TED plan B makeup speech, 12/1/2010

Last Wednesday, I made up my TED speech on 'Gandhian Engineering.' I have to admit that I was a little anxious going into this speech as I didn't know which scenario I would draw up. I found out later that I drew the 'fire drill' which wasn't that bad. The alarm went off twice during my presentation; the first time the whole class had to 'evacuate' and for the second round everyone remained in the class. I think I handled the situation pretty well; I knew something was going to happen so it didn't catch me by surprise. When the class went outside, I definitely acted a little aggressive trying to get everyone to go back inside. I thought I was going to present out in the hallway so I started passing around handouts but it turned out they weren't necessary. I think making the outlines was a good way to prepare for the Plan B scenario in case I had drawn a different situation. The slide content, I thought, was pretty good. The picture content was greater than the textual content, which helped get the important concepts and messages across to the audience. I think the main message of the presentation of "making more from less" was really sticky. It is easy to remember because it is written in simple English but at the same time it has a powerful meaning. The concept of Gandhian Engineering was a good topic because it reminds us that there are 4 billion people in the world that have an income of $2 a day. Living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world it is difficult for Americans what life would be like with the aforementioned income rate. Gandhian Engineering is a concept that the whole world needs to embrace if human beings want to preserve a future for generations to come. By looking at the video footage, it seems like I know the material well and that I'm presenting confidently. At times I am speaking a little too fast and look back at the slides.

Group Discussion, 11/10

The discussion topic for of my discussion was the question of the legalization of marijuana in the U.S. Specifically I focused on California's Prop 19, which would have legalized pot in the state for casual use. It was voted against by a margin of 54% to 46%. I thought this was a really interesting topic because there are so many different takes on marijuana. Some people support it claiming that it is not as harmful as the government claims and that it stimulates the economy (especially in the case of California), as it brings in much needed income. And of course others are against pot, saying that the drug makes people lazy, overly relaxed and ineffective. We also looked at other places in the world where marijuana has been legalized (i.e., Amsterdam) and their drug policies. Even in Amsterdam where pot has been legal (under certain circumstances) for awhile, the Dutch government has decreased the number of 'coffee houses' from 75 to 35 in the past few years. The beginning of the discussion was a little slow, as most of the audience didn't know what Prop 19 was. As time went on, it became apparent that the audience had some strong views on the topic. Some people went as far as to share some of their personal experiences with the rest of the class. The brief video clip of Oaksterdam University that I shared at the beginning definitely helped the audience understand what California's stance on marijuana is like at the moment. I also think that comparing pot to alcohol was a good idea because in a way they are similar drugs but the laws governing them are totally different. Overall, I thought I did a good job of initiating the conversation and keeping it flowing. I was confident with the material and knew my arguments. I think the outline sort of restricted the potential of the discussion. If it had been more open-ended with the audience generating the questions themselves, it might have been more interesting.

"How to" technical speech

“How to” Technical Presentation Speech, 10/27/10

This past Wednesday we all gave a powerpoint presentations on a technical topic. I chose how to drive stick shift. I was really happy because I was able to stand in front of the audience and confidently explain the steps of manual transmission to the audience without getting nervous. I consider this a big victory for me, seeing as improving my confidence and my speaking skills has been one of my major goals in the class. At the beginning of the term, everyone could sense I was nervous and reluctant to be up at the podium. During this presentation, however, I stood up without any nervous shaking with most of my eye contact directed mainly towards the audience instead of the slides or notecards. I’m really excited about the great stride I have made toward my goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the semester. I think I had the right amount of information in my slides, but some of them were a bit text heavy and I could have simplified them by reducing them to a few words per slide. I realize some of the terminology was a bit confusing especially to those who had never driven a manual car before. I definitely enjoyed presenting the material to the audience, and the class could tell I knew what I was talking about. My improved presenting skills are evident as seen in my body language and expressions in the video. Ever since the Impromtu speeches a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed I’ve done a really job of controlling my nerves. I’m obviously looking to continue this trend onto my next speaking opportuntity.

Final Impromtu Speeches

Part 1: Proposal to Johns Hopkins President for Improvement in some Aspect of School Life

For the first part of the final impromtu/extemp speeches, everyone had 5 minutes to prepare for the topic above. I found it pretty helpful to have this time to prepare, as opposed to the second part which had no preparation time. The aspect I chose to improve was the impersonal nature of professors at Hopkins especially in large lecture classes like Organic Chemistry, Physics, certain math classes, etc. I argued that incoming freshmen feel like they’re just a number in these large classes and feel intimidated to approach the professors because of the prestigious nature of Johns Hopkins. Being uncomfortable approaching professors and TAs for help could affect the student’s performance in the class, being the difference between a failing and a passing grade. To solve this problem, I suggested setting up rendezvous at the beginning, middle and end of the semesters during which the students and professors would meet and get to know each other. The professors would perhaps introduce themselves and talk about their research interests, etc. Another way to break the seemingly ‘impersonal’ nature of the professors would be to have the President and/or school fund class dinners at a nice restaurant once a semester. These would be group dinners as opposed to one-on-one with a student and the professor. At any point during a rendezvous or a dinner, the students would feel free to bring up any questions or concerns about the course material. Finally, at the end of the semester, a correlation would be established between the student’s performance (i.e., grade) and his or her familiarity with the professor. This of course would be compared to students’ performance without having the sponsored events to show the overall effectiveness.

Overall, I thought this was a legitimate and fairly widespread issue at Hopkins and that I did a decent job of explaining that to the Presidential committee. I made some good points, especially when the committee said it would rather spend the money on research. I argued that the tuition is really expensive and that students should have a say in how it’s spent. The funding for research is already sufficient and some of it can be sacrificed to reduce the stereotype that some professors at Hopkins are impersonal and care more about research than the wellbeing of their students. I thought my solutions were good but that they were kind of similar. I felt like I could have done a better job planning out at the beginning to come up with more distinct solutions. As far as the video is concerned, I appear to be comfortable and relaxed for the most part, but there are times when I seem nervous and have some hesitation in my voice.

Part 2: Random Draw from a Hat

For the second part of the impromtu speeches, we had no preparation time and this was definitely more challenging than the first part. For this one, I went first and the topic I drew was ‘Unrealistic Representation of Women in Magazines.’ I think I started off the presentation pretty well. I talked about how certain magazines like Cosmopolitan try to target women, especially adolescent girls. These magazines try to tell women how they should dress, what their bodies should look like (i.e. breast size) and what men are looking for in a woman. The point is that often these magazines give false and misleading information, but teenage girls are susceptible to this because they’re exploring and discovering what they like and what they don’t like. The fact these magazines are representing women in an unrealistic manner certainly isn’t helping. Unfortunately, after about 3 minutes or so I began to run out of things to say and eventually stopped about 6 minutes short. In retrospect, there was a lot more I could have said about the topic but it kind of hard going first and being put on the spot. However, that was the point of the speech and there’s definitely room for improvement for me in that department.

Bill Clinton speaks at Federal Hill 10/21

Last Thursday, October 21st, I attended a rally for Democratic Maryland governor Martin O'Malley at Federal Hill in Baltimore. Former president Bill Clinton spoke at the rally in addition to a few other Maryland Democrats. The rally was an attempt to gain support for Gov. O'Malley who is running against former Maryland governor and Republican Bob Ehrlich. Clinton started off his speech by mentioning that this year's gubernatorial election is "tale of two governors." "You couldn't have a more stark contrast [between O'Malley and Ehrlich]." Clinton used a lot of facts and statistics in describing the various achievements of O'Malley, including the vast improvement of Maryland public schools and the establishment of a new "green" economy. The former President criticized Ehrlich by saying that, "[O'Malley's] opponent is so desperate he ran a television ad accusing him of raising taxes on groceries and you don't even tax groceries in Maryland." He followed that with, "if there's one thing that makes me want to gag it's when members of the other party present themselves as fiscal conservatives." He closed his speech by mentioning that "Martin O'Malley has put you in the forefront of the 21st century and you need to keep him right there." At the end he shook hands with members of the audience and signed autographs. This was the first time I had seen Bill Clinton in person but not the first time I had heard him give a speech. He definitely lived up to his reputation as a brilliant orator. Although he has a celebrity status, having been a former President, Clinton speaks in a style that is "very down-to earth" and easy to understand. A lot of politicians use big words and complicated vocabulary when making speeches and sometimes it's difficult to understand the point they're trying to make. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, effectively presents his ideas using simple language. This gives the audience the sense that Clinton is one of them; he understands the problems of the average Marylander. This is how Clinton connects with his audience, and as a result it makes him seem very approachable. Many politicians have a celebrity status and seem more than just human. Clinton, on the other hand, is a celebrity with a human status. He speaks with emotion. His human status gives him more credibility than the average politician. Clinton may use simpler language but he presents his ideas and messages in a logical manner. When he makes a claim, he always has facts, statistics, etc. to back it up. When Clinton praised O'Malley at the beginning of his speech, he gave concrete, authentic reasons: Maryland's public school system has been voted one of the best in the country during O'Malley's tenure and that O'Malley has created more job opportunities in the state. Clinton can also be quite frank as well; he is not afraid to speak his mind and to criticize. For example, the former President criticized the Republican Party as being hypocritical for its claim of being fiscally conservative. He emphasized the importance of Democrats showing up and voting for O'Malley in the 2010 gubernatorial elections, saying O'Malley has brought you into the 21st Century. Overall, Clinton is a very talented public speaker. He speaks in a "human" manner but is able to articulate his ideas and messages effectively by using concrete and authentic evidence.

Practice Extemp & Impromtu

For my first practice impromptu speech, I chose a pretty humorous topic: solving the dating problem at JHU. For the first part of the speech, I think I did a good job of conveying that humor to the audience. After the first few minutes, however, I continually got nervous, which the crowd could definitely sense and was evident in the online video. My anxiety was preventing me from coming up with new "material," solutions for the JHU dating crisis. I think if I had been more relaxed and hadn't thought about the topic that much, I would have been much more relaxed and it would have come out much more naturally. For the second impromptu speech, we pretended we were being filmed for prospective future Hopkins students (i.e., high school seniors and their parents. For this one, I was much more fluid, less hesitant and cut the number of "ums" in half. The second one was a little easier than the first because we are all students at Hopkins and have been here for awhile, so finding things to say about the school, its academics, sports, etc. comes pretty naturally. For the final impromtu/extemp speech, I would personally like to reduce all filler words like "um" and "so" and preferably not say any at all. I would also like to give the speech with no hesitation showing the audience I'm confident and know what I'm talking about. For me, the key is not to over-analyze the speech topic. Since one can't prepare for the topic anyway, one might as well relax and be able to "think on one's feet fast," (i.e, quickly think of solutions for the problem at hand). As long as I am relaxed and don't think too much about the topic, the word flow will be more natural, showing confidence instead of anxiety.

Interview

For the interview last Wednesday I applied for the Cannon Scholarship. With the scholarship funds ($15,000), I wanted to play a role in establishing the U.S. as a leader in renewable energy (e.g., solar power). Being the world's strongest economy and an emitter of 25% of the world's carbon dioxide, not only does the U.S. have an economic responsibility but a moral one as well. I thought I had a good cause for the internship but I could have done a better job of explaining what exactly I would do the scholarship money and how that would help me bring the U.S. to the forefront of renewable energy. For example, one of the interviews asked me: "Where do you see yourself 15 years down the road?" My answer was too general; I said I expected to be working at a top institution like Johns Hopkins, MIT or CalTech. A better response would have been to talk about the degrees (i.e., Masters, Ph.D, etc.) that I would need in order to get a high ranking position at one of these institutions or to get a job in the energy industry in the first place. The interviewers were definitely looking for specific answers in this case; they wanted to know the different steps I would take to further my education. In general I think my answers could have been more specific; for many of them, I gave similar responses. "To establish the U.S. as the global leader in renewable energy." I noticed in the video that some of responses were not fluid, i.e., I hesitated at times and stumbled with my words. Listening to my voice in the video, there are times when it sounds a bit tense. If I had the chance to redo the interview, I would definitely review more sample questions instead of those just on the assignment sheet. Overall the interview was decent with some room for improvement.

Final Technical Presentation

For my final presentation I changed my topic from how solar cells function to proper rowing technique. I think this was a good change because I had already talked about solar power in Germany for my baseline speech and I felt like I needed to change the topic to make things more interesting. I definitely enjoyed preparing for this speech because I know a lot about rowing and have lots of experience doing it. I was really happy with my presentation. Rowing, especially rowing terminology can be a little tricky to those who don't know much about it. The part of powerpoint where I talked about the stroke and broke down each part of it by showing pictures was a really good idea. In each picture, I try to emphasize that the main objective in rowing is to maximize the positive force and minimize the negative force.I drew block arrows, angles, etc. to help illustrate this idea. I thought the best part was the video of U.S. men's Olympic 8 at Athens in 2004. After looking at each part of the rowing stroke, it's nice to see it being all put together . There's nothing better than watching the men's 8 row down the course. I though my hook for the presentation was pretty good and relevant. Mentioning that the Vikings longship was the prototype for the modern day crew shell was pretty interesting. As always, I need to work on feeling more comfortable in front of the audience. By that, I mean I need to start eventually moving in front of the audience instead of behind the podium. I hope I'll be able to do this by the end of the semester. At times I spoke a little fast and seemed to be a little nervous. During the presentation I looked back at the slides a little bit instead of keeping my eye contact on the audience. Overall it was a good presentation but there are some recurring themes from previous presentations that I still need to work on.

Practice Technical Speech

I thought I did an OK job on the practice technical. My slides were pretty good but I thought my topic was a little complicated (how solar cells work) and I should have simplified it more for the audience. I spent a lot of time explaining the chemistry of P[ositive] and N[egative] junctions which definitely confused some of the audience. In retrospect I probably should have spent more time talking about the basic principles of how PV cells work. A better approach would have been to talk about the basic function of PV cells, then mention the implications of improving the efficiency of these cells. Because solar energy is a vast and abundant source of renewable energy, improving the efficiency of solar cells would mean more sunlight could be converted into energy, thus making solar energy more competitive with non-renewable sources like fossil fuels. In terms of my presentation skills, I spoke a little fast and looked back at my slides a little too often. Luckily this is only the practice speech so I have time to make corrections before the next presentation. I liked how immediately following every practice speech, everyone received both negative and positive criticism. One finds out what worked and what didn't which was very helpful. I especially enjoyed the part when each of us met with another peer and redid our speeches based on the feedback. In my case, for example Adeboye reminded me not to gesticulate so much with my hands. He helped me by grabbing by hand and didn’t let it move.

Baseline Speech

I was happy with the way the baseline speech turned out. My slides did a good job complementing my presentation about solar energy in Germany. Rather than containing loads of text, the slides were relatively simple, clear and had good graphs/diagrams. In particular, I think the slide with the pie graphs showing the amount of solar electricity that Germany produced in 2008 versus the U.S. really "drove home" the main message of my presentation. It showed just how far ahead Germany is compared to the rest of the industrialized world in terms of renewable energy. I think this slide put things in prespective for the whole class. I was definitely comfortable with the information I was presenting which is a result of my preparation in advance. Obviously after looking at my video there are definitely things I need to work on. One of those is working on my body posture during the presentation. There are times during the video when I'm leaning over the podium. Needless to say, this seems a little awkward. After the title slide, there was a point where stumbled with my words which gave off a sense of nervousness. I also spoke quickly at times which might have been another sign of anxiety. Like I've mentioned in my previous blogs, controlling my nerves will continue to be on of my major goals throughout the semester. Another thing I noticed in my video was that I looked at my notecards a lot. I think I knew the material well enough that I didn't need to do that. Unless the cards contain just a few main points to serve as a remainder of what's on each slide, they will otherwise be confusing. The eye contact should be directed towards the audience and not the cards.

Presentation Zen chapter five

For this presentation, I thought I did a good job sticking close to the guidelines of the assignment of making it "personal." I compared a past experience to the teachings of chapter 5 using lots of personal items like photos, etc. The hook was OK but could have been better. Asking the audience whether any of them had been Alaska wasn't really a good way to captivate them. I don't think the relationship between my trip and the ideas presented in chapter 5 was immediately obvious either. I spent too much time on certain slides(i.e., the one where I define analog) whereas I should have spent more time explaining how backpacking relates to preparing for a presentation. That particular slide had too much text which confused the audience a little bit, forcing them to read and pay attention to me at the same time. Although I had prepared well for the presentation, I still gave off some nervous body language. My voice clearly quivers at times and I speak too fast, both signs of nervousness. I had somewhat of an awkward stance behind the podium which distracted the audience a little bit. By the end of the semester it is my goal to move my way from behind the podium to standing in front of the audience. However, I know this won't happen over night. It will take lots of practice but I'm confident it can happen. Because I'm not a natural public speaker, I feel like I need to practice more for the presentations to gain confidence and to become more comfortable. I know the material well, but it doesn't necessarily come off that way in front of the audience. I think the key to improving my presentation skills is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Over time it will remove the the tics of "Um" and "you know" and establish comfortability and confidence over time.

Since I wasn't able to present last Wednesday due to a lack of time, I'd like to discuss how I'm planning to prepare for the upcoming class period. I will have to present twice this Wednesday, once on solar energy in Germany as well as on chapter three of Presentation Zen. Needless to say, the key to success for each one will be to prepare well in advance so I will have lots of time to practice. Keeping the major "lessons" of Presentation Zen in mind will also be important. One of these so-called lessons is to keep the slide content as simple as possible. This means keeping the bullet points and excess information to a minimum. I don't want to confuse or lose the attention of my audience. I want to make sure that each slide is relevant to the central message of my presentation. To check for relevancy, I will ask myself the question: how does this apply to the central message? If each of my slides passes this "test," I will know that the slide show is "doing its job" as an aid to the story I'm trying to tell. The "elevator test" from chapter 3 will be a good way to check for the clarity of the core message; if the main message isn't clear after 30-45 seconds, then I know I've got to make some changes to my slides. As long as I stick to these guidelines, I think I will do a fairly decent job.