Final project presentations
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
1
Presentation schedule
• Each team will give a presentation on their project
• Email me slides prior to class
– Powerpoint or pdf ok
• All team members should participate in presenting
and answering questions
• After that:
– Demonstrations during lab, last week of class
– Final reports due the Monday of finals week
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
2
Giving technical presentations
• First determine:
–
–
–
–
what is the purpose of your talk?
who is the audience?
what do you want the audience to come away with?
for example, these talks would be very different:
• A presentation to a client
• A presentation at a technical conference
• A presentation in your class
• Most presentations are very time limited
– You can’t cover everything
– But on the parts you do cover, you should do a good job
• you should show that you thoroughly understand the problem and have a
good solution or approach
• the audience will infer that you have done a good job on the other parts as
well
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
3
Technical presentations (continued)
• You want to avoid raising doubts (“red flags”) in the mind of
the audience, about the soundness of your work
– The audience will worry and start questioning everything you have done
• Some ways to avoid this:
– Well designed slides
• Readable, neat, clear
• Sufficient technical detail appropriate to the audience
• It’s ok to show more detail than you will cover ... just address the overall picture
and maybe go into more detail on one piece
– No mistakes on slides (including spelling and grammar)
– Know what you are talking about
• If you try to bluff your way through and are caught, it destroys your credibility
• It’s ok to not know everything (but you should know the important things!)
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
4
Technical presentations (continued)
Introduction, high level
explanation, introduce main
things, and why they are important
• A good format is --->
• That way, if you need to
shorten your talk, you
just cut out the middle
• Practice, practice,
practice!
1st main thing, more
detail, supporting
data, other points
More detail, more subparts, more
results and data, how they fit
together, etc
– It will improve your
confidence
– It will make the talk go
smoother
– It will avoid problems
with running over (or
under)
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Tell them what 1st main
thing was and why
important
2nd main thing, more
detail, supporting
data, other points
:
More detail, more subparts, more
results and data, how they fit
together, etc
Tell them what 2nd main
thing was and why
important
Conclusion, recap of high level
explanation, recap of main things
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
5
Critical Design Review
• Demonstrates that the design will meet the
requirements
• Has sufficient technical detail (hardware, software)
to support this
• You should show
–
–
–
–
An understanding of the requirements
Schematic diagram(s)
Software flowchart(s) or pseudocode
Timing diagram(s)
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
6
Additional information
• Classes on “Professional Oral Communications” are good
• The books by Edward Tufte are very good:
– “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” and others
Charles Joseph
Minard's thematic
map of Napoleon's
ill-fated march on
Moscow. Six
separate variables
are captured on a
two dimensional
surface. "It may
well be the best
statistical graphic
ever drawn.“ (Tufte)
Microcomputer Architecture and Interfacing
Colorado School of Mines
Professor William Hoff
7