communication: why
DESCRIPTION
Communication: Why. Undergraduate - measure of success? Graduate student – measure of success? After school – measure of success? Your future success will largely depend on your ability to communicate. Communication: How. Seminars Who is the target audience? How long do you pay attention? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Communication: Why
Undergraduate - measure of success?Graduate student – measure of success?After school – measure of success?
Your future success will largely depend on your ability to communicate
Communication: HowSeminars• Who is the target audience?• How long do you pay attention?• Why do you stop paying attention?• How many things (conclusions) do you remember from a
seminar?• Do you ask questions?
You are surrounded by opportunities to study communication and develop your own style.
Elevator Pitch
The big game!Contents of the pitch• What you are doing – high level• Why someone should careOnion analogyExcite don’t exhaustTable of contents image
Pitfalls from the Bench to the Podium
Every experimentvs results that support conclusions
Chronological ordervs sequencing results to support conclusions
Proportionality of effortvs significance
The One Rule for Communication
Do whatever is necessary/appropriate to convey your information
The 2nd Rule for Presentations
Do not exceed the allotted time
The Most Important Thing you Must Decide
What do you want the audience to remember?What are the Conclusions and why should anyone care?• 2-3 Conclusions• Significance and novelty• Everything in the presentation should center
around Conclusions• Excess/irrelevant information is bad
• Distract/confuse/exhaust
Steps to Preparing a PresentationOrganize – information for Conclusions• What data is necessary/unnecessary• How sequence your argumentsPrepare Outstanding Slides• Many schematics (concepts and experimental)• Minimize words• Animation to “synchronize” input to the audience• Re-plot figures with focused information & large font sizesPractice• Beginning, transitions and hard parts?• Check timing
Engage Two Senses to Convey Information
Sound – what you say
Sight - what you show
Complement and not Compete• Animation
Slides as a “crutch”• For speaker and listener• For non-native speakers
Your “Story”Introduction• Why are you doing the work?
Experimental• What did you do?
Results• What did you observe?
Conclusions• What does it mean (why is it important)?
Each Slide (or Sequence of Slides) is a Self-contained Mini-story Leading to a Specific Conclusion
Title• Meaningful – goal (introduction) or conclusion?
Experimental• Schematic
Results• Simple plot, table or image
Conclusion• Simple bullet point
Chitosan Electrodeposition Mechanism
Chitosan “recognizes” localized electrical stimuli and responds by depositing as a stable film
pH Gradient
Soluble ChitosanChains (low pH)
Cath
ode
Aqueous Solution
Insoluble ChitosanFilm (high pH)
2H+
H2
Langmuir 18 8620 (2002); 19 4058 (2003)
Gold-coatedwafer
After electro-deposition
Chitosan film peeled
from wafer
Electrodeposition of Protein-Chitosan Conjugate
pH Gradient
2H+
H2
C a t h o d e
pH= pKa
Cathode
Deposition
Langmuir, 19: 9382 (2003)
50 m line500 m space
50 m line100 m space
20 m line300 m space
Spatially-controlled protein assembly
Avidin Assembly at Individual Address
Deposition
Sequential anodic oxidation - control charge transfer (10 s,
0.9V) 0 80 160 240 320 4000
20
40
60
80
Fluo
resc
ence
Charge (C/m2)
Avidin and biotin binding
Avidin
Labeled Biotin
Immerse chip in avidin (1 hr) and then fluorescently-labelled biotin Spatial and quantitative control
of protein assembly (avidin)
Shi et al. Advanced Materials 21 984 (2009)
Electro-addressing Different E. coli Populations
(a) Schematic of Experiment (b) Results
Deposited films
Red Filter
Green Filter
CompositeInduction with IPTG
Deposition of RFP-expressing cells
Deposition of GFP-expressing cells
Deposition of alginate control
Shi et al. Advanced Functional Materials 19 2074 (2009)
OO
OHOH
Q QH2
Enzymatic ChargingAccept electrons from biological
“mediators”Dehydro-
Ascorbate (ox)or
NADP+(ox)
Ascorbate (red)or
NADPH (red)
0
10
20
30
NADPH
Ascorb
ate
Positiv
e
Contro
l
NFi
lm, a
ccep
t
(nm
ole
e- /cm
2 )
Buffer
Enzymatic Charging
GDH
OO
OHOH
NADP+
Q QH2
NADPH
Gluconate Glucose
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
NFi
lm,C
harg
ed
(nm
ole
e- /cm
2 )
Glucose (mM)Adv. Funct. Mat. 22 1409 (2012)
Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH)
Mechanics
Title• An abstract/pitch for the work• Provides a brief overview
• What you’ve accomplished• Why important
MechanicsIntroduction • What is the purpose of the work?
• What’s the problem/opportunity• What’s your approach to solving the problem
• Should directly link to conclusions, significance and novelty
• Keep it short – this is generally the most difficult part of the presentation• Background of other work?
• Inverted pyramid – from broad to specific - (Plaxco, 2010)
Mechanics
Materials and Methods• My approach: to provide information on a
“need-to-know-basis” (don’t ask the audience to remember)
• Give the audience the methods information they need only when they need it
• Embed the methods information in the same slide with the results and conclusions
MechanicsResults • Simplify presentation and focus on the most
important things (only show data directly relevant to conclusions)
• Describe the results (don’t assume the audience can look at the graph and understand what it means)
• Draw a conclusion from each result (data should only be presented that is integral to a conclusion)
Mechanics
Conclusions slide• Be broad in conclusions • Be consistent with the Introduction• Be simple• These are the words you would like the
audience to remember• Indicate why the audience should care
(significance, novelty or applications)
Final Comment
Effective Communication• Is hard work• Is integral to your success• Requires constant learning
• Life is your laboratory