1. *701 *702 Graduate Seminar Useful Tips Host: JJ Hoyt

2. Preliminaries The talks are 15 minutes in length, with 5 minutes of questions/set-up. Everyone in the group should speak. Be on time. Bring your own computer of a copy of your talk. If you bring a copy show up early to test it on my MacBook Pro. Attendance is mandatory.

3. Elements of effective presentation I.A literature review II.A formulation of the research problem III.A clear explanation of the results obtained IV.A competence in answering questions V.Technicalities (graphics, readable fonts, etc.) Motivation!

4. Motivation Why is the problem you are studying an important one? What has been done in the past? What was learned? (Literature review!) What questions remain? What will you do to answer outstanding questions? Why is your experimental/ theoretical/modeling approach appropriate to answer these questions? Will you read a book with no plot, no climax? Or a presumably interesting book written in Aramaic? Set the premise of your “story”: From Prof. Malakhov

5. Also From Prof. Malakhov Hydrogen is our future Hydrogen is a clean fuel Hydrogen can be used as a fuel for automobiles We have to develop new materials for hydrogen storage Everyone loves Raymond and everyone loves hydrogen Blah-blah-blah…

6. What is wrong with this motivation? “Hydrogen is a clean fuel... Today I will discuss the role of Ti in the absorption kinetics of Hydrogen in alanates.” Be specific. Tell your story in more detail. How do we go from H as the possible answer to global warming to Ti?

7. Clear Explanation of Results How were these results obtained and what do they mean? How do these results move us closer to answering the question posed in the motivation? Note: clear explanation of data Note: readable axes labels

8. Equations and Theoretical Concepts Why are you using this equation/theory? Again, refer back to motivation. What do each of the terms mean? Are they known? Would a schematic diagram help? Velocity

9. Technicalities A nice micrograph, but what are α, β and γ ?... And what does the micrograph say ? Always a good idea!

10. A Bad Slide Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

11. Nerves !!