Guidelines
Presentations are restricted to 25 minutes per paper. This includes answering questions from the audience.Focus on getting across the main points of the paper first.
- Your presentation should use the whiteboard, with one exception: you can show photos or figures from the paper (I will have a laptop + projector in class)
- Avoid writing too much text on the whiteboard. This can take up a lot of time.
- If overview videos exist for a paper (eg. siggraph videos), you can show them at the beginning of your presentation.
When reading a paper for a presentation, leave no stone unturned.
- As Aaron Hertzmann says, "Present the paper as if everyone skimmed it but forgot it, or didn't understand." This means that you first present the problem that the paper solves and the general approach. Be sure to define the inputs and outputs of any algorithm you discuss in class.
- You should then give a clear and concise description of the main technical parts of the paper (algorithms, equations, etc)
- All students will be reading the paper before class. Therefore, your job should not be simply reciting what is in the paper; you should go beyond that, working out exactly how the algorithm (or theory) works and deciding how to present this in class. In many cases, this means that the best way to present an approach is not the order in which things are described in the paper.
Practice, practice, practice (and observe)
- It is often the case that a paper's content is not sufficient to fully describe how a technique works. Sometimes authors refer to technical reports for some of the details, or refer to other, earlier papers that describe important components of the approach. A major goal of your presentation is to fill in these gaps by reading the relevant papers, and presenting a complete picture of the paper in class.
- If there is something you don't understand, or a technique you don't know, or a paper you cannot find, you must either work it out yourself, or come find me so that we can resolve it together.
- You should practice your presentation at home, and time yourself, before coming to class.
- I can videotape you during your in-class presentation; this is one of the best ways for you to appreciate what worked (or didn't work) in your presentation and adapt next time.
- Pay close attention to your classmates' presentations. Think about what you liked (or didn't like) about each person's presentation style, level of preparation, etc with an eye toward improving your own presentation skills.
Site last modified on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
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