ACC 2019 Special Rapid-Fire Student Presentation Session
July 11, 2019, 3:30-5:30 pm, Room 411/412

Sharpen your communication skills by sharing your research in 3 minutes so that anyone can understand.  In this Special Student Session, students will present back-to-back, 3-minute oral presentations, no Q&A.  Judges will select the best Rapid-Fire talk for an award based on the overall quality of the presentation and the presenter’s communication skills.

Each talk must be within the 3-minute allotted time slot.  This event is also designed to highlight the new Rapid-Fire Interactive sessions that will debut at ACC 2020 in Denver, CO (http://acc2020.a2c2.org).

Eligibility
All students with accepted papers who already are planning to present their work at ACC 2019 are invited to participate in this separate Special Rapid-Fire Student Presentation Session at ACC 2019 to give a condensed 3-minute rapid-fire-style version of their technical talk in front of judges.  

How to Participate
Send email to Kam Leang ([log in to unmask]) indicating your intention to participate and provide the following information:
Title of your ACC 2019 paper
ACC 2019 paper number
Authors of the paper
Name of presenting author (must be a student)
Note – after sending an email, please ensure that Prof. Leang has responded to confirm your participation.  Otherwise, please contact him to get confirmation.
Deadline for indicating your intent to participate: You must submit your intent to participate by July 1, 2019, 11:59 pm.

When and Where
The Special Rapid-Fire Student Presentation Session will take place in Room 411/412 on Thursday, July 11, 2019, between 3:30-5:30 pm.

How Should I Prepare and What Should I Bring to ACC 2019?
On July 11, come to room 411/412 ready with your 3-minute talk prepared (in the form of a Power Point presentation), about 10 minutes before 3:30 pm to check with Kam Leang and organizers.  You can bring a laptop with either HDMI or VGA plug.  Your talk should be a condensed version of a typical 20-minute technical talk.  See example above for talks.

During the session, one speaker will be speaking, while the next speaker is setting up his/her laptop. The current speaker’s laptop is projected to the main screen. A monitor at each podium shows the speaker what is (or will be) projected to the center screen. After three minutes, the spotlight shifts to the next speaker, whose microphone becomes live and whose laptop now controls the center screen. There will also be a 3-minute countdown timer.  No questions are allowed as the talks will occur back-to-back.

For the speaking portion of the session, you will come to the front of the room at the beginning of the session. While the speaker before you is speaking, you will have three minutes to set up your laptop (VGA/HDMI connection will be provided). There will be a volunteer at the podium to help you if you need it. There will be a local monitor on the podium that shows what will project from your laptop to the screen, so you can be sure that the audience will see what you see on the monitor. There will be no audio hookup for your computer.

When the previous speaker’s three minutes are over, their microphone will go dead, yours will become live, your monitor will be projected to the main screen, and the spotlight will shift to you. Your three minutes starts right then and you can begin your talk.   Note, you will have only three minutes, and there will be no changeover time and no questions, so you should be able to get your message across.

Rules and Suggestions
You must finish in three (3) minutes! Plan on 2:50 to be safe. After three minutes, your microphone will go dead and your laptop will no longer be projected.

PRACTICE! Most likely, you will need to practice a number of times to get your message across effectively in only three minutes. You will not be introduced. Give your name and the title of your paper. Your presentation is an advertisement for your paper, so focus on insights rather than details. Avoid spending much time on related work. Consider giving an application/motivation of your work, the main result, and one piece of technical “meat” (e.g., a theorem, a design principle, an equation, etc.) that will help the audience understand the methodology and the depth of the work, understanding that there will not be time for all the details.

Examples of RFI talks can be found here:
[%22]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsl-5MZfwu4  
[%22]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsPFnZtywas 

Best Rapid-Fire Presentation Award
Following the presentations, the organizers will judge all presentations and make announcements on the best Rapid-Fire Presentation and provide a prize.

—-

Kam K. Leang, Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of Utah
Core Member, University of Utah Robotics Center (UURC): http://robotics.coe.utah.edu
Director, Design, Automation, Robotics & Control (DARC) Lab: http://www.kam.k.leang.com/academics