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? 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 care Onion analogy Excite don’t exhaust Table of contents image

Pitfalls from the Bench to the Podium Every experiment vs results that support conclusions Chronological order vs sequencing results to support conclusions Proportionality of effort vs significance

The One Rule for Communication Do whatever is necessary/appropriate to convey your information

The 2 nd 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 Presentation Organize – information for Conclusions What data is necessary/unnecessary How sequence your arguments Prepare Outstanding Slides Many schematics (concepts and experimental) Minimize words Animation to “synchronize” input to the audience Re-plot figures with focused information & large font sizes Practice 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 Chitosan Chains (low pH) Cathode Aqueous Solution Insoluble Chitosan Film (high pH) 2H + H2H2 Langmuir (2002); (2003) Gold-coated wafer After electro- deposition Chitosan film peeled from wafer

Electrodeposition of Protein- Chitosan Conjugate pH Gradient 2H + H2 H2 C a t h o d e              pH= pKa Cathode Deposition Langmuir, 19: 9382 (2003) 50  m line 500  m space 50  m line 100  m space 20  m line 300  m space Spatially-controlled protein assembly

Avidin Assembly at Individual Address Deposition Sequential anodic oxidation - control charge transfer (10 s, 0.9V) 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 (2009)

Electro-addressing Different E. coli Populations (a) Schematic of Experiment(b) Results Deposited films Red Filter Green Filter Composite Deposition of RFP- expressing cells Deposition of GFP- expressing cells Deposition of alginate control Shi et al. Advanced Functional Materials (2009)

Q QH 2 Enzymatic Charging Accept electrons from biological “mediators” Dehydro- Ascorbate (ox) or NADP + (ox) Ascorbate (red) or NADPH (red) NADPH Ascorbate Positive Control N Film, accept (nmole e - /cm 2 ) Buffer Enzymatic Charging GDH NADP + Q QH 2 NADPH GluconateGlucose N Film,Charged (nmole e - /cm 2 ) Glucose (mM) Adv. Funct. Mat (2012) Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH)

Mechanics Title An abstract/pitch for the work Provides a brief overview What you’ve accomplished Why important

Mechanics Introduction 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

Mechanics Results 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