CSCI 440 Progress Report — Spring 2013
Due Week 10 or 11
Note that there is no written document required for this deliverable, though I encourage you to get a head start on writing your final report!
Oral Presentation
You will be formally presenting to the class your project work. This will be a mid-length presentation (15 minutes) that gives us a status update and lets you begin to show off your system or research so far. You should think of this as a draft run for your final presentation: basically, if you had to give your final report now, what would it include? The content of this talk should be a (shorter) dry run of your final presentation, so you get can (a) start thinking about what will go into your final talk; (b) practice giving a piece of the final presentation; and (c) get some feedback on your presenting. There will also be a short time for questions and discussion, so that you can get feedback on both your presentation (e.g., how the "story" of your work comes across) and of your plans for finishing up the project (e.g., how do you make a demo-able system after you've got the core components in). Our goal is to make sure to catch any problems while there is still some time to fix them!
The use of well-made slides and other media is highly encouraged for this presentation. Demos are encouraged! Again, think of it as an introduction or dry run for your final talk.
Discussant's Role
As the discussant for the project proposal, your goal is to lead the group in offering a reflective analysis of the work and project. You should start by offering a brief constructive evaluation of the presentation style, and then open up a discussion among the class on how this project can be best completed. With just a few weeks left for development, where might you suggest the presenter focus their efforts? What kinds of critical questions should the presenter be ready to answer? What potential issues should they look for or what tests should they run? Is there a certain form of interaction they should be sure to enable? Again, the goal is not to criticize what has been done so far, but to offer guidance and suggestions for how the project should be finalized and completed for this course. As with the previous presentations, do your best to involve the entire class--you are there to provoke and moderate discussion!
We will have up to 10 minutes to discuss each presentation.