EECS 545 Project Poster Guidelines

The poster session for the final project will take place on Tuesday, Dec 20, 3:30 to 6:30 PM, in Tishman Hall (CSE atrium). Easels, posterboards, and tacks will be provided. The posterboards measure 40 by 60 inches. If you want, you can use a poster printer, but I won't require that. The space will be available for set-up at 3:00 PM.

The poster session will work like any poster session. Everyone will be presenting their posters at the same time. Every group should have at least one representative at their poster while the others are looking at other posters. Therefore every group member needs to be able to explain the entire poster. It's fine if you can't explain all parts in equal detail -- you can simply say "Joe worked on this part of the project and he can give you more details if you're interested." But you should still know in general what your teammates did.

The purpose of the poster session is for you to learn what your classmates have been working on, and for you to gain some experience in presenting a poster, which might benefit you down the road. I hope the poster session is active and lively, and a learning experience for everyone. But it will require your intentional participation to achieve this result, so I ask that you make your best effort to support the class and visit as many posters as you can, and to engage the presenter by asking clarifying or probing questions.

To encourage participation, we will have a contest for the best poster. Each person will rank the top three posters (other than your own). The winning team will receive great honor and praise, and perhaps a spectacular prize if I come up with something.

Unlike the report, the poster should be prepared for consumption by the entire class. I will already know the details of your project, having read your reports. I may ask a few follow up questions, but primarily I will be looking at how you explain your work to your classmates. I do not want any special treatment when I come around to your poster. I mean it! Tak will also be helping with poster evaluation.

Our evaluation will be based largley on the clarity of your poster and presentation to your classmates. It is less important to go into great technical depth, although you should include some detail to show the substance of your work. It is more important that the audience understands the big picture: the problem you are working on, its importance, how you used machine learning principles, and your findings.

Prepare a presentation that lasts about 5 minutes uninterrupted, with the understanding that people will be asking questions throughout. Practice this presentation with your team members, and have them interrupt you to simulate the feel of a poster session.

Keep the following in mind:

• Attending a poster session can be a mentally draining experience for the audience. Therefore, don't overload your poster/presentation with information. Remeber that a picture is worth a thousand words. Be attentive to your audience. Anticipate their questions and be alert to when they are confused. Keep coming back to remind them of the big picture.
• Knowing the right amount of detail to include can be challenging. On one hand, you want to convey the depth of what you have done. On the other, you don't want to lose your audience. One technique is to occaisionally pause and ask if there are any questions. Another is to include technical details on the poster (perhaps at the end) but only present them if someone asks.