COS 333 Project Demo Suggestions

Thu May 10 05:51:40 EDT 2007

Let me know if you need to move things around. We will be in CS 105, the regular classroom.

Thu May 10:

1:30: Penny Enomoto, Don Kim, Doug Hohensee

2:00: Guy David, Dan Gopstein, Mike Liao, Alex Sieke

2:30: Chris Chan, Mike Dirolf, Jason Yang

3:00: RJ Liljestrom, Joe Kovba, Sam Albert

3:30: [break]

4:00: Dave Ford, Alan Barnes, Jayson Paulose, Jeff Bagdis

4:30: Mark Spear, David Costanzo, Zennen Clifton

Fri May 11:

1:00: Aaron Schneider, Jean Hsu, Rachel Sealfon

1:30: Andy Brett, Sam Grossberg, Hal Pratt, Nic Byrd

2:00: Anton Malyshev, Daniel Douglas, Chris Uga, Yue Yang, Wei Ho

2:30: Scott Peper, Peter Curtin, Pete Genest, Lenny Shulgin

3:00: [break]

3:30: Evan Green, Yun-En Liu, Teddy Forsyth, Nick Leonhardt, Lucy He

4:00: Jonathan Sweemer, Cody May, Michael Ye, James An

4:30: Josh Herbach, Andrew Saxe, Paul Kompfner, Mason Simon

I will bring my Windows XP SP2 laptop with Office 2000, Internet Explorer 6, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Java 1.5, and a network connection behind the CS firewall. That's more for backup than something to count on, however; you will almost surely do better to use your own equipment. Make sure things work in that room -- don't leave connectivity to the last minute.

No matter what you plan, be able to keep talking even if something breaks.

As to content, the "trade show" metaphor is useful, but you should aim for more than just a glitzy demo. We're really looking for evidence that you accomplished something, that you learned something, and that you can present something clearly. You might think of

• a short introduction to what your system is supposed to do
• a quick summary of major features
• a demo of a small number (two or three?) of features; glitzy is fine but pick features known to work
• a brief overview of architecture, implementation, or how it works
• something that worked well or failed to work out or that you might explore if there were more time

Here are some minor suggestions that might help things go smoothly.

• Rehearse! Most groups in previous years have done well on timing; keep the streak alive.
• Don't do a demo that requires a lot of typing or mousing. As you've seen in class, things sometimes go awry and audiences get restless while you poke around.
• Focus on a few representative things, whether features or details or interesting topics; don't get too wrapped up in trivia.
• Have fun. These projects are really interesting, and the enthusiasm of their presenters helps make that evident.
• Come to other presentations too (cf. fun, above), and bring friends and family if you like; all are welcome.

Grading criteria include the following:

• good organization of material
• clear overview, motivation
• good examples to illustrate the system
• system apparently works most of the time
• smooth presentation, with evidence of rehearsal
• stays within allotted time