Documentation:TalkTypes

Internal Seminars

The internal talks are a great opportunity to:

• Present a practice talk for a conference, workshop, RPE, defense, etc.
• Solicit feedback on research you are conducting.
• Hold a brainstorming session on research you are starting.
• Bring together a larger group working in related areas to share experience, tips, advice.

Genres of talk

Here are some detailed examples of types of talk that you can give. They're suggested formats, not prescriptions. You can mix-and-match if you'd like.

• How-to. A talk that gives a tutorial on a system, technique, or tool.
  • Pre-talk. Provide a description of your talk and a link to the resource ahead of time on the Discord and mailing list.
  • Tutorial. Prepare to walk people through the thing you discovered.
  • Example. "This is a cool tool that I found two months ago"
• Pre-project motivation. A talk you give when you're first doing conceptualization and lit review for an upcoming project. Use for feedback on concepts, project direction, novelty.
  • Pre-talk. Provide a short abstract, area of research, and/or links on the Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Motivation. Tell people why you're interested and why this is a problem.
  • Storytelling. Use a technique such as Margo's Fairy Tale to outline the overall story of the research.
  • Positioning. Provide a summary and critique of related work within the literature and how your approach aligns/differs.
  • Example. "I want to find a place in this research area where I can extend previous work."
• Pre-project methodology. A talk where you outline your work plan for a project. Use for technical and methodological feedback.
  • Pre-talk. Provide a project outline to read that includes a 1-sentence summary and bullet-point outline of methodology on the Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Motivation. Tell people the short version of the context and story.
  • Specifications. Outline the technical specifications for your planned or completed system.
  • Evaluation. Outline the methods, metrics, and populations of interest. Include data sketches if you can.
  • Product. Outline the research product, publication venue, etc.
  • Example. "I want to know whether this project plan has bugs."
• Post-mortem. A talk where you summarize a project, conference, or internship. Use to critique, brainstorm or simply inform people of your
  • Pre-talk. Provide a description and link to your work, conference, or internship on the Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Summary. Tell people what you did and experienced.
  • Future work. Outline avenues for future work.
  • Feedback.
  • Example. "Here's what I did in my internship and now I want to see if it fits into my PhD."
  • Example. "I just went to a conference and really want to have a discussion about this exciting topic."
• Story-telling. A talk where you workshop the storytelling aspect of your project. Use this at any point during a project to ask for feedback on storyline, diagrams, positioning, structure.
  • Pre-talk. Provide an abstract for your current storytelling efforts on the Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Story. Present your story in whatever format you're currently looking for.
  • Feedback. Ask for specific feedback on the structure, readability, etc. of your materials.
  • Example. "I've completed a project and I want to know whether people buy my positioning if it."
• Presentation prep. A talk where you give the talk. You give a completed version of a talk and ask for detailed presentation feedback.
  • Pre-talk. Provide an abstract and any published materials on the Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context for this Systopia audience about your intended audience. Outline the kind of feedback in terms of what the other people will know/notice/expect.
  • Talk. Give the talk. Make sure to include slide numbers and assign someone to time. Request the audience to take slide-by-slide notes.
  • Feedback. Ask for high-level and slide-by-slide feedback in whatever order makes sense.
• Workshopping. A talk where you present a difficulty or failure that you would like to recover from. Use this to workshop rejections, rebuttals, and unexpected problems.
  • Pre-talk. Provide what you can from the published materials and feedback.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Summary. Summarize the project and why it has hit an unfortunate bump.
  • Feedback. Ask for feedback on the feedback you received and strategize how to overcome it.
• Piloting. Have people use your thing (system, tool, documentation, etc.). Use to get live feedback on your design.
  • Pre-talk. Send a description of what you'd like people to prepare for and/or link to usage or installation instructions on Discord and mailing list.
  • 1st slide. Set the context by telling people what the talk is for and provide specifications for feedback.
  • Pilot. Have people use your thing live.
  • Feedback. Have a method for collecting feedback.