Graduate Colloquium, Spring 2008
Wednesdays, Grigg Hall, Room 132, 12:30-1:30, Bring Your Lunch

See Below for Presentation Format and Content Advice

T 1/15	Course Overview. Meet at10:30, Room 132, Grigg. Aside from this first class, there will be no classes on Tuesdays. Those enrolled in OPTI6110/8110 are required to attend 5 Wednesday Colloquia, and ask 3 questions over the duration of the semester.
Wed 1/23	Photonics West - No Colloquium
Wed 1/30	1. Seungmoo Yang (Astratov) 2. Xiaoxia Wu (Xu)
Wed 2/6	1. John Schenk (Fiddy) 2. April Cook (M. Davies)
Wed 2/13	1. Kristin Walker (Tyson) 2. Mona Mayeh (Farahi)
Wed 2/20	1. Young-Sik Ghim (A. Davies) 2. Shahab Chitchian (Fried)
Wed 2/27	OFC - No Graduate Colloquium
Wed 3/5	Spring Break - No Graduate Colloquium
Wed 3/12	1. Ozan Yilmaz (Johnson) 2. Choon How Gan (Gbur)
Wed F 3/19	1. Virginia Gomez (A. Davies) 2. Serhat Tozburun
Wed 3/26	1. Kaia Buhl (Johnson) 2. Rahul Sahariah (Stokes)
Wed 3/30	1. Mehrdad Abolbashari 2. Yi-Chen Chuang (Suleski)
Wed 4/2	1. Wesley Parker (Moyer) 2. Ying Li
Wed 4/9	1. Wes Parker (P. Moyer) 2. Ying Li (E. Stokes)
Wed 4/16	1. Zach Roth (Johnson) 2. Daryl Purcell (A. Davies)
Wed 4/23	1. Javaid Ikram (A. Davies) 2. April Cooke (M. Davies)
Wed 4/30	1. Yalong Gu (Gbur) 2. Ting Shi

Talk Length: You have a 30 minute time slot, 20 minutes of prepared material with ~10 minutes for questions.

Title Advice:

Be sure your title does two things:

1) defines the field of study and

2) indicates what sets this work apart from the other ongoing work in the field.

Good Example:

"Effects of Humidity on the Growth of Avalanches"

Field of Study: “Growth of Avalanches”

What sets the work apart: “Effects of Humidity”

Bad Examples:

"Studies on the Electrodeposition of Lead on Copper" – The field of study is defined, but what sets this work apart? What ‘Studies’?

"Reducing the Hazards of Operations" – What is the field of study? Reduced? How?

Introduction Advice:

• Devote at least 5 minutes of prepared material for the introduction.
• Start from the ‘Big Picture’ and work your way to the specifics of your project.
• In what field of study does your research fall?
• Why is this an interesting and important field of study to advance?
• How does your work advance this field?
• Who will be interested? What technologies might this impact?
• Ease the audience gradually into the technical details of your research. Your goal is to make your talk interesting and educational. The audience will be very diverse – electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, chemistry, etc.. Most are not familiar with your field of study. Avoid jargon.
• What are the ‘fundamental optics/science’ components at the heart of your work? Think of what is covered in the core courses - this is what you can assume the audience knows.
• Tie the fundamental physics/optics behind your research into the introduction of your subject.
• Don’t worry about boring the faculty and staff. Never underestimate the joy one receives in being told something they already know…

Talk Layout Advice:

• Try including a picture to orient and bullets of the few (2-4) key points to remember on your introductory slide. Key points are the main conclusions of your talk – the big picture points you hope are remembered. Studies show that an audience remembers at most 50% of what is presented –the best-case scenario. Make sure they remember the 50% you want remembered. Repetition is one way to do this – say your key points at the beginning, describe them in the middle, and repeat them at the end.

• Use a headline statement at the top of every slide (except the title and conclusion slides). The headline statement is the conclusion or main point of the slide. No more than 2 lines – a succinct complete sentence. It is possible to come up with this statement for every slide – else why are you showing the slide?
• The body of the slide provides the evidence that supports the headline statement.
• Use as many pictures and/or sketches as you can. This quickly orients the audience. Having them read words and generate their own mental picture isn’t efficient. Save them the trouble - provide the mental picture.
• People can remember no more than 3-4 items in a list – any more than this and the whole list may be forgotten…
• Don’t fall into the trap of putting together a talk that is a hybrid of a presentation and a technical publication. Think carefully about the level of detail that is appropriate and necessary. It is very easy, common, and tempting to put far more detail into a talk than can be absorbed or is necessary. Save the details for your peer-reviewed publication …