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Provided by ASME Logo The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
DSCC 2019
Grand Summit Hotel, Park City, Utah

Conference: October 8 – 11, 2019

Information for Presenters

Presentation Formats for DSCC 2019

I. OVERVIEW

To present your work at DSCC 2019, please prepare your presentation in accordance to your submission type:

  1. For accepted technical papers, you will present your work in one of two ways:
    1. Rapid-Fire Interactive (RFI) Presentations (morning sessions from 9:30 am – 11:30 am, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
    2. Standard presentation format where you have a 20-minute slot in a session to present your work (early and late afternoon sessions between 1:30

  2. For accepted ABSTRACTS only, you will present a poster at the conference on Wednesday October 9, between 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm, before the General DSC Division meeting.

The details below describe more specifically how to prepare for your presentation.

II. HOW DO I TELL WHAT TYPE OF PRESENTATION I WILL HAVE AT DSCC 2019?

The easiest way to determine your presentation type is to open the online program here.

Once there, search for your name, which will bring up all papers you are affiliated with:

  1. RFI presentations are shown as Track 3 (3-X) and have "RFI:" before the name of the session in the on-line program or listed under "RFI SESSION:" in the final printed program.

  2. Standard conference presentations are organized in Track 1 (contributed) and Track 2 (invited) – meaning that the paper is in a session 1-X or 2-X in the on-line program or listed under "CONTRIBUTED SESSION:" or "INVITED SESSION:" in the final printed program.

  3. Posters are organized in Track 5 and are under "5-1 Poster Session." in the on-line program listed under "POSTER SESSION" in the final printed program.

III. HOW ARE THE SESSIONS ORGANIZED?

Figure 1 below shows the conference schedule at a glance. As you can see, the RFI sessions are in the morning directly after the plenary (9:30 am – 11:30 am). It is expected that these sessions will be well attended since there are only two sessions. Standard conference format sessions are in the afternoon.

Figure 1. Technical sessions at a glance, showing RFI sessions, Contributed and Invited Sessions, and Poster Session.

IV. PREPARING FOR AN RFI SESSION

New to DSCC 2019, some technical sessions will be organized as Rapid-Fire Interactive (RFI) sessions. The below is meant as an introduction to RFI sessions and to help authors prepare for the conference.

What is an RFI session? In each RFI session, there will be 12, 5-minute presentations given back-to-back without audience questions. After the talks, authors will go to their assigned locations where a digital LCD will be available to present a digital poster during the interactive session where questions can be asked. This format enables authors to reach a greater audience (approx. 100 people) with their research while at the same time encouraging more in-depth individual interactions during the poster session.

More specifically, RFI sessions will have the following format:

  1. Presentation Session: Total of 12, 5-minute presentations are given back-to-back with no questions. Examples of presentations and instructions for authors are given below.

  2. Interactive Digital Poster Session: A 45-minute interactive session is held to enable author-audience interactions. Note that you are not required to print out any materials. LCD monitors will be available to display your poster (or other information). You may show a few additional slides with more details about your work. These slides can be created using Power Point, for example, and may include results in the form of videos, graphs, etc. After the presentation, authors will go find their paper number and LCD to connect their laptop to show additional slides for the interactive session. Attendees will walk around and interact with presenters to ask questions about their work.

What does this mean for RFI presenters?

Presentation: Your RFI presentation is only 5 minutes – this is strictly enforced. So, it is important to make sure you are conveying the most important aspects of your work to the audience. This means you may not have time to give a detailed literature review or all the details of every equation in your paper. It is suggested that you motivate your work and then focus on 1 or 2 main points (maybe a theorem and an experimental result). Your goal is to tell the audience why what you are doing is novel and cool to entice them to come talk with you during the interactive digital poster session after your "technical pitch talk".

Tips:

  • Practice your talk! You only have 5 minutes at which point you will be stopped. Shoot for 4 minutes 50 seconds to be sure. Time your talk and be prepared.
  • Make sure you introduce yourself at the beginning of your talk since there will be no formal introductions.
  • One way to treat this talk is like a marketing pitch. Try to get the audience excited about your work so they will come visit your digital poster afterwards.

Interactive Digital Poster Session: Directly following in the presentations, a 45-minute interactive poster session will take place. In general, preparation for this session is similar to a traditional poster session. You will not be required to print your poster as the conference will provide a 40” display or larger onto which you can project your laptop (VGA and HDMI connection provided). Thus, you will go find in the room the LCD with your paper number to connect your laptop to show additional slides for the interactive session. Attendees will walk around and interact with you to ask questions about your work.

Tips:

  • Because of the digital display, you can incorporate videos and other moving examples to make your poster more exciting.
  • Don’t spend all your time talking with one person. If someone is really interested, set up a meeting for later in the day.
  • Perhaps bring two authors from the paper to the conference so one you will have time to look at other posters.

Presentation Logistics: Because of the rapid-fire nature of the talks, there are some important presentation logistics to prepare for.

 

Fig. 1: Left: Example setup for a rapid-fire talk. Right: Interactive digital poster session. You will be assigned an LCD monitor to plug in your laptop for displaying additional details of your work.

  • AV Setup: The room will be set up with two identical podiums with a local monitor, computer hookups, a microphone, and a countdown timer. The single AV system (projector, speakers, and screen) will switch between the podiums every 5 minutes.

  • Author Setup: During the presentation directly preceding your talk, you are expected to be setting up your computer on the podium not occupied by the current speaker. Even though the current speaker’s presentation will be projected on the main screen, the local monitor will display your presentation to make sure it is operating properly.

  • Going Live: When the previous presenter’s 5 minutes is over, your presentation will be projected on the main screen, your mic will go live, and you should begin.

  • Ending Your Talk: When your 5 minutes have expired, the next presenter will assume control of the AV system. You should quickly remove your computer for the next presenter.

Examples of RFI talks are shown below:

V. PREPARING FOR A STANDARD CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

The standard conference format should not be new to experienced DSCC authors. In these sessions, the authors are given 20 minutes to present their work – 15 minutes for a technical presentation and 5 minutes for questions. Each session has 6 presentations, so each session spans 2 hours.

A few notes:

  • Please show up to the session early and let the session Chair and Co-chair know you are there. They will introduce you and it is helps them to know which author will present that paper.
  • It is recommended that you test your computer connection before your presentation. HDMI cables will be available. You are responsible for bring any needed adapters.

VI. PREPARING FOR A POSTER SESSION (ABSTRACT ONLY SUBMISSIONS)

The DSCC poster session will take place from 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm on Wednesday October 9th, directly before the DSCD general meeting.

IMPORTANT: You do not need to print a poster! LCD screens (approximately 40" monitors) will be available for you to display your work. Note that we will only have an HDMI connection, so please bring the necessary adapters.

Because you will be using an LCD screen to present your work, you are free to use video and other media to present your work. You can use Power Point software to create your slides.