Giving a good CMSC 483 Presentation

Introduction

CMSC 483 is graded pass/fail. Whether you pass the class depends entirely on your presentation. If you give a good presentation (AND it clearly demonstrates that your internship involved some programming or advanced database work using topics from at least two 200-level or higher computer science courses), you will pass the course. Your presentation should be about twenty minutes, but five of those minutes should be reserved for questions. You should prepare your presentation in advance and rehearse it several times before presenting.

Parts of a good internship presentation

If you are giving a presentation about an internship with a company, your presentation should have the following parts:

  • A title slide
  • An introduction
  • The work environment
  • What you did
  • What you learned
  • A conclusion

Title Slide

Your title slide should give your name, job title, the name of the company, and the semester in which you did your work. You may want to include pictures of the campus or building you worked in, or a picture of yourself at work if you have one. If you use a picture from the company's web site, be sure you have permission to use it in your presentation.

Introduction

Your introduction should talk about what the company does and how it is organized. Was it a small company? A large company with many departments? A non-profit organization? If it was a large company, which department or division did you work for? Also talk about how you found your internship and a brief overview of your job role. If you worked on several projects, you should tell what they were here, but save a detailed description for later.

Work Environment

Talk about the work environment. Who were the other members of your team? Were there other interns? Who did you report to? Did you have a mentor? What hours did you work? Were there any other job expectations? Did you work remotely or have a commute? What operating systems, software, or platforms were provided to support your work? Did you receive any training before you started?

What you did

This should be were you spend most of your time in the talk. Be specific. Be sure to first talk about the general problem you are solving and explain why your work was important or necessary. Then give a broad overview of your solution and only at the end get specific. If you can, share code snippets or pseudocode of your contributions. If these are confidential, you can instead share a block diagram of the project giving as much detail as you are allowed to share or give metrics (like "I wrote X lines of code across Y modules of the project"). Use lots of pictures or screenshots.

What you learned

Talk about lessons learned (both computer science lessons and practical life lessons). Be sure to also mention how you applied your computer science knowledge by listing specific 200-level or higher classes you used.

Conclusion

In your conclusion, give a short evaluation of the internship. Did you feel like you made a valuable contribution? Did you feel like you were adequately prepared for the internship? Would you recommend it for other students?

Parts of a good directed study presentation

A directed study presentation is a bit different from an internship presentation. A good directed study presentation has the following parts:

  • A title slide
  • Introduction and motivation
  • Background
  • Implementation
  • Results
  • Conclusion

Title Slide

Your title slide should have your name, a short title for your project, and the semester in which the work was completed. If you worked with a professor, you should also acknowledge him or her on the title slide.

Introduction and Motivation

Clearly identify the problem you were trying to solve and why it was significant or interesting. Why should your audience care about what you did?

Background and previous work

There are two kind of background information you should describe in your talk. First, you should define any technical terms your audience will need to understand in order to follow the rest of the talk. Second, you should talk about the context of the problem. Does your work build on a previous project? Are there other solutions to the problem? Why is more work needed in this area? Be sure to cite any sources you use!

Implementation

Describe what you did. Be specific. If you built something, show pictures. If you wrote code, show short code snippets or pseudocode. Use block diagrams or other figures to explain the different parts of the system and how they related. Don't forget to include at least one slide that shows which 200-level or higher computer science classes you used...

Results

Present the results of your work. If you collected any data, this is the place to display it using appropriate charts, graphs, or other figures. At the very least, you should talk about whether your project was successful or whether more work is needed.

Conclusion

The primary purpose of the conclusion is to discuss possible future work. How could someone extend what you did? Are there ways the project could be extended? Unfinished work that should be completed?