Presentations

Table of Contents

Preliminary Design Review [Mar 5, 2018]

Your team will be scheduled for a 50 minute preliminary design review during the ninth week of the winter quarter. The first 5 minutes will be for setup followed by your 25 minute presentation. This will be followed by 20 minutes for the review questions and discussion. The primary purpose of this review is for your team to justify your concept selection and design decisions through technical details and analysis. We are not as concerned with the path to the final design (i.e., initial concepts, etc.) but what the final concept is and why you feel confident it will work. The intent of design reviews is to insure that the proper methods are being used in analyses and that the design is valid and valuable, i.e. it meets specifications, it can be manufactured, etc. Both your teaching assistant and the primary instructor will be present along with other potential reviewers. The presentation should be geared toward and "engineering management" audience. Every team member should have a significant speaking role.

Suggestions of what to include:

This is essentially the presentation form of the second report, which is due the last week of class.

You will need to submit your presentation materials as a PDF to Canvas by Friday of the week of the presentationn.

Preliminary Design Lightning Talk [Mar 15, 2018]

During the last studio section your team will present their work and preliminary design to the entire class, the instructors, and any project sponsors that can attend. Groups will present their design concepts and will justify their final selected concept.

The presentations will be 5 minutes comprised of an overview of the project and selected design concept. This will be followed by 3 minutes for questions and changing groups. Only one team member will deliver the presentation, but all team members must prepare to speak. The team member will be selected randomly from the group at the time of presentation. This presentation will be good practice for a high level presentation in industry (for example, to high level executives). All students are required to attend this session.

You will need to submit your presentation materials as a PDF to Canvas by Friday of that week.

Engineering Design Showcase Poster Presentation [May 25, 2018]

Your team will be required to present your work at the Engineering Design Showcase at the ARC Pavilion on Thursday Jun 7, 2018 from 1:30-4:30 pm. You need to register for the showcase by Friday Apr 27, 2018. Each team will develop a poster that showcases and explains your project which must be submitted to both Canvas and to the Dean's office for printing by Friday May 25, 2018. If you don't turn it in on time you will jeopardize having the $75+ cost of printing covered for you. You are also welcome and encouraged to bring any prototype that you have constructed or videos and other media that will explain your project. Any special accommodations for your prototype (size, power, etc) or presentation must be coordinated with the Dean's office at registration. At least one member of the team must be present at the poster at all times from 1:30-4:30 pm and all team members must attend the event. Your team's poster will be visited by one or more industry judges who will score your poster. You should wear business attire. Your TA will visit your poster for approximately 10 minutes, interact with you, and will grade your poster presentation for the class.

Content Suggestions

Keep in mind that the posters should be designed for a more general audience. Most of the visitors to the showcase will either be students, faculty, staff, or representatives from industry. So the poster should be understandable by people that aren't necessarily mechanical engineers. Your poster should address:

  • A description of your project.
  • The main needs and how you've addressed them.
  • Why your project is a great solution.
  • Any innovative things you've come up with.

You can get ideas for posters by checking out the previous posters in the files section of Canvas or those that are hanging in Bainer Hall.

There are many websites offering tips on making posters. Here is a good one for scientific posters, but most of the advice is also applicable to your poster design:

http://hsp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ScientificPosters.pdf

Your poster should sell your ideas and yourselves. This is a great opportunity to show your engineering prowess to the world!

Software

Posters can be created with a variety of software packages, for example:

  • Slide decks software (MS Powerpoint, LibreOffice Impress, Google Presentations, etc.)
  • Publishing software (MS Publisher, Scribus, Adobe InDesign)
  • Word processors (MS Word, LaTeX, etc.)
  • Graphics (Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Photoshop, Gimp, etc.)

UCD Logos

If you'd like to use UCD logos in your poster you can find information about them at http://marketingtoolbox.ucdavis.edu/identity/logos/index.html.

Template

Below are links to two possible poster templates for you to use as a basis for your poster. Feel free to modify the colors, fonts, layout, etc. There is no obligation to use either of the templates.

Instructions:

  • Google Slides: open the link, then go to File -> Add to My Drive. This will copy the template to your personal Google Drive account so you can collaboratively edit it with your team members via Google Slides.
  • PowerPoint: open the link, then go to File -> Download as -> Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). Save the file where you want and you should then be able to open it with PowerPoint.
  • LibreOffice: either use the above instructions for PowerPoint, or use File -> Download as -> ODP Document (.odp). A reasonably up-to-date version of LibreOffice should be able to open both file types.

If you have issues opening the file or if the template doesn't look right when you open it, let your TA know.

Examples

Here are a few example posters for inspiration. These examples are research-oriented, but they may provide some ideas for structuring, laying out, and designing your poster:

Printing Instructions

This describes details about formatting and submitting a poster. All team members should read this message carefully and completely to ensure a timely and quality product.

  1. The Engineering Dean's Office will cover the cost of printing one landscape 48" W x 36" H full-color poster per team. No other dimensions or sizes will be allowed. Only 1 poster per team will be printed (no reprints).
  2. The poster PDF file must be submitted via the official Google form no later than and submitted to Canvas assignments at the same time. The College will not accept nor print any file received after this deadline.
  3. Files must be submitted as a PDF (highest quality preferred).
  4. When designing your poster, please carefully check the page setup settings. You must ensure your poster is correctly sized at 48" W x 36" H.
  5. The CoE cannot be responsible for verifying the accuracy of technical content, so you are strongly advised to have your instructor review your poster prior to submission.
  6. Once printed, the posters will be stored in 1050 Kemper Hall. The College will arrange for setup and display of all posters in the Pavilion on the day of the showcase. Posters will be mounted to foam/poster board for stability and easier viewing.
  7. If you do not want to keep your poster you should return it to the instructors after the showcase and it will be displayed in Bainer Hall the following year.

Critical Design Review [Jun 11, 2018]

Critical Design Reviews will be held during the first three days of exam week. Your team will be scheduled for a 50 minute critical design review during finals week of spring quarter. The first 5 minutes will be for setup followed by your 25 minute presentation. This will be followed by 20 minutes for the review questions and discussion.

The primary purpose of this review is for your team to justify that your design solves your sponsors needs through technical details, analysis, and testing. We are not necessarily concerned with the path to the final design (i.e., initial concepts, etc.) but what the final design is and why you feel confident it solves the sponsor's needs. Additionally, the intent of critical design review is to insure that the proper methods are being used in analyses and that the design is valid and valuable, i.e. it meets specifications, it can be manufactured, etc. The content should mirror the main content of the final design report.

Your teaching assistant, the primary instructor and potentially your sponsor and other potential guests will be present. The presentation should be geared toward and "engineering management" audience.

You will need to submit your presentation materials as a PDF to Canvas by 11:59PM Wednesday of exam week.