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Demos

You will present to the class twice this semester. The first is a topic presentation: ten minutes on a piece of the course that you choose, given during the week we cover it. The second is your project presentation at the end of the semester, where you show the class what you built.

The point of these presentations is to give you practice explaining technical work out loud, to make the class more interesting, and to help us get to know each other. Teaching something is also one of the best ways to find out whether you actually understand it.

Topic presentation

Topic presentations run in Weeks 3–6 and 8–13, with up to two presentations per week. Each talk is about ten minutes of prepared material, including questions from the class.

Sign up for one slot on your section's sign-up sheet on Canvas. Type your topic and your name into an empty row for the week you want, and save the page. Slots are first come, first served. Please do not add, delete, move, or reorder rows, and read the whole table before you type: a topic someone has already claimed is taken.

The Topics page lists suggestions for every week, both following the syllabus and outside of it. You may take one word for word, narrow it down, or propose something of your own.

A topic outside of the syllabus has to be approved first, because an idea can be too early or too late. Too early leans on material we have not covered yet; too late is a talk the class needed weeks ago. Ask your instructor before you claim the slot.

Project presentation

In Week 15, everyone presents their final project to the class. Show what your program does, the design choices you made, and what you learned building it. You should be able to explain and defend every part of the program you present.

How you are graded

Both presentations use the same Rubric: six criteria, each judged as met or not met. Read the rubric before you start preparing.

Preparing

Ideally, come to office hours before your presentation. Bring your outline, your example, or a draft of your slides, and talk it through with your instructor. This is the single most useful thing you can do, and it is often the difference between excellent and average.

Two things are worth practicing on your own beforehand:

  • Time it. Ten minutes is shorter than it sounds. Run through your talk out loud, with a timer, at least once.
  • Run your code. If you plan to demonstrate a program live, test it out on a Linux lab machine before class.