+

تلقي كيفكلمة؟

باسالمة أنس

How to give a Talk?

Anas Basalamah

+Talk Messages

Why it is important to get right

What to think about before you start

Every talk have messages!

How to prepare the talk

Create you Slides

Revisit your messages

+Motivation

Purpose of a seminar: practicing to talk

Engineers (esp. computer scientists) have a reputation of being “nerds”

Ironically, Business Engineers can do nothing but talk – they get the good jobs

“soft skills” are often more important than “hard skills”, even and especially in CS&CE!

We all know “how not to give a talk (in CS)”

If others can do it well, you can do it as well!

+When do you need Presentation Skills?

Thesis’ presentation

Job interview

Reporting of project results

Conference presentation

Lectures and tutorials

Advertising an idea to someone with money

Talking with your Wife!

+Usually .. In a Student Talk

... the speaker is scared

... the speaker tries to get it over with

... the speaker covers each and everything

... the speaker reads the given text source

... the audience is bored

... the audience is not interested

... the audience is quiet

... the supervisor is frustrated

... the supervisor has to assign grades

+A Good Presentation

What is the best presentation you’ve been to?

What made it so good?

+A Bad Presentation

What is the worst presentation you’ve been to?

What made it so bad?

+The Golden Rule

Human attention is the scarcest resource

-- Herbert Simon [Nobel 1972, Turing 1975]

+Why so important?

Your Chance to Be Noticed!

Academia: more recognition of paper paper being linked to you recognition of your ability

Business: Your chance to differentiate It is all about sales

+Before: Things to determine (1/2)

The type of talk you will be expected to give: Apple Keynote

The composition of the audience

The time allotted for the talk

Expectations for information content

Determine the audience Do not assume too much knowledge but do not patronize either

+Talk Vs. Written

Better to be too basic than too difficult

Advertisement for Paper

Multi-Sensory

Listeners have one chance to hear your talk and can't "re-read" when they get confused.

“tell them what you’ll tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them”

+Memory Limitations

Short-term memory: ~ 7 simple things

Audience may get 1 or 2 from your talk reinforce the core message, not details

Build a thread to help comprehension

+Messages (1/3)

You must have messages

Say “Your take aways are …”

A few 1-4 not many

Plan your talk on them, what to say and when to stop

+ Messages (2/3)

“I learned …” , So what!

“I have little to say”, BAH!

“.. Then I did X, …. Then I did Y….”, Who cares!

“I do not have enough time to explain … ”, why are you here then?

+ Messages (3/3)

Not a table of contents: ”I will say this first.. Then that…”

“There are two issues (Full Stop)”

Not the talk itself

Remember: No messages, No talk!

+Example: Bluetooth Basics

History of Bluetooth Technology

Introduction to Bluetooth Wireless Propagation

Bluetooth Market Penetration

Bluetooth as a Social Network tool

Creating a network using Bluetooth: Ad hoc Infrastructure

Building an Android App for Social Networking

Experimental Evaluation

Conclusion

Rational

Methodology

Evaluation and Future Works

+Example:

Why Bluetooth can be a Great Social Networking tool?

How did we do it?

How good was it? and our conclusion

+Calm not fearful

THEY receive messages,

not: you perform!

+Yes.. You can!

You can give a meaningful talk for any subject to any audience in any time frame

Method know your subject know your audience know your timing

+Audience

Why listen? – inform vs persuade --- change The audience wants to be entertained what is the added value of your talk compared to

reading the book or watching a recorded lecture?

“here’s this stuff; please don’t boo”

Vs.

“you have a problem (mystery), I have a cure (insight)”

+How (1/2) : Topic (1/3)

You are an expert and they are novices? vice versa?

Connect to what they know

+How (1/2) : Topic (2/3)

Practice !!

prune remove deadly

detailskeep good

examples refine messages

+How (1/2) : Topic (3/3)

Decide precedence after content many paths to success order may not matter

Say messages early no mystery helps if panic

+How (2/2) : Practices

Timing

Tension

Techniques

+How (2/2) : Practices

Practice by yourself to get timing correct gain confidence Should just need slide headings

Practice with an audience Take criticism well & make changes Helps with confidence

+How (2/2) : Timing (1/3)

First MinuteWhy should they listen to you?

PracticeBe aware – most go slowerEarly milestone and warning

Too much introThey no it, or not!

+How (2/2) : Timing (2/3)

Plan for a disaster

behind? don’t talk faster (they can’t listen faster)

Finish? Emphasize main messages

+How (2/2) : Timing (3/3)

ALWAYS end on time

Even if you have to cut

+How (2/2) : Tension

Audience on your side! They want you to succeed

Plan, prune and practice so you can relax

Interact and breath deeply

Smile/Vary/Move and make eye contact

A story/cartoon/joke

Script first few sentences

language and memorize

Talk to audience as if they are friends

+How (2/2) : Techniques (1/2)

Face the audience : always talk to your audience, not to the wall

don’t hide behind your slides, don’t stand aside - slides support the talk, they don’t replace it

Speed bumps

Don’t kill interest with too much detail too little motivation

+A Picture

this is one word that I am writing

This thesis presents a compilation framework for translating ANSI CThe first part of this

document describes Pegasus, the internal representation of CASH, and a series of novel program transformations performed by CASH.

The most notable of these are a new optimal register-promotion algorithm and partial redundancy elimination for memory accesses based on predicate manipulation.

The second part of this document evaluates the performance of the generated circuits using simulation. Using media processing benchmarks, we show that for the domain of embedded computation, the

circuits generated by CASH can sustain high levels of instruction level parallelism, due to the effective use of dataflow software pipelining.

A comparison of Spatial Computation and superscalar processors highlights some of the weaknesses of our model of computation, such as

the lack of branch prediction and register renaming.

Low-level simulation however suggests that the energy

efficiency of Application-Specific Hardware is three orders of magnitude better than superscalar processors, one order of magnitude better than low-power digital signal processors and asynchronous processors, and approaching custom hardware chips.

A picture is worth 1000 words

+Find a suitable title!

Write important things! multi-sensory learning

No pre-emptive apology“Well, I don’t know much about this subject”

Don’t write what you will say, or read what you wrote

+Presentation Tricks (1/3)

Capture attention examples from everyday life comparison to known situations jokes, cartoons

Arise interest why is this important to know or understand? what are the audience’s personal benefits from this?

Repeat, repeat, repeat summarize, explain in other words associate to a different context

Try to capture late-comers give clear hints when they can join in (we have seen

that ... now we will look at ...)

+Presentation Tricks (2/3)

Be honest show that you like what you’re talking about

Keep your voice adequate don’t whisper, don’t shout the accentuation supports the message

Be spontaneous a talk is not the playback of a recording say it in your own words

Be lively, but not hectic a talk is a stage performance

+Overheads (1/2)

informs them; focuses you

use overhead support messages tell them why it’s there

not too busy 5-7 “chunks” size 24

Transitions practice physical movement know your transition blurbs

Use Color and Illustrations

+Overheads (2/2)

Short is good phrases powerful verbs highlight key points

complex figures are ok – spend time point to spots say, literally: “what you should get

from this figure is ...”

+Avoid Equations

People cannot understand equations quickly

If it is central to your result use at most one simplified as much as possible the proof is in the paper

+Check

Bladder

room:stand(re-arrange),whiteboard

(marker), lights, A/V

Laser pointer: do not waggle

Mike

clock[warning; milestone]

Avoid Disaster (Cord, Battery, Adapter)

+End Strongly

Offer to answer Questions (Don’t be afraid)

Do not say “Oh, I forgot to tell you…”

Revisit your messages

+Questions

Listen very carefully

Repeat the question and make sure you got it right

Answer briefly and clearly

+Revisited Messages

Define your messages

Practice and use good techniques

Revisit your messages

+Resources

http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/files/2263/PresentationSkillsSeminar.pdf

http://www-users.cselabs.umn.edu/classes/Spring-2011/csci8002/Lec-Notes/talk%20on%20talking%20100510.pdf

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mihaib/presentation-rules.html

http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/~csmarkus/CS339/presentations/20061201_Schlingloff_How_To_Give_A_Talk.pdf