The Robert Gordon University

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Poster Project Presentations
The Robert Gordon University School of Engineering
Dr. Mohamed Amish
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Posters vs. Papers

• Papers are designed to appeal to editors of
  scholarly journals.
• Posters are designed to appeal to peers and
  colleagues at conferences
• A paper presents all the information a poster
  presents the most important information.
• A poster presentation allows for the exchange of
  ideas and information regarding your research.

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Poster

• The ideal poster is designed to
• provide a brief overview of your research work
• initiate discussion
• attract attention
• give something useful to point to as you discuss
  your work
• stand alone when you are not available to provide
  an explanation
• inform people of your particular expertise.

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Developing the Content

• The most effective poster presentations provide
  minimal text but still clearly define the central
  message by following a standard format.
• Title and Affiliations
• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion / Conclusion

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Planning

• You have to stand back and think about the
  What's, the How's and the Why's of the work.
• Critically examine both the approach taken and
  the results.

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Planning

• Gathering the information
• What is the objective of the investigation?
• How was the study conducted (method)?
• What assumptions were made? Are they justified?
• What results were obtained? Are the analyses
  sound?

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Poster Design and Layout

• Determine what three or four key points you want
  to make. You want your poster to cover the key
  points of your work - not all the details.
• Design and lay out the poster ahead of time.
• The flow of the poster should be from top left to
  bottom right.

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Poster Design

• Title, author, supervisors, institutional
  affiliation.
• An "Introduction" to the project (rationale,
  background, clear statements about what you have
  set out to do, problem(s) you intend to solve,
  reasons why you chose to study this problem
  etc.). These should lead to declarations of the
  project objectives.
• "Methodology" or "Experimental" section to
  explain the basis of the techniques, procedures
  and data collection to be used including any
  assumptions made (to put your results into
  context).
• A "Results and Discussion" section (summary of
  the most important results) to explain what you
  have done so far and what it tells you (your
  interpretation). Implications of the findings.
• A "Conclusions Further Work" section
  summarising your findings to date and thoughts
  about how the work will progress from this point.
  Did the study raise questions?

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Elements of Your Poster

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction

• Methods
• Data / Results
• Conclusions

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Title

• Title
• Simple, able to be seen from 3.5 meters away.
• Author(s)
• Always use first names.
• Institution
• Institution and department.

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Abstract

• Identify what is being studied, how it is to be
  studied, what the variables are.
• Identify the hypothesis.
• State the findings.
• Be brief

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Introduction
Less in-depth than an introduction for a paper.

• Highlight and focus on
• Questions raised and answered by previous
  research.
• The question you are asking and why you are
  asking it.
• Objectives
• Again, be brief

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Methodology

• Identify
• Type of tests used in your experiment
• Test procedure

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Data / Results

• What is the central message of the results?
• This section may involve little text and more
  graphics.
• Graphic / visual elements
• Tables, Charts, Pictures, Graphs

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Discussion / Conclusion

• Be concise and clear.
• Highlight
• What was found, and its importance.
• Parallels and discrepancies with previous
  research and theory.
• The direction of future research.

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Acknowledgments

• Acknowledge those professionals and research
  assistants that contributed to your study.
• Acknowledge your funding body
• Be brief.
• Note this section is not a requirement.

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Student Name Company Supervisor Academic
Supervisor School of Engineering
Project Title
Discussion / results
Introduction
Methodology
Conclusions ideas for new research
Objectives
Table/graph
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Organisation and Layout

• Fonts
• Use the same font style throughout the poster.
• The title should be readable from 3.5m away.
• The body of the writing should be readable 1m
  away.

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Organisation and Layout

• There is ALWAYS too much text in a poster.
• Look critically at the layout. 40 text, 40
  graphics and 20 empty space is considered a good
  ratio.

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Project Presentation Slide Organisation
The presentation should flow logically from
beginning to end, as in written work. The main
concepts of the presentation are to plan, focus
and practice.

• Plan the layout of the presentation. Strongly
  consider drawing up an outline before assembling
  the actual slides. 
• Focus on the main point(s) to be made. "What you
  have done", Why and Your contribution
• Practice the presentation with the company
  supervisor or colleagues at least once before
  presenting it to the audience.

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Presentation Guidelines example slide list

• Project title and your name (1 slide)
• Introduction (1 slide)
• Objectives (1 slide)
• Methodology (1 slide)
• Case study (1 slide)
• Analysis results (7 slides approximately)
• Conclusions recommendations (2 slides)

A total of approximately 10-14 slides will be
sufficient for 20 minutes (maximum) presentation
time. Remember, each slide should contain only a
few words. Use bullet points to provide summary
information. Following the presentation, there
will be a short period (10 minutes) for you to
answer questions from the audience and panel.
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• Good Luck
• shelloffice_at_rgu.ac.uk