CS8801 GTA Workshop - Designing Talks

Due: Wednesday, November 15
Expected Time To Complete Assignment: 2-3 hours

Learning Objectives

Introduction

You will design and submit three talks. Two 1-minute Elevator speeches and one longer 20 minute talk.

Grading Criteria

Part I - Elevator Speech - (1 hour)

Instructions

The scenario is you have just bumped into someone famous either in industry or in academia that is not from Georgia Tech or even familiar with the program. You have a minute to talk to them because they look like they're in a hurry to get somewhere.
Develop a talk that can be given in 1 minute. Choose two of the topics below (so you will develop two 1-minute talks):

The subject of your dissertation or master's thesis.
Why you are interested in a particular area of computing,
The most significant research problem you think computer scientists face today.
The most influential piece of research you have seen that has influenced you or the field of computing.
Whether you believe computers have benefited society and why.

Deliverables

Part II - The Research Talk (1-2 hours)

Instructions

Design a talk or use one that you have already made. The talk must have the following characteristics:

The talk format should be in Microsoft Powerpoint. If you wish to use an alternate presentation format, you must check with the instructor. Powerpoint is available on all Windows NT and Macintosh machines at the College. Unix machines can access Powerpoint using a Windows emulator called Wincenter. The command line for this is: xhost +metaframe && rsh metaframe wincenter -display $<HOSTNAME>:0
Duration of the talk must be at least 20 minutes not including questions.
The topic of the talk should be classroom or research oriented. If you do not have a talk prepared, use one of the following suggestions

Re-present a small topic from a class lecture
Present one of your mini projects
Design a talk illustrating your research progress
Present an imaginary project that describes a finished tool or piece of research that you successfully completed

Your talk should include at least one graphic (clip art or, preferably, a chart or diagram to highlight point of talk)
Your talk should include at least one animation.
Using the Notes View in Powerpoint, summarize what you will discuss in each slide in 1-2 sentences. If you are using an alternate format that does not have this feature, summarize this in text in the email message.

What were the main points of your presentation?
Which slides were the critical ones to emphasize during the presentation?
What would you have included if you had up to a full hour to talk on that subject?
What would you have removed if you only had 10 minutes?
What questions do you think the audience will ask you during the talk or during the Q&A session?

Deliverables

A. Powerpoint presentation (or alternate format with permission of instructor) submitted electronically.
B. The design analysis and critique of your presentation.

Deliverable Format and Submission process

All work must be completed by the individual student following the guidelines outlined by the Academic Honor Code. Students may (and are encouraged to) ask the instructors of these courses for clarification or guidance about design decisions as long as these sources are cited somewhere in the paper.
Students should email their work to the instructor at idris@cc.gatech.edu. Parts I and IIb should be in the text of the email message. Part IIa should be sent as an attachment to the email.
Assignments are due before the start of class. Late assignments, time-stamped after the start of class will lose 20% per day late. A student failing to submit this assignment at all will not pass the course.