Some tips on effective presentations

Below are some materials on effective presentations  during Teacher Development Program from Greg Reihman, Director of Faculty Development, Lehigh University

Know your material
The advice below assumes that your know something about the topic and have something to say. But don't focus on everything you know, focus instead on the key things you want your audience to learn

Determine 3-5 objectives: what do you want really your audience to learn?
Your audience will learn more than that, but if you can teach someone 3-5 new things you will have done a great job

Tell a story
People understand and connect with ideas that they can fit together into a story. A good story sets up an interesting problem, challenge or puzzle and works its way toward resolution. At a minimum, plan a beginning, a middle, and an end that makes sense together.

Be a body
Make eye contact, use gestures, be open with your arms, face the audience, smile. Practice this

Plan some form of "energy shift " every 15-20 minutes
Your audience should be doing something significantly different after 15 - 20 minutes. To Accomplish this, you might lecture for 15 minutes then offer a personal anecdote, a short video clip. Or it might mean giving your students something to do (5 minutes to write or discuss or stretch or take a quiz). Or it might mean presenting a case study, talking about it for 10 minutes with your audience, then presenting the next case. What matters most is that you do something to change how the room feels; to have your audience use a different part of their mind.

Make some part of your presentation personal , but not "about you"
It's great to include a story or an example that is about you or your experience; however, if you do, make sure you offer it in a way that helps you connect with your audience or helps them understand your point. If your story is meant to impress, it probably won't

Speak with an easy authority 
When you start speaking, your audience assumes you have something to teach them. If you mutter or apologize, if you are self-effacing or disorganized, you will give them reason to think that you do not. This does not mean being authoritarian (tyrannical, bossy, strict) but rather being authoritative (in control , knowledgeable, influential)

Aim to teach, not to impress
If you present your talk thinking, "I have to show them that I know what I'm talking about" then, at best, they will leave having learned "Wow, she knows what she's talking about" (at worst, they will find you arrogant, unapproachable, and ineffective). If you present your talk thinking, "I have to help them understand what I'm talking about" then, at best, they will leave having learned, "Wow, I get it" (or , at worst, they will learn find you helpful, kind, approachable and will come back hoping to learn more).

A SHORT LIST OF RESOURCES ON EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS

1. HOW TO SPEAK: LECTURE TIPS FROM MIT's Patrick WINSTON
    From Harvard's Bok Center for Teaching Excellence

2.Videos of good presenters
   www.ted.com

3. Preparation Tips
http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html

4. Delivery Tips
http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/delivery.html

5. Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning "Speaking of Teaching " newsletter on "Oral Communication in the Academy"
www.stanford.edu/dept/CTL/Newsletter/oral_comm.pdf
6. "Giving a Job Talk in the Sciences" (Rick Reis, Chronicle of Higher Education)
http://chronicle.com/article/Giving-a-Job-Talk-in-hte-Sc/45375

7. A presentation does not have to include PowerPoint/Keynote, but if it does consider these
 http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html

http://www.presentationzen.com/
 
http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html

2012 Mixed Integer Programming workshop, Conference Announcement

Date: July 16-19, 2012
Location: University of California, Davis

We are pleased to announce that the 2012 workshop in Mixed Integer
Programming (MIP 2012) will be held July 16-19, 2012 at the University
of California, Davis. The 2012 Mixed Integer Programming workshop will
be the ninth in a series of annual workshops held in North America
designed to bring the integer programming community together to discuss
very recent developments in the field. The workshop series consists of a
single track of invited talks and also features a poster session as an
additional opportunity to share and discuss recent research.
 Registration details and a call for participation in the poster session
will be announced later.

Confirmed speakers:

• Gennadiy Averkov, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
• Sam Burer, The University of Iowa
• Philipp Christophel, SAS
• Jesús A. De Loera, University of California, Davis
• Alberto Del Pia, ETH Zurich
• Ricardo Fukasawa, University of Waterloo
• Vineet Goyal, Columbia University
• Yongpei Guan, University of Florida
• Volker Kaibel, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
• Kiavash Kianfar, Texas A&M University
• Mustafa Kılınç, University of Pittsburgh
• Fatma Kılınç-Karzan, Carnegie Mellon University
• David Morton, The University of Texas at Austin
• Ted Ralphs, Lehigh University
• Edward Rothberg, Gurobi Optimization
• Siqian Shen, University of Michigan
• Dan Steffy, ZIB and Oakland University
• Alejandro Toriello, University of Southern California
• Christian Wagner, ETH Zurich

Sincerely,

Claudia D'Ambrosio, CNRS - École Polytechnique
Matthias Köppe, UC Davis
Jim Luedtke, University of Wisconsin-Madison
François Margot, Carnegie Mellon University
Juan Pablo Vielma, University of Pittsburgh

(MIP 2012 Organizing Committee, mip2012@math.ucdavis.edu)

Teacher Development Series Fall 2011

Session 1 - Presentations & Communications
When: Thursday September 29th, 2:30-4:00
Where: Sinclair Laboratory Auditorium
Topics: An opportunity to learn more about-and practice-effective preseentation skills.
Who: Greg Reihman (Faculty Development/CAS-Philosophy).

Session 2 – Advice from Current Graduate Students on Effective Teaching
When: Thursday October 13th, 2:30-4:00
Where: Sinclair Laboratory Auditorium

Session 3 -Engaging Students
When: Thursday October 27th, 2:30-4:00
Where: Sinclair Auditorium Laboratory
Topics: How do effective faculty engage and inspire students? How do they ensure content mastery and promote higher-order thinking?
Who: Greg Reihman (Faculty Development/CAS-Philosophy).

Session 4 - Academic Support Services for Students
When: Thursday November 10th 2:30-4:00
Where: Sinclair Laboratory Auditorium
Topics: A chance to learn about the many factors affectiing student learning (including learning disabilities, cultural differenes, students at risk) and find out what other support servie are available to your students.

Session 5 - Symposium on Teaching & Learning
When: Thursday November 17th TBA
Where: Linderman Library
Topics: This symposium will highlight various innovative ways Lehigh faculty are using instructional technology and media in their teahing. Poster presentations by various faculty and staff, plus keynote presentation.

Junior Research Fellowship Scheme at Imperial College London

Centre for Transport Studies
Imperial College London

Junior Research Fellowships


Imperial College London has created a significant number of new Junior
Research Fellowships, to enable outstanding young researchers to establish
academic careers. The Fellowships are for 3 years and are intended to to
enable the successful applicant to focus full time on developing an
independent research identity but with encouragement and support from a
senior academic mentor. Applicants will be expected normally to have
between two and four years post-doctoral experience at the time of
application.

Proposals will be judged primarily on the basis of their scientific merit,
track record and potential for development of an independent research
programme. Applicants will need to identify an Imperial College academic
staff member to act as their sponsor and to provide relevant facilities
and mentorship for the tenure of the Fellowship.

This is a tremendous opportunity for a talented young researcher to
establish an academic career at Imperial.

The Centre for Transport Studies is keen to encourage suitable applicants
with interests in any of our areas of research activity, which include
 *      Travel demand modelling
 *      Transport network operations
 *      Transport and the environment
 *      Intelligent transport systems
 *      Transport economics, policy and regulation
 *      Transport risk, safety and security
 *      Railway operations and management
 *      Engineering geomatics
 *      Air transport and air traffic management
 *      Freight transport and logistics
 *      Port and maritime operations

We are also happy to hear from potential applicants with complimentary
disciplinary or research interests that could contribute to our
multi-disciplinary research activities.

Further information about the Junior Fellowship Scheme can be found at
www.imperial.ac.uk/jrf and further information about the Centre for
Transport Studies can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/cts.

The closing date for applications is 29 October 2010.

Potential applicants wishing to discuss this opportunity informally are
welcome to contact me.