My 2nd year PostGrad Conference

Every year, the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials of the Newcastle University hold a Postgraduate Research Conference (PGRC) for its 2nd and 3rd year PG students. The PGRC is a two days event where all 2nd and 3rd PG students present their work to their peers and to the Postgraduate Panel Committee members. Each PG students are given about 20 minutes to do his or her presentation. A brief question and answer session should also be included in that 20 minutes time.

I know that I am already in my 2nd year , but it has just been about 2 months since I passed my 1st year evaluation. So somehow I think I probably does not have to do it, hehehe... So I e-mailed the chairperson of the PG Panel Committee and asked him. Hemm... His reply is:

Dear Nor,

That depends on when you first registered. If you registered
well over a year ago before your panel interview, then you need to give a
presentation.

So, last two Fridays, the research group I am attached to replaces our weekly seminar with a mock presentation for the members who have to present during the PGRC. I was err.. only 70% prepared for the mock presentation. In my terms, I only considered myself 100% prepared when I have perfected my pitch and I can sail through my presentation without glitches. The mock presentation was good actually because I can improve my presentation based on the constructive comments from my supervisors as well as my research group members.

Anyway, the actual presentation took place last Thursday. From the schedule which I received the week before, it looks like I was going to be the last presenter. Ughh... Being the last presenter has its own pitfalls as well as its advantage. People might not be interested in what you are presenting because they can't wait to get the he** out of the conference room. The advantage of course, you will not get that many questions compare to other presenter.

I was doing alright for my presentation although I have hoped for a slower rate of words coming out of my mouth. I was quite nervous actually considering I wasn't really sure how to interpret my results from the principal components analysis. You see, my research combines two methods, wavelet transform and principal components analysis. So far, I am quite confident in explaining about the wavelet transform methodology. But when it comes to the principal components analysis, I am very unsure of my result. One because, the result is still fresh from the oven and two because I have not yet fully understand principal components analysis theory itself.



The chairperson during my presentation is the same lecturer who 'interviewed' me during my 1st year viva. After the conference ended, I bumped into him and we started chatting. He asked me whether I as nervous because I skipped my last slide. Haha... Very true! Well, actually that slide is not necessary because I have explained it in my previous two slides. He then said my presentation is quite good. Alhamdulillah :)

Preparing for the presentation is actually a good practice for me.
- I gained more confidence talking about my research
- I discovered few angles of which I should probably analysis my data
- I found more and more uhuk... journals to read, reviewed and of course critically think of their contents.