MV-4473 Virtual Worlds & Simulation Systems
Presentation Description


Overview:  Students will make a presentation to the class based on readings and independent research on an assigned topic.   The presentation will consist of two parts, a lecture and an HTML website, which will count equally in the grading.  

Early in the quarter, the instructor will promulgate a list of potential topics.  Students can choose one of these to present or make arrangements with the instructor to present some other topic.  These topics can fall into one of two broad categories: subjects covered in this class or other MOVES classes and subjects which are not.  If the subject is covered in another class, the presentation must be significantly more than a recap.  For example, for a subject such as "Shading", parts of which are covered in MV-4202 and MV-4470, the presentation must do more than simply recap the basics of shading.  Rather, it should discuss advanced shading techniques which have been presented in recent papers or at a recent conference, such as SIGGRAPH or IEEE-VR.   However, if the topic is not normally covered in a MOVES class, the presentation may begin by introducing basic subject material, although it should still ensure that it covers some of the more advanced parts of the topic.  In either case, students should look at several research papers as part of their preparations.   If not, the subject is not being researched in sufficent depth.   Good places to look for technical articles are listed in the References section below.

The topics vary between each offering of MV-4473.  Normally, in the Winter Quarter the topics are hardware related, while in the Summer Quarter the topics are software related.  

To get an idea of what I am looking for, a grade sheet similar to the one I will use is here.

Lecture:  You will present a 50 minute lecture on the virtual environment topic of your choice.   You should create lecture notes (Powerpoint or HTML recommended) for this purpose.   You are welcome to show video, bring props, give demos, sing, or whatever seems most appropriate for the material.   Originality in presentation method is appreciated and will receive points in the grading.   An important part of your presentation is interaction with the students, so try to engage them and leave time for questions.   Your grade will be based upon demonstrated knowledge of the subject, as well as interactivity and efficacy of the presentation.

Your lecture should conclude with three potential test questions, which should be appropriate to a final exam.   Additionally, you should practice your presentation at least once to ensure that its length is correct.   Many students who don't do this end up either cramming twenty slides into the last ten minutes, or finishing after twenty minutes.

Notes:  You should prepare two articles in HTML format, including pictures and diagrams where appropriate.   The first should be targeted at senior undergraduates or graduate students in computer science, and should demonstrate your new-found expert knowledge of the subject.   The second article should be short and light on technical detail; it should be easily consumed by a high-school freshman.   (To paraphrase Vonnegut:  "If you can't explain it to an 8 year-old, you don't really understand it.")  This second article does not need to have a "dumbed-down" or shorter description of every topic covered in the first, especially if you are going into great depth on a topic covered in earlier MOVES classes.   Ensure that each of your HTML articles contains a relative link to the other, which should be in the same directory.

Note that the slides for your lecture will likely be insufficient for either of these tasks, since the lecture slides generally consist of bulleted lists without significant detail, which is filled in by your talking.   The HTML notes, on the other hand, should be in narrative form.

Here is an example set of Powerpoint slides, and the printed PDF version, about magnetic tracking.   These were used for a 25 minute presentation, so you will certainly need to expand the scope and include more detail for your own presentation.   Examples from the class held last year, in which students presented for a full class period, can be seen online at http://sharedvr.org/learn/hw.   Note, only a few of these presentations include both a clear, concise brief document and a detailed narrative explanation in the full document.

These older presentations do not include a new requirement: your HTML lectures must have a "References" page, which contains links to the research papers you used.  The links to these papers should be relative links, with the papers stored in a sub-directory named "Papers".  Include this directory when you turn in your final product.

The HTML notes are due on the last day of finals at 1700.   Please place all of your HTML pages into a single directory the name of which is a one or two word description of your topic. The only files in this directory should be entitled "simple.html", "detailed.html", and ".ppt", where is the same as the directory. All additional pages, related images, movies, etc. shall be placed in subdirectories of this directory.   You can submit that directory by two methods:

Things to Remember: 

Important Dates: 

References:   The following locations are good places to begin looking for references:

HTML Help:   An HTML tutorial will be offered during one of the lab periods if enough people need it.  However, I think a better way to learn HTML is to go to one of the many HTML tutorial sites on the web.   You can search on Google, or here are four that are pretty good:

This site has a great description of colors for use in HTML.

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Page Created on 06 July 2002