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The Art of Scientific Lectures and Poster Presentations

Wednesday, September 16, 2020 (Central Time) — 12:30PM - 1:15PM

Public speaking is an art. For many pursuing careers in science and engineering, the art of technical speaking is often overlooked in their training. Often disregarded as ``something you learn by doing’’ with many unwritten rules left unspoken to those deemed outsiders. This workshop will fill this training gap by presenting a structured view of, both, poster and oral presentations for scientific work. Topics to cover include storytelling structure and how and when it can be applicable for technical presentations, the design concept of white space and its role in slide and poster design, identifying presentation goals (highlighting differences between several types of talks and poster presentations) and their impacts on structure, highlight common pitfalls when presenting data and results, and construction of attention grabbing introductions and pitches. Content in this workshop is synthesized from various sources such as graduate level technical communication courses, experience creating a graduate student presentation competition, and with support from Dr. Jan Hewitt who for years taught courses on communication skills for graduate students. This workshop builds and improves on a previous workshop given by Dr. Ramirez at New York University and for a NeurIPS 2019 workshop. After completion of the workshop, attendants will have gained valuable knowledge to improve their design and delivery of their future research findings via improved oral and visual communication skills. Ultimately, improving the presentation of your work increases it’s visibility and your renown which advances your career.

Panelists:
David Ramirez, CJ Barberan