Formalities

The project coordinator of your group will arrange a session (or mini-conference) towards the end of the Michaelmas term and another towards the end of the Easter term. At each mini-conference, you are required to give a presentation of your project, speaking for 10 minutes and answering questions for another 5. The audience will consist of: other students with projects in your group, supervisors and assessors of the students present, and other interested members of staff.

All lecture rooms are fitted with permanent LCD data projectors, with associated computers for Powerpoint or PDF presentations. Students are encouraged to bring slides/data on USB drives or memory sticks, to avoid any problems with laptops due to incompatibilities of various kinds. Note that you cannot rely on other programs (eg Matlab) being available. It is essential to have a run-through on the relevant computer well in advance.

NB. each group makes its own arrangements for the oral presentations. Therefore any administrative queries or problems should be addressed to your group centre and not to the Teaching Office.

Some generalities

Remember that one or two well made points will be worth more to your audience than ten presented scrappily, however brilliant the underlying ideas are.

Avoid putting too much material in your slides. 6 slides in 10 minutes gives you an average of about one-and-a-half minutes to discuss each - all too short a time.

Both presentations need meticulous preparation, but this is particularly true of the Michaelmas term one, since it is the first major element in the assessment of your project work and it is important that you make a good impression. Discuss what you intend to say with your supervisor and, if possible, hold a rehearsal with him/her listening.

Michaelmas term presentation

The Michaelmas term presentation is intended to give you an opportunity of describing work in progress to a peer group and benefiting from their criticisms and suggestions. In making the presentation you will be expected to give clear expression to:

• the aims of the project and their significance;
• the background and context;
• your plan of how to achieve the aims;
• the progress made so far towards fulfilling the plans.

You will receive copies of the comments made by your supervisor and assessor by the end of Michaelmas full term.

Easter term presentation

You should base the Easter term presentation on the most significant aspect of your project. It is not necessary, or indeed sensible, to try and include all the information from your final report.

• Define the problem addressed by the project
• Explain briefly the significance
• Describe how the problem was tackled
• Present the most important results and explain their significance
• Highlight the conclusions.