Give a 15-20 minute presentation on an academic paper from the IEEE VIS conference. The presentations will be scheduled during class on March 22, March 29, April 5 with 4 presentations per class meeting.
Required pre-reading: Tamara Munzner, "Process and Pitfalls in Writing Information Visualization Research Papers", 2008.
Paper selection and scheduling will be done through the Blackboard Discussion Board in the "Presentation" forum. See the "Paper Selection" thread for information on how to register your selection. Once all papers have been chosen, we'll start scheduling the presentations in a similar manner. See Suggested Papers for a list of suggested papers, but you may request approval to present any other IEEE VIS paper. All papers must be selected by Tuesday, February 15 before class.
All presentations must be completed by Tuesday, March 22 before class. See Submission below.
You may send me a draft of your slides for feedback. You are encouraged to ask for feedback early, but the latest I will accept a draft for review is Wednesday, March 16. I will not be able to look at drafts sent after that time.
I would prefer for all students to deliver their presentations live. If you live out of the area, or are otherwise not able to attend in person on your scheduled presentation date, you should present live in Zoom. If this is not possible, you may pre-record your presentation -- but this must be approved in advance.
The goal of the presentation is to teach us about the paper. To do this, you must be able to identify and understand the main points of the paper and present them in a clear manner.
All presentations must classify their paper into one of the five paper types discussed in Munzner's paper (see above) and justify/explain their classification.
Don't wait until the last minute to start preparing this. If the paper is about something that is not familiar to you, you may need to do some outside research on the topic. Odds are, if the topic is unfamiliar to you, it is also unfamiliar to your classmates. You should include enough background information in your presentation so that everyone can understand the main points of the paper.
Refer back to the Reading Academic Papers slides while studying your paper and focus on the questions asked on slide 20.
Some papers may have an associated 30-second video (for example, see the VIS 2019 30-second Videos). These might be good to incorporate into your presentation, especially if the paper is describing an interactive system. (Do not show a video just because one exists -- it must be helpful for the presentation.)
This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade. The main portions of the grade are further explained below.
Your goal is to teach the class about the contributions and main points of the paper. You should also be prepared to answer some basic questions about the paper.
Your grade will largely be based on how well you demonstrate understanding of the paper and convey the main points to the class in the time limit (20 minutes is the maximum time allowed).
You may use Google Slides, PowerPoint, or something that generates PDF to create your slides.
Slides must be your own work! You may find the authors' slides online. While these may be helpful to look at, you are not allowed to copy them. (If there are figures from the paper or presentation that would be helpful in your presentation, you may use them, but you must include an acknowledgement on the slide.) The main goal of this assignment is for you to summarize the paper and teach it to the class. This means that you must organize and develop the slides yourself.
Please refer back to the Academic Communication - presenting slides while preparing your presentation. All of the guidelines we discussed are applicable for this assignment.
Your title slide must contain the following information:
- Title of paper
- Authors
- Venue (conference)
- Year of publication
- CS 725/825 - Information Visualization
- Presented by your name
- Date
Make sure that you include slide numbers on all of your slides (except the title slide).
You must have a conclusion slide that provides a summary of the main points of the paper and brings the presentation to a natural end.
Here's what I expect in terms of the actual delivery of the presentation:
- Speak clearly and at an appropriate volume and speed
- Try to maintain eye contact with the audience (for Zoom - look at your camera)
- Demonstrate that you are prepared and have practiced the talk
- Use the slides as guides, but do not read directly from them or directly from your notes
- Ensure that transitions between topics are smooth and natural
- The presentation must have a natural ending to avoid ending with something like "That's all I have"
Students who are not presenting also have responsibilities.
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Attention: If attending via Zoom, turn your video on so that the speaker can see that you are paying attention and gauge your response during the talk. If you must turn off your video, make sure that you have a picture set up so that it's not just a blank box.
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Presentation Feedback: There will be a thread for each presentation in the Blackboard Discussion Board "Presentation" forum. Each non-presenting student must provide some constructive feedback for the speaker on their presentation. Ideally, this should contain at least 2 positive points and 2 suggestions for improvement. All feedback must be constructive in nature and be provided in a spirit of helping the presenter improve their presentation skills for the future. This thread can also be used for additional questions or discussion about the content of the paper after class.
Before class on Tuesday, March 22, submit your slides via Blackboard:
- Click on Academic Paper Presentation under Assignments.
- Under "Assignment Submission", either upload the slides or post the link under "Write Submission" if they're in Google Slides.
- Make sure to "Submit" your assignment, or I will not be able to find your slides.