Free Online Workshops for Graduate Students
Preparing a Research Presentation
in Science and Engineering
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Presenting your research is an opportunity for you not only to communicate your scientific work but also to establish your scientific reputation. If you are a graduate student or other young researcher in science and engineering, you are invited to attend a series of free online workshops on how to make your research presentations more understandable, memorable, and persuasive. Beginning 24 September 2024, the following one-hour workshops will be held on three consecutive Tuesdays:
1. September 24: Structuring Your Research Presentation 2. October 1: Creating Effective Slides: Assertion-Evidence Approach 3. October 8: Delivering Your Presentations with Confidence To accommodate schedules of graduate students at different institutions, each workshop will be held at three different times: 09:00, 12:00, and 15:00 (EST). If you would like to participate in one of these series of free online workshops, please register here. Also, if you are taking the workshops as part of a graduate course or program, please identify your professor in the comments portion of the registration form (she or he will receive verification of your participation). Teaching these workshops is Professor Michael Alley from Pennsylvania State University. The author of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2013), Alley has taught workshops on research presentations for more than 25 years. Sites include Google, Harvard Medical School, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT, Panjab University, Purdue, Simula Research Laboratory, Texas Instruments, University of Florida, University of Illinois, University of San Paulo, and University of Seville. This series is sponsored by the Leonhard Center for Engineering Education at Pennsylvania State University. |
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Workshop 1
Structuring Your Research Presentation 24 September 2024 (Recording) Recommended Preparation: This workshop discusses strategies for organizing a research talk in science or engineering. Before the workshop, please spend 8 minutes viewing the two films below: the 3-minute thesis and the 5-minute introduction to a PhD defense. The 3-minute thesis, which won first place in its competition, presents an excellent example of a short research presentation that targets a wide audience. The 5-minute introduction to a PhD defense, which won best dissertation award that year at Penn State University, presents an excellent orientation for a technical dissertation. |
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Three-minute thesis from Dr. Samuel Ramsey, Univ. of Maryland (2017).
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Introduction to PhD thesis defense by Dr. Jacob Snyder (2019).
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Workshop 2
Creating Effective Slides: Assertion-Evidence Approach 1 October 2024 (Recording) Recommended Preparation: This workshop discusses strategies for designing visual aids for a research talk in science or engineering. Before the workshop, please spend 15 minutes working through the assertion-evidence tutorial. Then, if your schedule allows, use an assertion-evidence template to create two or three slides for your next research presentation. |
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Workshop 3
Delivering Your Presentation with Confidence
8 October 2024
09:00-10:00 EST,
12:00-13:00 EST, or
15:00-16:00 EST
Delivering Your Presentation with Confidence
8 October 2024
09:00-10:00 EST,
12:00-13:00 EST, or
15:00-16:00 EST
Recommended Preparation: This workshop discusses strategies for acquiring and projecting confidence during a research talk in science or engineering. Before the workshop, please view the following five minutes (7:46 - 12:35) of Cheryl Hayashi's TED talk on spider silk. Also, continue working on the slides (you should think of these as scenes) for your assertion-evidence talk.