Graduate Thesis Seminar Week 3: Research posters and power point presentations

Graduate Thesis SeminarWeek 3: Research posters and power point presentations

Jonas Braasch

… the scientist …

Jonas Braasch Graduate Program in AcousticsSchool of ArchitectureRensselaer Polytechnic [email protected]

Graduate Thesis Seminar

Research Posters & Power Point

Presentations

… the humanities approach…

Jonas Braasch

Graduate Thesis SeminarResearch Posters & Power Point Presentations

… the architecture geek…

Contents

• Power Point Presentation• Poster Presentation

Power Point Talks

Warning!

• Most slides contain more text than is good for a typical power point presentation

(This way you can use the slide as a script)

The most important thing…

Convey your message

… in time

Things that help

• Have a clear concept • Follow a red line• Make it Big • Be simple• Be consistent

Clear Concept

• Typically you have 12 to 20 minutes at a conference to get your key concept to the audience

• Boil complex matter down as much as you can without loosing the point

• If you have more than 3 simple “Take Home Messages” your talk is likely too complicated

• The audience is “dumber” than you think• After your talk, the audience should know

what you did, how and why you did it, and what was novel about your approach

Follow Red Line• Take into account that your audience

cannot turn back the page to read something again

• The larger the crowd the more unlikely it is that someone will ask questions in between

• Avoid abbreviations that are uncommon to your audience

• Make sure that you explain those issues well that your talk will build on

• Avoid traps and detours• Make sure that you know where you want

to start and where you want to end your talk

Make it BIG…

• Use large font sizes– at least 24pt, Title 36pt to 44 pt

• Simple Figure with large captions• Avoid too much text• You should be able to read your

slides at a distance of 6 feet from your screen

• Be aware that people have (or choose) to sit in the back

Font Sizes

Arial Times New Roman(sans serif)

• 44 pt, Hello 44 pt, Hello• 36 pt, Hello 36 pt, Hello• 32 pt, Hello 32 pt, Hello• 28 pt, Hello 28 pt, Hello• 24 pt, Hello 24 pt, Hello• 20 pt, Hello 20 pt, Hello• 18 pt, Hello 18 pt, Hello• 16 pt, Hello 16 pt, Hello• 14 pt, Hello 14 pt, Hello • 12 pt, Hello 12 pt, Hello

(Braasch & Hartung, 2002)

Figures: From Journals …

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4. take larger fonts

3. use color code

1. depict less data

2. use visual aids

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Visual aids

Ideal Line of Localization

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Maximum lateralization shift

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Maximum lateralization shift

….and not small

… or too muchC Länge

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C.a., Werden 340 69,4 212 50,3 118 36 1‘+Kl., Werden 1500 106 663 69 320 56 4‘+Kl., Grüssau 617 82 284 56 210 46 2‘Ob., Grüssau 962 65,6 954 45,5 500 44,6 3‘Tr., Grüssau 618 82 284 56 136 42 2‘Kl., Haas 1221 149 618 110 822 80,2 4‘C.a., Leeds 632 82,6 429 66,8 302 54,1 2‘Tr. 16‘, Töp 2850 194 1446 143 735 73 8‘Pos. 16‘. Töp 4272 240 1731 177 879 130 12‘+Pos. 32‘, Töp 7086 345 3609 254 1833 186 16‘Pos. 32‘, Gr. 2198 181x143 1755 132x158 857 93x113 8‘-

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… unless you give a talk to the society of the people with photographic memory, try this…

Videos are great

Simplicity

• Do not loose your audience (unless you would like too)

• Keep figures simple• Display graphics that the key

feature is apparent right away• Label all graphs with a large font

size• Define necessary terms and do not

change definitions and vocabulary in between

The talk

• Practice it• Practice it again (speak loud, e.g. to a test

crowd)• Make sure you give credits where necessary

(your competitor could sit in the audience)• Do not embarrass anybody

– “I am sorry for not being enough prepared, but I was invited so late”

– “sorry for the lousy data, but I thought we would come up with something better when we submitted the abstract”

– Keep mistakes for yourself

The talk

• Try to speak loud and clearly• The larger the venue, the slower

you should talk• Use a microphone if necessary• Know what your co-authors are

doing

Timeline

• A typical slide (science) takes at east 1 Minute to explain. For a 12 Minute presentation, you might bring around 10 slides

• When you practice your slides alone, you are likely to need less time than in the conference room

• Take a watch with you, and have a rough timeline (e.g., know which slide is midpoint)

• When you prepare your slides, do the most important things first

Questions

• Figure out ahead what could be asked• Be prepared to defend the weak aspects

of your work• Keep you answer short. You can discuss

the question in great detail after your talk• Take extra slides with you if necessary• Don’t be afraid of not being able to

answer a question– You can offer to investigate and come up with

an answer later (“…good point, I would have to think about this …”)

– You can ask the audience for help

Backups

• Have an electronic backup: CD-rom, memory stick, Web page

• Have a print out• Make sure you do not have all your

material checked in during a flight

Posters

Initial Steps

• Read Conference instructions– Maximum size of the poster– Landscape or Portrait orientation?– Due dates for poster, abstracts, and paper

• Poster Printing– find out where you can print the poster– find out what technical format the printing

shop will need (e.g., data format maximum size, resolution)

– find long how long it will take (also consider technical difficulties)

– evaluate the cost

Example: AES Guidelines• The poster boards 150 cm x 90 cm (portrait). Each

author will get two boards (use for example A0 (118.9 x 84.1 cm) or B1 (100 x 70.7 cm).

• Arch D: 24 x 36 inches• Arch E: 30 x 42 inches• Posters should contain graphical elements and font

sizes that are readable from a distance of about 1 m. • Graphs, tables, and diagrams should be at least 20 x

25 cm (8 x 10 inches). Simple, easy-to-read fonts, such as Times New Roman or Arial, are highly recommended.

• Suggested font sizes: – title, 84 pt– name and affiliation, 72 pt– headings and subheadings, 36 pt; – body text, 18 to 24 pt.

Poster Contents

• Determine what you will need for the contents of the poster– Did you raise all the data that you

would like to present? (Do you have everything that you promised in your abstract?)

– Do you need to create fancy figures?– Do you need permission to show

figures from other authors or collaborators?

Poster Style

• One-sheet poster + looks professional– expensive– needs more time to print– mistakes cannot be easily fixed

• Multiple-sheet poster + easy to print (in house solution)+ mistakes can be easily fixed+ is cheap– looks cheap

Banners for multiple-sheet posters

Tip: using 17x11 instead of letter size papers make the poster look much better on a low budget.

Figs. from Jeff Radel’s webpage, see his page for more details

General Layout

• Plan your general layout carefully. You can use it many times. Rather be sloppy on the rest.

• Check whether there is an existing corporate design for your institution (e.g. existing template)

Poster organization

• Determine how you would like to group your contents and determine how much space each unit requires.

• Group the contents of each group visually and make sure there is guidance for the order of each element (e.g., number each unit).

Example Layout

Title Banner

AbstractResearch Methods

Results I

Results IIDiscussion &

Outlook

References

Acknowledgement

Title Banner

• Choose a good title (e.g., 84 pt)• List all authors (e.g., 72 pt)

– First names might help to easier communicate– Presenting author is typically the first author

• Do not forget everybody’s institution (e.g., 60 pt)– Make sure people will recognize your institution– Provide adequate information (e.g. country if

conference is abroad)– Logo is welcome

• Email address might help to establish contacts (e.g., 48 pt)

RPI Logos

• http://rpinfo.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/graphics/logos.html

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

Spatial controllers for Wave Field SynthesisJonas Braasch [email protected]

A title is Not your abstract

Prestin, a Key Player in Outer Hair Cell Electromotility, and the α10 Nicotinic Cholinergic Subunit

Show Positive Selection Signatures in the Mammalian Lineage

Interregional Connectivity Between Primary

Auditory Region and Early Visual Cortex

Predicts Successful Recovery Following

Cochlear Implant in Congenital Deaf Children

e.g.

The right amount of Text

• Most posters contain way to much text. You do not have to write everything in detail. People can ask you for more information.

• Too much text will scare everybody away.

• On the other hand, people should get a rough idea what you are doing in case you are presently absent.

RPI Colors

Colors

Keep in mind that the contrast will be smaller on the video projector than our your screen



RPI power point slide template

The poster tour

• Typically starts with somebody approaching you: “Can you give me a tour through your poster”

• Be prepared to give a brief description of 5 to 10 min. Details are discussed afterwards, in between or not at all.

• Try to find out what background your audience has, so you can adapt your presentation.

• Have business cards ready. Posters are a great opportunity to make new connections.

• A hand out (e.g. your poster on a 17x11 sheet of paper is often welcome).

• Audio visual support material is possible (e.g., CD player, laptop computer)

RPI Fonts

• Font Names: GoudyOlSt BT, Swiss 721 BT, Newspaper Pi BT, Humanist 521 BT, Bell Gothic BT

• Headline: BellGothic BT BoldBody Copy: GoudyOlSt BTBullet Copy: Humanist 521 BTBullets:Newspaper Pi BTCallout: BellGothic BT BoldCaption/Disclaimer: Humanist 521 BTPage Number: BellGothic BT BoldTagline: Swiss 721 SWACover Address Block: BellGothic BT Bold

A loudspeaker-based 3D sound projection using Virtual Microphone Control (ViMiC)

Jonas Braasch

CIRMMT, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 1E3

Example Banner


Jonas Braasch




Click to edit Master title style

• Click to edit Master text styles– Second level

• Third level– Fourth level

» Fifth level

Abstract

In auditory virtual environments it is often required to position an anechoic point source in three-dimensional space. When sources in such applications are to be displayed using multichannel loudspeaker reproduction systems, the processing is typically based upon simple amplitude-panning laws. This paper describes an alternative approach based on an array of virtual microphones. In the newly designed environment, the microphones, with adjustable directivity patterns and axis orientations, can be spatially placed as desired. The system architecture was designed to comply with the expectations of audio engineers and to create sound imagery similar to that associated with standard sound recording practice.

Consequently, a new architecture for a virtual environment was developed to meet the needs of the music industry. Instead of using panning laws to address loudspeakers, the system is based on an array of virtual microphones. The axial orientation of the virtual microphones can be freely adjusted in 3D space, and the directivity patterns can be varied between the classic patterns that are found in real microphones: omnidirectional, cardioid, hyper-cardioid, sub-cardioid, or figure-eight characteristics. This improvement allows a new way to control the spatial images in AVEs, a feature that is named in the following Virtual Microphone Control (ViMiC).

The ability to position an anechoic point source in three-dimensional space is a common goal in the design of auditory virtual environments (AVEs). In loudspeaker-based display systems, sound sources can be virtually placed in between speakers by utilizing panning laws (e.g., the tangent law and Vector-Based Amplitude Panning [Pul:01] to calculate the gain factor for each speaker for a given sound-source position. The use of panning laws for 3D sound projection seems to be an optimal choice for many applications, such as those in architectural acoustics; however, in the case of music reproduction, experienced listeners often prefer the artificially designed spaces associated with the Tonmeister tradition when compared with a more realistic rendering of the original musical event.

Introduction




» Fifth level

Simulation of classic microphone techniques

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Using Virtual Microphone Control, classic microphone techniques—such as the Blumlein and the ORTF techniques shown in the left drawing—can be simulated by determining the gain and delay between each sound source and each microphone in the virtual environment according to the geometrical configuration (right graph). Spatial cues are preserved as inter channel-level level differences (ICLD, bottom left-graph) and inter-channel time differences (ICTD, bottom-right graph). Both parameters are a function of the azimuth for the ORTF technique, while the Blumlein technique codes the spatial position using ICLDs only.




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Implementation of classic panning laws

Another advantageous feature of using Virtual Microphone Control is the possibility to employ classic amplitude-panning laws by treating them as microphone directivity patterns. Using the tangent law, the gain of each speaker can be translated into a virtual (asymmetrical) microphone directivity pattern, assuming that the angles of the microphones correspond to the angles of the speakers. The top graph shows the solutions for the ITU set-up (top-left graph).

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The figure above shows the surround set-up according to [ITU:94] (plus an additional loudspeaker at 180°) that was used in the set-up of the AVE.

To address all six speakers a virtual array of six cardoid microphones can be used to pan a signal across the loudspeakers. The graph above shows the polar plots of the sensitivity magnitudes in the surround microphone technique recommended by the ITU. The localizability of the images can be improved by spacing the microphones apart which introduces ICTDs.




» Fifth level

System Architecture

Sound-Field Renderer

Multi-Tap Delay Unit

Reverberator

Geometrical Data Visual Display

Audio Source Signals

Virtual Microphone Signals

Dynamic Control Interface

Filter for Early Reflections

Real-Time Input Real-Time OutputProcessing

The ViMiC system has been implemented using Pure Data (PD), a software platform for real-time audio applications that was developed by Miller Puckette [Puc:W1]. In Pure Data, new applications can be developed by graphically linking various objects. Due to the complexity of the proposed system, several objects: SoundFieldRenderer~ (calculatesthe gain and delay between each sound source and virtual microphone), MultiTapDelay~ (a multi-tap delay network to spatialize the sound), Visualizer (a graphical interface to move sound sources and microphones) were written as new C externals.

The architecture of the system is shown in the graph above. Currently, the system is implemented on a Personal Computer with a Pentium 4 CPU and a Windows XP operating system. The early reflections are calculated using the mirror image technique [All:79]. In the present implementation, the late reverberation is generatedusing a multi-channel reverberation algorithm based on feedback loops. The algorithm is available in the nSLAM toolbox [Set:W1].




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Graphical User Interface

Graphical User Interface to control the ViMiC system. The GUI shows an implementation for two sound sources and six microphones.




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Performance

Currently, the system is configured for a six channel surround set-up (Using a MOTU 896 sound interface and Bang & Olufsen loudspeakers). The CPU load—measured using the Windows XP task manager — varies between 13% and 20% for one dynamic sound source when the tasks include rendering the sound field, the audio processing of direct sound, early reflections and late reverb, and the update of the visual display. The load decreases to less than 2%, when the sound source is in a static position (no update of sound-field data, the MultiTapDelay~ module then shifts to non-fractional delays).

This investigation was supported by a Grant of the Government of Québec within the project Real-time Communication of High-resolution Multi-sensory Content via Broadband Networks of the program Valorisation-recherche Québec (VRQ). I would like to thank Wieslaw Woszczyk and William L. Martens for their support and the valuable discussions during the design of the ViMiC system.

Acknowledgement

Literature[All:79] Allen, J.B., Berkley, D.A. (1979) Image method for efficiently simulating small-room acoustics, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 65, 943–950.

[ITU:94] ITU (1994) Multichannel stereophonic sound system with and without accompanying picture, Standard BS.775-1, InternationalTelecommunication Union, 1992–1994.

[Puc:W1] Puckette, M.: Pure Data, a patchable environment for audio analysis, synthesis, and processing, with a rich set of multimediacapabilities, http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html.

[Pul:01] Pulkki, V. and Karjalainen, M. (2001) Localization of amplitude-panned virtual sources, Part 1: Stereophonic panning, J. Audio Eng. Soc. 49, 739 – 752.

[Set:W1] Settel, Z. and SAT Audio Group: nSLAM audio suite, http://tot.sat.qc.ca/eng/nslam.html.

Poster vs. Talk

+ often a better way to connect to people

+ more relaxing way of presenting+ people seem to be more tolerable– often seen to be inferior– you cannot change your visual

material in the hotel the night before

References

• Jeff Radel, Poster Presentation Website, http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html

• http://rpinfo.rpi.edu/dept/NewsComm/graphics/logos.html

http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html



Documents

Graduate Thesis Seminar Week 3: Research posters and power point presentations