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Information
and Instructions for Presenters of Candidate Team Projects
Project "Pitchers",
Thank you once again for your
willingness to participate in the Stanford Course: Perspectives in Assistive
Technology and pitch your project suggestion to the class on Thursday,
January 11th. If you are uncomfortable or unable to attend the class
session, you may record and send me a 3-minute video illustrating the project
challenge.
Requirements for project
suggestions: Please review the requirements
for project ideas.
Class location and parking: The
class will be held in the Lathrop Library, Classroom 282. Refer to the
Classroom Location and Accessibility
Information webpage for driving directions and parking instructions. Let me
know if you would like me to mail you a printed map highlighting the classroom
location and nearby parking areas.
Class time:
- Please plan to arrive at the
classroom by 4:15pm for setup. Give yourself extra time to negotiate
traffic, navigate around campus, find a parking space, and make your way to the
classroom.
- The class session will begin
promptly at 4:30pm.
- Please stick around after all the
project pitches so that students can approach you with specific questions to
help them better understand your project suggestion and thereby aid in choosing
a project to pursue.
- The order of presentation will
be listed here. Let me know if you will be
unable to arrive at the beginning of class so I can re-order the
schedule.
Presentation
logistics:
- You are welcome to compose a short
slideshow if you think your pitch would benefit from the display of a video, a
few images, or text. (It would be best to upload any videos to YouTube and
include links to them in your slideset.) You can also distribute a short
handout.
- Email me your PowerPoint
presentation and a soft copy of any handouts you wish to disseminate by
Monday, January 9th so I can load it on my
laptop and make handout copies for the students. (Having your presentation
pre-loaded on my laptop minimizes turn-over time from one project pitcher to
the next, assures that the slides will display properly, and makes the material
available before class to any students with visual
impairments.)
- Multiple monitors and speakers are
available in the classroom.
- There is a wireless device to
advance the slides and a laser pointer for your use.
- Access to the Internet is available
only through my laptop, so it is ok to include weblinks in your
slides.
- You will be given a wireless
microphone to wear on your lapel to record audio from your lecture. Do not
handle the microphone as it generates noise.
- Your pitch will be videotaped and
posted on YouTube.
Presentation
suggestions:
- The pitch time for a single project
must be no longer than three minutes. This
will be strictly enforced to allow time for every project to be
presented.
- Present the most important
information at the beginning of your pitch to prevent having that information
cut off.
- Be short and concise.
- Practice your pitch for
timing.
- The objective of your pitch is to
interest students in taking on your project.
- Describe and illustrate the
challenge or problem to be addressed. Do not suggest solutions as that is the
students' responsibility.
- Assume students have already read
your project description, so do not merely restate it.
- The overall framework for your pitch
is:
- User: Identify the user or user group
- Context: Describe the context or situation in which the problem
exists
- Problem: Provide an example incident that calls for a new
device
- Solution: Show how the user or user group would use the new
device
- Outcome: Describe the happy outcome for the user or user
group
- Pitch checklist:
- Introduce yourself
- Name your facility or organization
- State your role in the facility or
organization
- Give a very brief background of the population and/or
impairment addressed by your project suggestion
- Identify the problem or challenge
- Illustrate examples of the problem in a
slide
- Show images in slides as it is difficult for students
to see anything that you hold up
- List the prototype's desired operational features and
specifications
- Describe what the prototype device should do, but not
how it should be designed (the student team will come up with a creative
solution)
- Suggest design concepts / alternatives
- Provide any additional information such as
weblinks
- Mention the skills that are needed to fabricate the
prototype: mechanical, electronic, computer, programming - so the students will
be able to judge if it is an appropriate project for them to
undertake.
- Specify what resources, expertise, and involvement you
will be able to provide
- Bring along any prior prototypes you might have to show
to students - after all the pitches have been presented - not during your
pitch
- Prepare to provide more project details and answer
questions at the end of the class - after all the pitches have been
presented - not during your pitch
- Your pitch should not be a
scientific presentation.
- Avoid highly technical engineering,
medical terms, and abbreviations.
- Please do not overwhelm the students
with technical details.
- Communicate they can successfully
pursue the assistive technology project that you have suggested.
Audience:
- The audience will include Stanford
engineering students (mostly mechanical engineering) and individuals from the
greater Stanford community (perhaps as many as 50 people total).
- There may be several students who
arrive late or have to leave early due to other class committments.
Video pitch:
- If you are unable to present your
project(s) in class, you can alternately create a short video pitch (not longer
than three minutes). Upload the video to YouTube and send me the url so I can
play it in class.
Class website:
Please contact me if you have any
questions. Thank you again,
- Dave Jaffe
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