Far West Regional APS Meeting (Part III)

Dear Diary,

Yikes.  I felt like I did not do my best presentation during the group meeting.  I succeeded in getting nervous throughout the first third of the presentation.  Hopefully, that's the end of being nervous.

The group had really good suggestions.  I need to express in plain language the intent of my talk right at the beginning instead of implying it.  People had trouble knowing what to expect.  If given a scaffold at the beginning, diary, the audience will be able to build the presentation with you during the talk.

And I spent all week on preparing for the conference (as well as other minor duties)!  It's tough work preparing and I want to make sure everything is in order...well, without spending months on it.  I better get moving on everything once I get back, and I need to remember to take some conference notes, report on what I see, and talk to three professors.

Oh no, Lucas!  I told Lucas I couldn't get the derivatives fit this week like he wanted but that didn't happen!  He moved off to a post-doc taking his expertise with him.  Worst of all, now when I have a meeting with Kieron, I don't have my Lucas crutch! Yikes!

Far West APS Meeting (Part II)

Dear Diary,

I found some fellow second year students who sat through a practice run of my talk.  It only cost me some treats (three pitchers and two baskets of curly fries) when we get together this next Wednesday!

Unfortunately, I did not give my best performance (read: "straight garbalage").  I always find it's difficult giving a presentation the first time because you become responsible for what is coming out of your mouth. But that first time is so necessary; it makes you want to never so poorly again!  Also, the faces of my confused comrades is permanently etched in my memory. Once I started talking, their terrified expressions of confusion gave me the best advice that can be given:  just don't do any of that next time!  I should have played it off as a trick... Happy Halloween!

A lot of my introduction was rushed and I believe that undermined the rest of the content.  Further, my video loaded slowly forcing me over my time (never good!).  That technical difficulty is brutal and must be mastered.

I got some very legitimate, serious questions (ex: "What the hell?!") and a few kudos (ex: "I'm sure the drinks will be great!").  In all, I feel it will very positively affect my performance come this Tuesday (when I present for the group) and Friday (when I present to strangers who super don't know me!) if I iron out the kinks.  It's on my shoulders to make sure it gets better, so I'll double my practice and make sure it makes sense as I sound the words out loud!

I should get back to working on it, diary!  I'll tell you how it goes!

Far West APS Meeting

Dear Diary,

We're going to conference!  The American Physical Society (APS) has several sections and we happen to be in the Far West division including Nevada, California, and Hawaii!

Each year, the section holds a regional meeting which is quite student friendly.  Lots of talks are given (no posters!) and lots of informative plenary sessions are given.  This year, there's even a Halloween reception bash the day before!

Myself and Kevin, the undergraduate, are heading up to the conference to give presentations.  I've already written mine and am practicing each night after my office mates go home to avoid disturbing them. I've tried to keep it to one slide per minute (the talks are only 10 minutes long) and I keep reshuffling items based on what makes sense in how I think through the presentation.

I contracted some other first year graduate students (with accumulated pub time afterward!) to critique my talk before giving it to the group on Tuesday.  Hopefully, this all whips my presentation into polished shape before the conference next Friday!

The hardest part will be to plan out what to wear.  Will it be the purple dress shirt or the blue one?  I suppose I could with a red shirt and dinner jacket or keep it business cazh--or ultra cazh.

I should also get a haircut...now to plan my costume...

Curriculum Vitae

Coup Blog, Day 2:

Dear Diary,

Professor Burke wanted to check our CVs.  He had us all put them up the projector so we could see how to improve them.

The other group members had colors, great formatting, and well chosen items.  They all said mine was crazy vintage--like it was from 50 years ago!

A few tips that we gleaned from looking at everyone's CV:

1)  Avoid information from high school
2)  Put wordy statements of research into another document
3)  Include group duties.  Like you, diary!
4)  Only include publications that are fully published or submitted
5)  Include links as a pdf and colors and pretty fonts
6)  List the people you supervised if they are below you in level
7)  List dollar amounts on prizes (at least for American opportunities)
8)  Make it so people want to hire you
9)  Little knobs can be useful (ex: undergraduate research)...so mentioning an activity might pique the reader's interest

Professor Burke said he needs these in case he's ambushed and needs to turn in someone for the reward!  I'll have to keep mine up to date and make it nice looking so I can get the benefit!

Presentation Tips

Dear Diary,

Raphael gave a practice talk at today's meeting.  Professor Burke has decided to hood Lucas at the coming graduation, so Raphael will be substituting for Professor Burke at the conference.

Or will Raphael be at the Graduation and Professor Burke at the conference?!

Professor Burke called on me afterwards to give constructive criticism and pitted me against Raphael Hunger Games style.  The odds were certainly not in my favor, but I had fortunately been taking notes and had a few comments:

1.  Avoid acronyms
2.  Make sure items are large enough to be seen from the background
3.  Use a sans seriff font to avoid curly characters
4.  Don't shift around
5.  Have a sense of humor, but don't be funny (no xkcd cartoons)
6.  Practice the first few slides a lot of time to avoid hiccuping in the beginning
7.  Practice often
8.  Smile!

and that was about it.  Number 5 was controversial because while xkcd cartoons are amateurish, putting Spock and evil Spock onto a slide in a careful way is classy.

Raphael managed to avoid all of these and gave a great presentation.  Hopefully I can sharpen my skills up to his level quickly!

Introductory Research Presentation

Dear Diary,

I gave my research presentation today to the group and it started as a disastor.  I misread the email that was announcing the meeting and showed up 18 minutes late (which I thought would be 12 minutes early).

After that, everything went ok.  I filled up the 30 minutes with what I'd done for my Master's degree, took some questions, and half of the people from the beginning were still there at the end!

Professor Burke will get back to me in a few days with a decision.