1. Project Workshops Project Oral

2. 2 Supervisor plus one other member of academic staff Between final paper submission and exams (usually weeks 21-22) Maximum 30 minutes to present your work and answer questions Examiners will NOT have read the final paper You can regard the oral as our introduction to your work A demonstration is required - and your responsibility to arrange suitable hardware and/or software Computer Science will allocate a time/place Your responsibility to confirm time/place with examiners

3. 3 Project Oral Consider it an opportunity to discuss your work with people who will be taking some interest in it Give an overview of the work Do not assume that examiners know everything – start with basics Staff will ask questions if they want clarification, or to see if you have thought about related ideas You should expect to do most of the talking

4. 4 Preparation for the Oral Think about how to give a good overview Choose an appropriate and interesting demonstration Make sure the demonstration works as claimed (but do not cheat) Have a plan for what to cover, so you do not get diverted and forget to mention important points Maybe try a dry run with a friend, before the event

5. 5 Props in the Oral Use relevant media to help explain your work Diagrams from the final paper, or brief on-screen demos work much better than long verbal descriptions A short slide show is ok - on screen or paper, but talking to a carefully selected set of diagrams is usually better Have a paper copy of your final paper Bring your Log book

6. 6 Questions in the Oral Expect a range of questions from fact-based technical ones to wider implications of the work Staff will not be trying to trick you - but will aim to test your depth of understanding and thinking Think about questions before answering - rushed answers might be irrelevant or worse It is perfectly ok to say you do not understand a question, and to ask the examiner(s) to rephrase the question Try paraphrasing their question, to check understanding

7. 7 Examples of Questions Why did you choose technique X? Why didn't you choose technique Z? What was the most useful thing you read? How did you evaluate feature Y? What was the hardest/most interesting part of the work? What would you do differently in a second attempt?

8. 8 The Demonstration You MUST demonstrate your software Part of the marks allocated to the project are for the quality of your implementation This is your chance to show that your software works Think of some good examples to illustrate the functionality of your software Let the examiners interact with your software It is your responsibility to make sure that the software works at the place of the examination

9. 9 Summary Project oral tips Be prepared, have a demo ready Rehearse answers to typical questions