q ) } p ∈ P q ∈ Q 1. Introduction: define problem, present a “carrot”, – why is problem important? and d ( p, q ) is distance between p and q put in context, and give outline at end of introduction – how does it fit into larger picture? 2. Body: high-level summary of key results • If P is any configuration of points on R , then concept – what are applications? corresponding to P is 3. Technicalities: more depth into a key result C P = { X ∈ X n : H ( P, X ) ≤ 1 } • Discuss related work 4. Conclusion: review key results, wrap up, give future work • X is a positive example of C P if X ∈ C P and is a – table useful (mention authors and dates) negative example otherwise • Succinctly state contributions of your work • Concept class of one-dimensional patterns is C k,n = { C P : P is a configuration of ≤ k points from R } • Provide a road-map (outline) at the end of the introduction 7 8 9 Concept Class of One-Dimensional Patterns The Body The Technicalities • Each concept c is a set of fixed-width intervals on real line • Abstract the key results • Take key result (or part of it) and go into some depth – focus on a central, exciting concept • Each example X is a set of points on real line • Guide audience through difficult ideas • Explain significance of your work • Example X is positive if and only if: – give overview 1. each of X ’s points lies in an interval from c • Sketch methodology of key ideas – state result 2. each interval of c contains a point from X – keep it high-level, emphasizing structure – show an example – use pictures/diagrams if possible – review concept – provide intuition (helpful when someone later reads X positive 1 • It is this portion of your talk that typically grows when your paper) you give a 50 minute talk X negative 2 – gloss over technical details X negative 3 10 11 12
Slide Prep—Do (cont’d) The Conclusion Slide Preparation—Do • Use a large font (at least 20 pt) • Provide a coherent synopsis • Decide what you want to say and say less! • Make neat/orderly slides • Review key contributions and why they are • Allow an average of 1.5–2 minutes for each slides important • Use overlays or other “scaffolding” – exact amount of time determined by practice • Discuss open problems/future work • Use color/animation (in a meaningful way; not just to • Use Repetition attract attention) • Indicate your talk is over (for example, “Thank you. – “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Are there any questions?”) Then tell them what you told them.” • You need not use full sentences – realize that 20% of your audience at any given • Be ready to answer questions time is thinking about something else • Number your slides – If there are points you glossed over that you expect the audience may be interested in, you may want • Use pictures/diagrams whenever you can • Write reminders, key phrases, etc. on paper or in to prepare some slides (just in case) PowerPoint’s notes 13 14 15 Slide Prep—Do (cont’d) Slide Preparation—Don’t (cont’d) • Check your spelling • Show complex equations Slide Preparation—Don’t • If you use a slide more than once, duplicate it • Show complex code (even pseudocode) • Overload slides • PRACTICE! • Have a slide that introduces a point that you are • Intend to use too many slides unsure of (unless you want to give the audience a – give a practice for your colleagues, advisor, friends, chance to attack you) pets, etc. • Put some detail on the slide that you do not want to talk about – be ready to redo all your slides • Present last-minute results (they are probably wrong) – practice again • Get bogged down in details • Have slides that you are not using mixed in with the – be sure that all your material projects on the screen rest and contrast is good • Try to give a core dump • Write messy, write (or use a font that is) too small, – make sure it does not take too much time misspell words (Beware PowerPoint’s timer!) 16 17 18
At the Talk—Do (cont’d) At the Talk—Do (cont’d) • Be EXCITED about your work! At the Talk—Do • Point to the screen, not slide/computer monitor • Remind; don’t assume • If you expect the audience to take notes, provide copies – Use a pointer, not hand/pen of your slides – If you assume a standard result, provide the audi- ence with a brief reminder – Rarely the case at a conference or colloquium/job • Bring props, if appropriate ∗ The Ignorant Audience Law: someone important talk in the audience always knows less than you think everyone should know, even if you take the Ig- • Ask real and rhetorical questions to keep audience norant Audience Law into account • Dress appropriately—this shows respect for your engaged audience • Talk with Sufficient Volume • Deflect obstructionists: • Have eccentricity (but not too extreme) • Make eye contact and “read” the audience – tell them you’d like to talk to them after the talk – make it fun/easy for people to remember you (about the interesting point made) because the point – Change victims is a detail, tangential, has a long answer, you need – extreme eccentricity is bad for younger to think about it, etc. people • Be with the audience – Walk toward and away from the people as well as • End on time! left and right to break down implicit barrier 19 20 21 At the Talk—Don’t Concluding Remarks • Talk too softly, mumble, or speak in a monotone voice, use “um”, “ah”, ... • Follow the guidelines provided here • Read your slides • Take every opportunity you can to give talks (and thus • Focus attention on the screen—you’ll end up talking get practice and feedback) to the screen vs. the audience • Stand so that you block the projection • Remember that the guidelines for structuring your talk must be adapted to each specific talk • Mention a detail/point you don’t want to talk about • Preparing a good talk takes time; do not expect to • State a definition or other important concept without throw it together at the last minute also printing it on the slide • Practice for colleagues, etc. to get feedback • Darken the room (unless necessary to see) since it entices audience to sleep • AND: you will give better talks and reap the rewards • Babble on when you have nothing to say that follow • Run over time 22 23
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