Final Presentation

Everyone presents at the end of the summer. Most people present posters, but there are limited spots available for oral presentations that you can apply for by submitting a one-page abstract.

Everyone will give an oral presentation or a poster presentation. Students will be given a handful of their peers to review, as part of their requirements for SyBBURE. Peer reviews will occur during presentations.

Poster Presenters:

Upload your poster as a pdf by Midnight Sunday July 26 (Also upload to your individual folder in Box). Team SyBBURE will print all posters for students and bring them to your session for you.
File Name: SU26_FinalPres_yourfirstandlastname.ppt

Note, if your poster is not uploaded by midnight on Sunday July 26, Team SyBBURE will NOT be able to print yours, so please be mindful of this deadline! The poster printer will be in use all that week, so you will have to present with no poster or print off campus (SyBBURE will not cover the cost).

Oral Presenters:

Upload abstract by 12 pm Monday July 20 if you are interested in giving an oral presentation. Your abstract should be 0.5-2 pages long and describe your progress over the summer. There are examples from prior semesters in the Box folder to help guide your writing. Team SyBBURE will review all proposals and let presenters know if their oral presentation is approved and when they will be presenting.

Upload final presentation to box by 5 pm Tuesday July 28 (Also upload to your individual folder in Box). File Name: SU26_FinalPres_yourfirstandlastname.ppt

What to include? – Posters

See the poster design and poster presentation guidelines on the guide to research.

Posters are usually 4 feet horizontal by 3 feet vertical, which you should design full size in whatever you use to create it (ex: change the slide size to 36 in x 48 in in PowerPoint.)

We typically use 36 inch wide poster paper rolls in the BBUREAU, so that is the maximum width and you can use any length.

What to include? – Oral Presentations

You should start by introducing yourself and your project. Your first slide (this is your actual visual abstract) should have 3 parts that give a visual overview of your overarching project: background, methods, and results. After showing this slide, you may show slides dedicated to each of those parts. You may want a slide to comment on your future work as well. Show your visual abstract slide again to conclude. You can have as many slides as will fit into your allotted time (see Oral Presentation section of Research Guide for more details)

Header/Footer – should be on every slide

  • Title

  • Authors (you first, your PI last)

  • Logos (your labs, SyBBURE’s, maybe Vanderbilt’s, but watch that it doesn’t get too cluttered)

Background/Motivation – why does this research matter?

  • Your overarching project question or problem (w/ Images)

  • The importance of this question/problem

Methods – what will you do to answer your overarching question?

  • Your proposed approach/methods (w/images)

  • Rationale behind your proposed approach/methods

Results – what did you accomplish or discover?

  • Show us your data in understandable figures

  • Explain your main findings/conclusions

Conclusions & Future Work

  • What are the key takeaways? (If someone only sees this slide, will they be able to understand the current state of the project and what you accomplished?)

  • What will you do next?

References

  • You should aim for 5-10 references, mostly in your introduction and methods

  • You may list references with just the first author and year of publication if you are tight on space (ie, “[1] Wikswo et al., 2025”)

Format

  • Timing varies each year, but it’s usually in the range of 5-20 minute presentation, questions not included

  • Widescreen format

  • Roughly 5-20 slides depending on time allotted, speed and density (aim for ~1min/slide)

  • For dense slides, use additional slides instead of animations (unless you are really good at them)

  • Avoid jargon and abbreviations when possible, but if they are needed make sure you define them clearly