When to ask questions and what questions to ask (see “homework” before)
The presentation
“Elevator speech”
The departmental talk
“Elevator speech”
In the elevator on you way to your next appointment, you are introduced to Dr. Smith, Associate Dean for Research. Dr. Smith is not in your area so after shaking hands he asks: “So, what do you do?”
must have a short speech that describes your research interest in a compelling way to someone outside your area
Must prepare for this: find someone outside your research area, practice
Start with the handshake
Remember it is not a very tall building (key: 1-minute but compelling)
Review: figure out what messages you want to convey
The departmental talk
Good technical presentation:
Well organized, clear
Outline, Introduction, Main presentation, Conclusions and Outlook
Keep time
Good technical presentation
Introduction – 10 minutes
Get the audience interested and excited:
Why is the topic important?
What is the background and context?
Main presentation – 30 minutes
What you did:
Give enough details to make point, show how important your work is
Keep it simple – OK to leave some details out for clarity
Most important results
What they mean
Only experts may follow the last 10 minutes of this part
Plan on some flexibility: Watch time and be prepared to skip or add slides to keep time – decide beforehand what to skip or add
Conclusions and Outlook – 10 minutes
What are the implications
“the new technique I developed could be applied to reinvestigate this decades-old question”
“the long-lasting prediction is confirmed by this new material I developed”
Where is the field going as a result of your work?
What direction is your work going to take from here?
Important details
Clean slides, no typos, large font
Outline easy to follow
Appropriately cite other’s related work, especially if in the audience
Practice talk in front of varied audience (if possible your lab mates, your supervisor, family or friends outside area, undergraduate students)
It may be very helpful (and sometimes painful) to record your talk and then review
Practice answering questions
Don’t get defensive
The good…
Specific heat
Superconducting transition at Tc = 1.4 K
Transition moves down in temperature with applied field
The bad…
Specific heat
Superconducting transition at Tc = 1.4 K
Transition moves down in temperature with applied field
…and the ugly
Specific heat
Superconducting transition at Tc = 1.4 K
Transition moves down in temperature with applied field
C/T for YbSb2
γ ~ 4 mJ/mol K2
Morosan et al. (unpublished)
Other important details
Have backup of your presentation
If possible check out the room and AV equipment before talk
Face the audience as much as possible
Don’t read off slides
Beware of “wandering laser pointer”
“hard” questions
I don't think you've accounted for the research of Barnes and Bailey. Aren't you familiar with their model? I think it invalidates your main hypothesis.
You acknowledge all these collaborators –what exactly did you do?
This is a project you started working on as a postdoc in Prof. X’s group. Will you be continuing this work? How will your work be distinct from that of your postdoc supervisor?
(To the candidate) Well you didn't even account for phenomena x.(Aside to the audience) How can all this research be valid if she didn't account for x?
It looks like you've done some interesting modeling. Is there an application of this work?
What a wonderful little application. Is there any theoretical support?
“harder” questions
I believe a simple non linear equation explains all your data. Why have you wasted your time on such a complex model?
How does this differ from the basic model that we teach in sophomore transport?
Those results are clearly unattainable. You must have falsified your data.
You've done some interesting work, but I don't see how it could be considered engineering. Why do you think you are qualified to teach engineering?
Your work appears to be a complete replication of Fujimoto's work. Just what is really new here?
