Instructions and Tips for Paper Presentation 

A paper presentation will have three parties driving it: the presenter, the discussion leader, and the everyone else, acting as audience.Everyone should present paper(s) and should lead the discussion on paper(s) presented by someone else. Thus, for different papers, your roles may change. 

Everyone must read every paper, ahead of its presentation. The audience for a paper presentation should send a private post on piazza (to "instructors") with a list of key questions on the paper, NO LATER THAN 5 PM the day before the presentation. I will make them visible to the presenter and the discussion leader by 8 PM the same day. 

How many questions should you send me on the papers you read and prepare questions on?

The discussion leader will consolidate the questions into a google document and share it with the presenter and with me, ahead of the presentation. The idea is for the presenter and the discussion leader prepare well thought out answers to those questions. 

As the names suggest, the presenter will present the paper and discussion leader will manage and steer the discussion, including Q&A, on the paper. 

What follow are some instructions and tips on what to look for when reading papers, how to give effective talks, and links to related resources. 

The presenter has to summarize the problem(s) studied in the paper, the motivation, the contributions, and highlight the methodology/techniques developed/used to solve the problem. In addition, they should make a case for why the paper has merit and articulate value of the contributions. What was missed by the authors or wasn’t addressed well by them? 

Some guidelines for preparing for paper presentations and for leading discussions may be found at Guidelines for Speakers and Discussion Leaders.