Procedures for Demo Day

These are the procedures we follow on “Demo Day” during which students present their projects to an audience of their peers and guests. Demo Day is public. All are welcome. To attend, you need the Zoom link.

The document begins with an overview of the procedures and then provides advice to guests and to students. If you are a guest, you do not need to read the advice for students.

Key request to everyone: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

Overview

Each breakout room will include two students and various guests, both course staff and visitors.

Basic idea is that all students are in two groups: A and B. Students in Group A present first. We will post the group assignments.

At the start, we are all in the main room. I offer introductions. I open the breakout rooms. Students go to their assigned rooms. (Guests will also go to the room featuring the student they want to listen to.) Chat politely. I will then issue a breakout room message saying to start. The A student presents her work for about 4 minutes. The B student asks a lot of questions. So do the guests.

After three and a half minutes, I send a Message saying: 30 seconds left. At four minutes, I message “New Presenter!”

Please switch presenters when I ask you to!

The same sequence repeats, with students in Group B sharing their screens and doing the presentations while Group A students listen and ask lots of questions. A warming message comes after with 30 seconds left, followed by a message to “Switch Rooms.” The initial room assignments have lasted about 10 minutes.

Student A stays in the room. Student B moves one room up. From room 26 to room 27, for example. (If you are the B student in the highest room, you move to the lowest room number in your grouping which, in this case, might be something like room 22.) Then, Student A presents again. Followed by Student B. (Neither A nor B has seen the other present before.)

After 50 minutes of this (which usually means about 4 room changes), I bring back everyone to the main room. I say a few words. We are done!

Advice for Guests

You need two things: a Zoom link for Demo Day and the breakout room number in which your student is presenting.

But please be flexible! We sometimes need a student to switch breakout rooms and/or switch from Group A to B. In Zoom, you should be able to see all the rooms (and who is in them) if you are having trouble finding your student.

You can also leave early, once you have seen your student present a time or two. (Many parents and grandparents like to watch their student present more than once. This is encouraged.) You are also welcome to check out other student presentations. Just move to any other breakout room whenever you like.

Most importantly: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

Advice for Students

The only material you need for your presentation is a browser which can show both your project’s webpage and your Github repo. We don’t use Powerpoint or other nonsense.

Enlarge the image of your project so that the font is large enough for your (older) viewers to read the title, legend and so on. Test how it looks beforehand.

Planning is important. Make sure that your TF knows your plans. For example, if a family event prevents you from attending Demo Day, let your TF know as soon as possible. Otherwise, you make her planning much more difficult.

The delicate dance of Demo Day depends on everyone doing their part. You need to show up on time. Otherwise, things get very confusing. If a last-minute emergency arises, email your TF, the head TF and Preceptor as soon as you know that you won’t be there.

In addition to presenting, you will also be attending presentations by several classmates. Be an engaged listener! Act toward them as you hope they will act toward you.

Most importantly: ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

When Presenting

Have fun! Demo Day is a joyful occasion. Your (natural) nervousness is unwarranted. Everyone wants you to succeed. Share your screen the entire time. Always start on your project home page. Give your opening paragraph. Pause to see if anyone has any questions. If they don’t, spend another paragraph explaining the details of your main graphic. Pause again. Questions are fun, but you have to give people a chance to ask them.

When pausing, use the “Take a sip of water” technique. Stop talking. Imagine that you are reaching for a class of water, lifting it up, taking a sip, and putting it back down. Only after that can you assume that there are no questions.

Sadly, you will sometimes be stuck with an audience too shy to ask questions. That is OK! One of the things you are learning in this class is how to handle different sorts of audiences. To handle a shy audience, you need to have prepared ahead of time 5 minutes worth of things to talk about. This can, and should, include a tour of your Github repository,

When Listening

Always allow the student you are listening to to give their opening paragraph, perhaps even allowing them a second paragraph to explain their plot. But then interrupt them and ask a question. It doesn’t really matter what the question is. The important thing is to get a conversation going, to demonstrate to guests that questions are welcome and that they should ask some as well.

Check out the spreadsheet to see which student presentations you are likely to attend. Check out the webpages and Github repos ahead of time. Learn a little bit about the topics. The more you prepare, the better an audience you will be.

Note that, in larger classes, we (conceptually) break up Demo Day into smaller collections which combine the students from two TFs together. This means that your TF (and her students) and another TF (and his students) are together, only using breakout rooms 22 to 28, for example. This means that, after you listen to the presentation in room 28, you don’t go to 29, you go back to room 22, the first room assigned to your collection.