Effective Research Presentation Design Guidelines

1. Research Methods Research Presentation

2. General Guidelines on designing the presentation • How many slides do I need? • Depends on how much time you have (approximately 1 to 2 slides per minute) • Show only the essential parts of your work. • Add a few slides at the end of the presentation that will help you answering the questions of the audience • What size of fonts and colours to use? • Font size depends on room and screen sizes • For ordinary classrooms use 24 to 30 for Headings and 16 to 20 for text • Don’t mix fonts in the same line • Don’t exaggerate with colours. Use a different colour to highlight a word • Use a soft colour for the background

3. General Guidelines on designing the presentation • How much information shall I put in a slide? • Each slide must deal with a single issue of your presentations • Eg Research Motivation • But you may use more than one slides to present a single concept • Use about 4 to 8 lines per slide, with about 3 to 6 words per line • The isoefficiency and the scalability metrics of a parallel algorithm are crucial • The typical parallel computers of the future will have thousands of CPUs and terabytes of RAM • Crucial metrics • Isoefficiency • Scalability metrics • Future systems • Thousands of CPUs • Terabytes of RAM

4. General Guidelines on designing the presentation • Can I use animations? • Only when it is necessary • to emphasize a sequence of events, or • to stress important issues or conclusions • Avoid excessive use of animations and slide transitions • It gets very annoying if you will need to answer questions and have to navigate back and forth in the presentation. • Can I use action/navigation buttons ? • Yes, if you have a large number of slides and you will need to navigate through them • Especially useful for the extra “lifesaving” slides • A good idea to use a table with pointers to the different groups of slides

5. Use Conceptual Diagrams • High Level Design Diagram: • Good to be used early in the presentation to give an overview of the work to be presented Example

6. Use Conceptual Diagrams (Simplified) • Avoid using overcrowded Diagrams: • Remove lines and labels – You will mention them during the presentation Example

7. Use simplified block Diagrams (Include only essential parts) Processing of threads that have already been executed by the processor. • Pointers to executed threads are • shifted by the processor into the AQ Could be removed • Thread# addresses GM to get the • thread’s Consumers • Mapping Unit locates Ready • Count in SM Example 4. Consumer’s Ready Count is decremented and checked if zero • If Ready Count zero then ready • thread pointers forwarded to TIU Could be removed • Remote consumers are forwarded • to the NIU

8. Use simplified block Diagrams (Simplified) Processing of threads that have already been executed by the processor. • Pointers to executed threads are • shifted by the processor into the AQ • Thread# addresses GM to get the • thread’s Consumers • Mapping Unit locates Ready • Count in SM Example 4. Consumer’s Ready Count is decremented and checked if zero • If Ready Count zero then ready • thread pointers forwarded to TIU • Remote consumers are forwarded • to the NIU

9. Use examples to describe your Methodology (Sqr(A+B) + (Sqr(Sqr(B)-C))/D Example • Thread Template contents: • IFP, • Ready Count, • DFP, • Consumers • Thread Template contents: • IFP, • Ready Count, • DFP, • Consumers • Thread Template contents: • IFP, • Ready Count, • DFP, • Consumers • Thread Template contents: • IFP, • Ready Count, • DFP, • Consumers

10. Evaluation Methodology (Evaluation Methodology Sample) Example Thread partitioning done by hand Code is annotated with instructions that generate DDM graph Modified code compiled using common compiler • Execution-Driven simulator with native execution • The execution of threads is interleaved with the • simulation of the TSU • Simulation of multiprocessor system • To ensure correct simulation order • A clock counter is maintained for each simulated • processor and TSU unit • The unit with the lowest clock count is simulated next • The network is simulated by • issuing communication events • marked with the completion clock count • Congestion is simulated by implementing the back-pressure flow control • Simulations carried out on the Pentium III 800MHz workstation • Results were obtained using the processor’s performance • monitor registers/counters • Applications partitioned to threads • Annotated with extra code to generated DDM graph • Compiled using common C compiler

11. Use Charts and Plots (Avoid using tables, unless necessary) Example Show only the most conclusive or important results Emphasize the conclusions of your results Speedup reduction due to DDM overheads, TSU latency locality, and pipeline latency. Speedup reduction due to TSU latency only. Speedup reduction due to CPU/TSU clock miss-match. • Increasing thread granularity to factor 8 and above: • DDM speedup approaches the sequential single thread • TSU latency approaches zero

12. Include at the end a plot with all results achieved Example (1) DDM increases miss rate (2) CacheFlow reduces miss rate (lower than the sequential) (3)Optimizations reduce further miss rate

13. Presentation Structure for Proposals (1/2) • Introduction • One or two slides explaining the problem your addressing • It should lead to the motivation of the research • Project Aims and Contributions • One or two slides describing the objectives of the project • Emphasize • Your contributions • That the idea in novel and interesting • Literature Review • One slide per project described in the literature review of your proposal • You need to show that your informed about the current developments in the field • It will help you put your proposal into content • Methodology • Two to three slides describing the main components of the methodology • Use a Conceptual Diagram to describe your methodology • If necessary add a slide on infrastructure needed and explain how it will be obtained Keep in mind that your audience will be a small committee of academics that know you and are aware of the topic your presenting

14. Presentation Structure for Proposals (2/2) • Evaluation • One or two slides on how you intend to evaluate the outcome of your research • Work Planning • Identify main work-packages • Show a Gantt chart • Conclusions • Stress that your idea is novel and interesting • Ask for Questions? • No! This is the work of the chairman of the committee • Just add a “Thank You” slide at the end.

15. Presentation Structure for Thesis (1/2) • First Slide • Present yourself, your affiliation and the title of your Thesis • Thank your advisor and the members of the committee (or other audience) for being there • Add the logos of organizations that supported/funded your work and thank them • Introduction • One or two slides explaining the problem your addressing • It should lead to the motivation of the research • You may add one or two slides from the literature review section of your Thesis to emphasise the motivation for your work (if applicable) • Project Aims and Contributions • One or two slides describing the objectives of the project • Emphasize • Your contributions • That the idea in novel and interesting Keep in mind that your audience will be the members of the assessment committee (well aware of the topic your presenting - some of the members might not know you in person) In some cases your defence might be open to the public or to other students

16. Presentation Structure for Thesis (2/2) • Methodology • Few slides describing the main components of the methodology • Use a Conceptual Diagram to describe your methodology • Evaluation Methodology • One or two slides on how you evaluated the outcome of your research • Results • Using graphs and charts describe the results obtained • Analyse, verbally, your results during the Thesis defence • If appropriate relate/compare your results with the results of others • Conclusions • Stress that your idea is novel and interesting • Use your results to point out that your project is a success • Future Work • Briefly present how your research work can be continued/enhanced • Be careful not to show that your work is incomplete • Ask for Questions? • No! This is the work of the chairman of the committee • Just add a “Thank You” slide at the end. • Don’t forget to add “Rescue” or “Lifesaving” slides at the end