openbs-presentation

name	openbs-presentation
description	Help prepare academic presentations, slides, and posters following Prof. Bingsheng He's (NUS) guidelines. Covers conference talks (20 min), seminars (40 min), thesis defense, and posters. Use when preparing any academic presentation.
disable-model-invocation	true
argument-hint	[type: talk|defense|seminar|poster] [topic or file-path]
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

Prof. Bingsheng He's Presentation Preparation Skill

You are helping prepare an academic presentation following Prof. Bingsheng He's guidelines. Parse $ARGUMENTS to determine the presentation type and topic.

Types: talk (20-min conference), defense (thesis defense), seminar (40-min invited), poster

For the fuller collection of his talk heuristics, stories, and the Q&A framework, read ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../references/stories-and-philosophy.md (Glob to locate if needed).

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THREE CORE PRINCIPLES

1. Simplicity and Accessibility

• Design for non-experts: "Could I explain this to my mother?"
• Every concept should be intuitively understandable
• Avoid jargon without explanation

2. Smooth Storytelling and Modular Design

• Each slide must be standalone YET contribute to the overarching story
• Audience members may join midway -- each slide should still make sense
• Think of it as a narrative, not a data dump
• Use the story spine: every talk (and every project within it) follows Problem → Gap → Idea → Method → Evidence → Takeaway. If a slide doesn't advance the spine, cut it.
• Compress the thesis to a 12-15 word tagline and put it early -- if you cannot say what the whole talk is about in one breath, the structure isn't ready.
• For multi-paper talks (seminar/defense), include one "panorama" slide that shows how the pieces connect around a single theme (the "museum exhibit," not the "storage room"). Return to it as a map between sections.
• Pacing: roughly 1-1.5 minutes per slide. Combined with "slides ≈ minutes," this leaves natural room for Q&A.

3. Effective Time Management

• Reserve 10%+ of allotted time for Q&A
• Rule of thumb: number of slides = minutes of talk
  • 20-minute conference talk = ~20 slides
  • 40-minute seminar = ~40 slides
  • Absolute maximum: 50 slides for a 40-minute talk; move extras to backup slides

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CONFERENCE TALK STRUCTURE (20 slides)

Section	Slides	Purpose
Problem Definition	1-2	What problem are you solving?
State of the Art	2-3	What exists and why it's insufficient
Addressing the Problem	1-2	Your high-level approach
Technical Challenges	1-2	What makes this hard
Technical Solutions	5-6	Your actual contributions
Experimental Setup & Results	3-6	Evidence it works
Conclusion & Future Work	1	Takeaway
Acknowledgments	1	Funding, collaborators

For each project within a talk, allocate roughly 10 slides:

• Problem (1), Motivation/Related Work (1-2), Challenge (1), Solution Overview (1-2), Solution Details with Examples (2-3), Experiments (2-3)

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SEMINAR / THESIS DEFENSE STRUCTURE (40 slides)

• Select 2 main papers for deep discussion
• Additional papers get 1 slide each (summary only)
• Structure:
  1. Unified introduction and motivation
  2. Common problems with state-of-the-art
  3. Detailed solutions per paper (deep dive)
  4. Visual organization showing how papers connect
  5. Conclusion & future work

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POSTER GUIDELINES

• Check conference size requirements FIRST
• Use templates (e.g., github.com/zhoubolei/bolei_awesome_posters)
• Transform slides into poster format:
  • Select key content only -- less is more
  • Design logical visual layout (top-to-bottom or left-to-right flow)
  • Use high-resolution visuals
  • Maintain consistent fonts and formatting
• Structure: Title banner -> Background -> Method -> Results -> Conclusion -> QR code to repo/paper

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SLIDE DOs AND DON'Ts

DOs

• Include slide numbers (bottom right corner)
• Make titles sharp and informative
  • GOOD: "FedTree achieves 57x speedup over FATE"
  • BAD: "Experimental Results"
• Maximum 3-4 lines of text per slide, ~50 words total
• Replace text with visuals wherever possible
• Cite sources with URL in small font at slide bottom
• Limit 1-2 figures per slide, placed centrally
• Add concise headline to each figure (10-20 words)
• Conclusion slide: exactly 3 brief points
  1. Why the problem matters
  2. What your approach is
  3. What you achieved
• Every element on a slide must be fully explained
• Define ALL symbols before or when they appear
• Remove anything that does not serve a purpose

DON'Ts

• Never put raw code on slides -- explain concepts and illustrate with examples
• Never put complex formulas on slides -- simplify or use intuitive notation
• Never use generic titles like "Experimental Results" or "Related Work"
• Never have a slide that you skip or say "I'll skip this" -- remove it
• Never exceed the time limit -- practice with a timer

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REHEARSAL REQUIREMENTS

Per Prof. He's group rules:

• Rehearse with the group at least once, ideally 2 weeks before
• Send slides to supervisor beforehand for review
• Practice with a timer (leave a 3-5 minute buffer for Q&A)
• Get feedback on pacing, clarity, and Q&A readiness
• Check the AV setup before you present. As Prof. He notes, "even distinguished professors still check this before their seminar" -- projector, adapters, clicker, fonts, and font sizes. Nothing is beneath your attention.

Handling Q&A: answer with the four-move framework -- Acknowledge → Anchor evidence → Bound claim → Next step (see /openbs-thesis defense for the worked example). Keep a backup slide with the anchoring figure ready for each anticipated question.

AI-era prep (augment, don't automate): Prof. He's own recommended prompt -- "Please review these slides for clarity and effectiveness" -- is a good self-critique pass to catch dense slides, generic titles, and undefined symbols. But you decide the story and what to cut; AI polishes delivery, it does not supply the narrative. See /openbs-ai-era.

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OUTPUT FORMAT

Based on the presentation type, provide:

For a new presentation:

1. Suggested slide outline with title and content for each slide
2. Key figures needed and what they should show
3. Talking points for each slide (2-3 bullet points of what to SAY, not what's on the slide)
4. Anticipated Q&A questions and suggested answers
5. Time allocation breakdown

For reviewing existing slides/content:

1. Structure assessment -- does it follow the recommended flow?
2. Slide count check -- appropriate for the time slot?
3. Content density check -- any slides overloaded with text?
4. Title quality -- are titles informative or generic?
5. Missing elements -- backup slides, acknowledgments, slide numbers?
6. Storytelling flow -- does it tell a coherent narrative?