Proposal Presentation

A 5-minute presentation structured as a dynamic visual abstract of your proposed overarching project. A dynamic visual abstract is a high-level, easily digestible summary of a project in presentation form that incorporates all of the typical sections of a research presentation (background, approach/methods, results, conclusions, future work).

Don’t be stressed! This is just a chance for you to practice presenting your work, and for all of us to learn more about your project. Students or team SyBBURE will ask questions just out of curiosity, no one is testing you, and it is totally okay to say “I don’t know but I will look into it and get back to you!”

Quick Links:

  1. Everyone must present! Sign up for a spot here by Tuesday May 27.

  2. Upload your slides to the (1) Google slide deck, (2) this Box folder, and (3) your individual Box folder by 6:00 pm the day before your presentation.

  3. Examples from previous years can be found here.

Format and What to Include

5-minute powerpoint presentation. Keep in mind it is a VISUAL abstract presentation, so go easy on text and instead focus on visualizations! If you must include text content, avoid jargon and abbreviations. Also keep in mind that your audience consists of scientists in lots of different fields. What may be considered common knowledge in your lab/major may not be as obvious to others, so be sure to provide sufficient context for everyone to follow along and offer you helpful feedback!

Your first slide is your visual abstract; it should have 3 parts that give a visual overview of your overarching project: background, methods, and results or expected results. After showing this slide, you may show a slide dedicated to each of those parts if you want. You then show a slide with your research, VIX, personal and community goals, as well as your research timeline. Show your main slide again to conclude and ask for questions after you have finished!

Here is a guide for making your presentation:

Header/Footer - should be on every slide

Title, Authors (you first, faculty last), Logos (your labs, SyBBURE’s, maybe Vanderbilt's, but watch that it doesn't get too cluttered)

Slide 1: Complete Visual Abstract

Background/Motivation - why does this research matter?

Your overarching project question or problem (with Images), the importance of this question/problem

Methods - what will you do to answer your overarching question/solve your overarching problem?

Your proposed approach/methods (with images), Rationale behind your proposed approach/methods

(Expected) Results - what do you hope to accomplish?

End points of your specific aims; what kinds of endpoints are you aiming to gather? This can consist of preliminary data, or visual representations of future results. For example if you are developing an image processing algorithm, your results may include image outputs and a list of metrics you will evaluate such as bar graphs of color values or contrast measurements… Another example is if you are working on gathering survey data, your results may include a correlation matrix between different behavioral or psychological factors. The goal is convey what you would consider a reasonable endpoint of the project, and what you are specifically hoping to achieve.

Optional Slides 2-4:

If you want, you can break out any or all of the above sections (background, methods, results) into their own slides to expand upon or include more detailed information. The first slide which is your visual abstract should include only the most crucial figures and images to explain your project, so these optional slides can be used for additional figures and diagrams that may not fit in the visual abstract. The information here should complement your visual abstract and aid your audience’s understanding of the project. If you can fit everything on your visual abstract slide, you do not need to add more slides.

Final Slide 5:

Timeline, Training Plan, Deliverables & Goals

On a separate slide, include a rough timeline for your summer project, your research project deliverables and your research, VIX, personal and community goals.