04-330 HW11

Skills: Technical Understanding, Communication, and Presentation Skills

Technical Investigation and Presentation

For this project you will work in teams to investigate a technical topic and give a 20-minute presentation during classtime. Presentations will be given the final week of the semester. Please plan on about 15 minutes to present, with 5 minutes of Q&A.

You will work in groups of 4-5 students (depending on the number of students in the course), for a total of 5 teams. You may choose your own teams. Note that this is a requirement!

Deadlines:

Details:

Each team will investigate and present one of the folloing 8 topics, which will be assigned in class:

  1. Exceptions (Java)
  2. Formatted printing (C/C++ and Java)
  3. Thread Pools (Java)
  4. Files and Streams (Java versus C/C++)
  5. Functional Programming and Lambda Expressions
    (C++, Java, Python)
  1. STL versus Collections (C++ and comparison to Java)
  2. Value Semantics (C++)
  3. Multidimensional Arrays (Java)
  4. The Garbage Collector (Java)
  5. Pointers with Arrays, Classes, and struct (C/C++)
  6. C struct versus C++ Classes (C/C++)

Evaluation

  1. Presentation 50%

    25% will be for the group, 25% will be individual

    Specific areas of evaluation include:

    • Presentation is within the stated timeframe.
    • Visual aids are clear and readable.
    • Each member of the group contributes.
    • Smooth transitions.
    • Interesting presentation.
    • Good, appropriate use of the whiteboard.
    • Good responses during Q&A.

    • The speaker can be heard.
    • The speaker can be understood.
    • The speaker gives clear and accurate explanations.
    • When questioned, the speaker gives clear and accurate answers.
    • The speaker demonstrates understanding of the topic.
    • The speaker engages the audience.

  2. Technical Content 50%

    Specific areas of evaluation for both the presentation and documentation include:

    • Documentation is well written and organized.
    • Understandable technical explanations.
    • No technical errors.
    • Technical coverage is at the appropriate level.
    • Good, clear explanations of usefulness/relevance.
    • Good, clear, and targeted code examples/snippets.

    Your presentation material must be reviewed by the Writing Lab or by making an appoint directly with Lucy-Anna, Jessica, or Jenny during Week 14.

    Note: Each member of the group must be present for this review.

Resources:

  1. Your instructor
  2. Your TAs
  3. Your textbook
  4. The online Java API Documentation
  5. The online Java Tutorials

Note: The Internet is not listed - do NOT do undirected Google searches. Your Instructor and TAs will help you properly scope your investigation and presentation topics.