The good news

1. The good news Well-prepared & presented  Collaborative presentations very well done Correct organization: a brief introduction, a formulation of the modeling equations, an analysis of the results, and a conclusion slide All talks were on schedule, good preparation

2. Suggestions for slide style • Figures sometimes looked bad on the overhead projector: • fonts too small (use 20-24 point minimum, especially in plots) • plot lines too thin (LineWidth Matlab command) • some slides too crowded  (mostly ok, though) • Plots need to be clearly & completely labeled/ legend/ titled

3. Presentation style • Use less slides (again, most of you ok on this) • Know what to present:   • Omit or shorten obvious results/ model description • include only interesting & surprising outcomes • Include a short conclusion slide: list only the interesting formulation/ results • Choose notations/ parameter names wisely (e.g. P and R rather than P and p)

4. How to build a model • Model building is iterative! • Add new elements to an already-existing model one at a time • Ask yourself what is the main problem with the results (e.g. population dies) • Fix it and back to step 2 • Add complications only if essential  • Examine qualitative features of your model first • consider extreme scenarios: how does model/ new term act when each parameter and/ or variable goes to infinity?  to zero?  negative values? 

5. Analysis • Analysis is more than running ODE45 a few times and showing graphs • Do a fixed point analysis; linear stability analysis (algebraic if possible; numerical if not) • Parameter sensitivity: vary unknown/ arbitrary parameters to see how system reacts… Creativity • Always attempt to do something unusual/ novel in model formulation/ analysis. We are here • Seek help when things go wrong or just to get feedback.