Overview
Everyone taking this class for credit is expected to give
a presentation on one of the topics in the syllabus.
Group presentations are permitted. There are several
motivations for the class presentations: the most important
is to give you a chance to look in depth at a particular
issue in multirobot systems, another is to give
you more experience in giving technical presentations.
Material
For each topic in the syllabus there is a "primary" paper.
This is the paper that is listed first. This is also the
paper the rest of the class is responsible to read.
Take a look at this list of topics.
Your presentation should
focus on the primary paper, but you are also
encouraged to look at other, related papers and present contrasting
views from these sources. If you are having trouble getting
a copy of the paper, or supporting materials, see me, I'll be
glad to help out.
Your Presentation
There are many good ways to present a paper. If you have
had experience/success with a particular technique, feel
free to use it. Even if you don't particularly agree with
the author(s) you should give an fair presentation -- pretend
you are the author's advocate. One tried-and-true approach
is to just follow
the order of presentation in the paper. You should plan on
a 30 to 45 minute presentation (that usually translates to
15 to 20 slides). You should be sure, at some point in your
talk, to discuss the following (order is not important):
- Assumptions: what assumptions do the authors make?
In other words, in how broad a domain does this work
apply?
- Main idea/contribution: what is the key contribution
of this work?
- Results: what results are there to back up the idea?
- Highlights: what are the good things about this approach?
- Limitations: what are the limitations? (This is where
you can interject a bit of opinion if you disagree
with the authors).
- Comparison with other work: how do the results of
this paper compare with related work (this is
optional).
Evaluation
The presentation is worth 20% of your overall grade. You
will be evaluated on these criteria:
- Completeness (did you present all the points
outlined above)
- Comprehension (is it clear you understand the work)
- Bonus: presentation skill (you may receive extra
credit for an excellent presentation)
- Bonus: additional research (you may receive extra
credit if you cover contrasting/complementing
work by other researchers)
Deliverables
- You should make sure the instructor has a copy of
the primary paper in advance, to make copies for the class.
A pointer to an electronic version is best.
- Please provide the instructor with an electronic copy of
your presentation (powerpoint is preferred).