COMP390/393/394/395: Project Demonstration

Background

As well as the ability to give a formal presentation of work, as for the design presentation, it is important also to be able to handle more informal demonstrations where you talk through the software you have produced. In such a situation flexibility to respond to the person to whom you are demonstrating, and the ability to answer questions is important.

Conduct

Each project must be demonstrated in week 10 (23 - 27 April, 2012) of the second semester. You will be expected to arrange a mutually convenient time for the demonstration with the members of staff who will assess it. If desired, paper materials, such as diagrams, may be used to help explain the project, and to answer anticipated questions. The demonstration should show the functionality of the working software, and you should be prepared to answer questions about the software, and to show the internal workings of the software (e.g code listings etc).

You should submit a pdf or ppt copy of your slides through E-project, by 20 April 2012.

Work Based Learning Projects will have both a demonstration and a formal presentation at this stage.

Some projects may not result in the production of demonstrable software, either because of the nature of the project, or because the project has been developed on an external platform, or because of problems in the progress of the project. In such cases you will be expected to give a 10 minute presentation of your work, followed by 5 minutes in which to answer questions and respond to their audience. Therefore, if the project does not lead to the production of software, or if for any other reason the software cannot be demonstrated you may, with the agreement of your supervisor, give a presentation instead.

Assessment

The assessment will be done by your supervisor and the marker. For Work Based Learning Projects, the demonstration is assessed by the supervisor and the industrial sponsor. A mark will be given which will count for 15% of the module mark, and this will be made available in about 2 weeks after the end of the demonstration week. This mark will reflect both the quality of your demonstration and the quality of the software demonstrated.

For your guidance a copy of the feedback form that will be used to assess your demonstration is here.

Attending presentations of other students.

Starting from this year, you are allowed to invite up to four of your peers to attend your demonstration. This is an opportunity to provide an additional feedback to the presenter, as well as to extend learning experience of the attendees. However, in order not to disturb the usual conduct of the presentations, there are strict rules governing additional attendance.

The student presenting his/her work can invite up to four other project students to attend the presentation. No other person (including students who do not take COMP390/393/394/395) should be allowed to attend.
The list of invited students has to be sent to the supervisor and marker before the presentation.
The invited students may enter the room only with the presenting student, before the presentation. Assessors may not allow late invited students enter.
No audio/video recording is allowed.
The invited students should not interrupt the presentation in any way, unless there is a spare time after assessors have asked their questions and the assessors explicitly allow the attending students to ask questions and to provide an informal feedback.