Turning the Paper into a Talk

Assessing the audience.
Don't bore them, but don't omit essential details.
Enhance technical level of talk over that of paper
     so this audience takes something new away.
Figures
Audiences expect illustrations with occasional sound bits.
Seek out and develop good visual material to illustrate points.
Web is a good place to search. Many images can be manipulated.
     (Tools: xv, scanners, Photoshop. Ask friends for help.)
Emphasize figures for biggest positive impact on talk's success.
 
Coverage
The old adage -- a young professor covers a lot; an old professor uncovers a little -- is good to keep in mind. Restrict your topics so you can do a good job on them: effective, clear communication.
 
Take home message
What do you want the audience to carry away?
What one thing? Is there a need for two or three messages?
 
Preparing
Do sentence outline (one main point per viewgraph).
Then revise it.
Headlines
Put main point as headline on vg -- written to fit on single line.


Turning Short Papers into 10-Minute Talks (3-5 viewgraphs)

Jeff Brocketti: Parallax
All will understand trigonometric parallax. Can technical level be upgraded to include indirect approaches: spectroscopic parallax; parallaxes of a star of a proper motion and apparent magnitude; distribution of proper motions and tangential velocities.
Pat Collins: Aerogels
The technical level can be upgraded in a number of ways: more details on thermal insulation physics and its usefulness; why bluish tint decreases effectiveness and how this might be overcome; one or two good applications.
Gary Damico: Quark substructure
Perhaps the most interesting aspects is how physicists analyze small amounts of data to suggest breakdowns in the standard model; how the scientific community reaches a consensus of validity of analysis. Alternately, is there relatively simple physics to explain how theory estimates high-energy tail in data?
Jennifer Donaldson: slapshot physics
Technical level could be ratcheted up for classmates to understand all the elements of the slapshot. Alternately a more challenging example of sports physics may be for effective.
Matt Jones: quantum mechanics and reality
This general paper would be more effective in talk form if you could develop a specific example that illustrated all features: (i) conflict between relativistic and quantum mechanical measurements; (ii) hidden variable; (iii) many-world approach.
Robert Kennedy: Structure and automotive safety
Technical upgrade could include figures on effectiveness of conventional and side airbags, shift of children seating position, where forces are concentrated. Be careful not to be too gruesome.
 
Doug Long: Kuiper belt
Since someone else is doing extra-solar planets, perhaps you might concentrate on theories of solar system origin, which you could illustrate in terms of information now available on extra-solar planets.
Michael Loomis: physics of vocal sound
Perhaps physics might be illustrated if organized around exceptional singers with two separate tones or exceptional ranges, laryngeal mechanisms for basic registers: chest, midvoice, head.
Steven Marusa: quantum teleportation
Clear away the misconceptions from scifi; simplify teleportation from that of matter to quantum information. Concrete experiment could illustrate all main points.
Chow-Choong Ngeow: Extra-solar planets
Technical detail needed for clear estimate of luminosity, distance, mass and nature of orbits.
Stanley Phillips: radiation treatment of tumors
Physics and chemistry of ionizing radiation is a rich topic in itself. Achieving selectivity for tumors is another.
Elena Vianello: solar neutrinos
Kinds of neutrinos could be reviewed and how different masses could affect thermonuclear solar processes. Trick will be to limit topics so one or two are clearly explained.
Jordan Vincent: monitoring nuclear test
Many technical directions are possible. How seismic waves distinguish various kinds of seismic activity? How the magnitude and direction of the event is estimated?
Eric Weingartner: stealth technology
Ratchet up technological explanations taking advantage of shared knowledge of electricity and magnetism.