Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Research Talks
A research
talk
, or presentation, is typically a brief lecture about a particular piece
of research, intended for an audience of other scientists. Another common form of
presentation is a
poster
, where work is presented as a poster that is pinned to a wall
or noticeboard and explained to interested passers-by.
A research presentation is used as an opportunity to discuss work with your peers.
For example, it is used to examine your research directions, the outcomes of your
research, issues and uncertainties you have encountered, or other work that you think
is of interest. It may be used to explain to the audience why a certain paper is worth
reading, or to present an overview of an area, or perhaps to get feedback on alternative
research directions that you are contemplating.
Research presentations are different, in both audience and content, to other kinds
of lecture, seminar, or talk.
They are used to convey ideas, observations, and discoveries. The intent is to
openly educate and inform, and also for the speaker to learn from the audience.
The duration is usually fixed, say of 10, 30, or 60min.
Unlike lectures delivered to undergraduates in college or university, they are con-
versations between equals rather than lessons by professors; and there is no expec-
tation that the audience is going to become expert in the material.
Sales pitches or hyperbole are inappropriate—research talks are a contrast to busi-
ness or information seminars, where the goal is typically to convey an impression,
philosophy, or strategy rather than to educate.
Thus, for example, in contrast to the task of giving lectures, in research talks the
timing is critical, while detailed explanations are in some cases unimportant; and the
skills needed for management of the audience may be very different.
Typically, the audience is mixed. Some listeners may be actively interested in
your precise area, but, usually, many will not be scholars of your topic. Instead, they
are simply interested: they know you personally, are in your research group, attend
seminars out of curiousity, or, maybe, had nothing better to do. A well-designed talk
will speak to all of these kinds of listener.
To some extent, the style of the presentation is determined by its length. An hour or
45min can have the space tomotivate theworkwith a thorough example, explore side-
topics, or run a discussion with the audience. For such a talk to work well, however,
the structure (discussed below) must be carefully designed. In contrast, while a 25-
min conference-style talk is long enough, in most cases, to convey the key details of a
piece of research, the time needs to be used well—no one component can be allowed
to run over 5min. However, it is long enough for structure to remain important.
For a 10-min talk, though, it is rarely necessary to have an explicit structure. There
is usually only enough time to introduce the topic and give a brief introduction to
the method or results. There may be 6-12 slides, but certainly no more. And beware:
high-speed delivery is not a good solution to lack of time. A brief talk of this kind is
an opportunity to explain what the work is about, but not to explain the work itself.
