8. Presentations And Conferences

1. Presentations

• A vital component of science is the verbal presentation of your work in a talk, seminar, or conference. Just like writing a paper, giving a good talk is something that takes a lot of practice.
• The main purpose of a presentation is to teach the audience about a topic. The main point is not, for example, to show off. Even when you give a “job talk,” you should teach the audience something.
• A good talk is like a story. Good stories have a beginning, middle, and an end.
• All the excellent talks you have heard have at least one thing in common: you understood them. Conversely, many of the bad talks you have heard were probably difficult to follow.
• You should understand everything on your slides. If you duplicate a graph from a paper for example, you should understand everything about that figure.
• If you duplicate some content on your slides from somewhere else, like a paper, or the internet, cite it.
• Practice, practice, practice.

2. Conferences

• Conferences are a valuable opportunity to network, stay up to date, and present your work. As such, they are a key part of your professional development.
• If you have something to present at a conference, like a talk or poster, we will attempt to organize pay for your trip. Exceptions to this policy include program reviews, in which all students involved in the project are generally expected to attend.