computer science thesis defense presentation

PhD Dissertation Defense Slides Design: Start

• Tips for designing the slides
• Presentation checklist
• Example slides
• Additional Resources

Purpose of the Guide

This guide was created to help ph.d. students in engineering fields to design dissertation defense presentations. the guide provides 1) tips on how to effectively communicate research, and 2) full presentation examples from ph.d. graduates. the tips on designing effective slides are not restricted to dissertation defense presentations; they can be used in designing other types of presentations such as conference talks, qualification and proposal exams, and technical seminars., the tips and examples are used to help students to design effective presentation. the technical contents in all examples are subject to copyright, please do not replicate. , if you need help in designing your presentation, please contact julie chen ([email protected]) for individual consultation. .

• Example Slides Repository
• Defense slides examples Link to examples dissertation defense slides.

Useful Links

• CIT Thesis and dissertation standards
• Dissertations and Theses @ Carnegie Mellon This link opens in a new window Covers 1920-present. Full text of some dissertations may be available 1997-present. Citations and abstracts of dissertations and theses CMU graduate students have published through UMI Dissertation Publishing. In addition to citations and abstracts, the service provides free access to 24 page previews and the full text in PDF format, when available. In most cases, this will be works published in 1997 forward.
• Communicate your research data Data visualization is very important in communicating your data effectively. Check out these do's and don'ts for designing figures.

Power Point Template and other Resources

• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 1
• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 2

Source: CEE Department Resources https://www.cmu.edu/cee/resources/index.html

• CMU Powerpoint Slide Template

Source: CMU Marketing and Communications

https://www.cmu.edu/marcom/brand-standards/downloads/index.html

• Use of CMU logos, marks, and Unitmarks

Email me for questions and schedule an appointment

Top 7 tips for your defense presentation

1. show why your study is important, remember, your audience is your committee members, researchers in other fields, and even the general public. you want to convince all of them why you deserve a ph.d. degree. you need to talk about why your study is important to the world. in the engineering field, you also need to talk about how your study is useful. try to discuss why current practice is problematic or not good enough, what needs to be solved, and what the potential benefits will be. , see how dr. posen and dr. malings explained the importance of their studies..

• Carl Malings Defense Slides with Notes
• I. Daniel Posen Defense Slides with Notes

2. Emphasize YOUR contribution 

Having a ph.d. means that you have made some novel contributions to the grand field. this is about you and your research. you need to keep emphasizing your contributions throughout your presentation. after talking about what needs to be solved, try to focus on emphasizing the novelty of your work. what problems can be solved using your research outcomes what breakthroughs have you made to the field why are your methods and outcomes outstanding you need to incorporate answers to these questions in your presentation. , be clear what your contributions are in the introduction section; separate what was done by others and what was done by you. , 3. connect your projects into a whole piece of work, you might have been doing multiple projects that are not strongly connected. to figure out how to connect them into a whole piece, use visualizations such as flow charts to convince your audience. the two slides below are two examples. in the first slide, which was presented in the introduction section, the presenter used a flow diagram to show the connection between the three projects. in the second slide, the presenter used key figures and a unique color for each project to show the connection..

• Xiaoju Chen Defense Slides with Notes

4. Tell a good story 

The committee members do not necessarily have the same background knowledge as you. plus, there could be researchers from other fields and even the general public in the room. you want to make sure all of your audience can understand as much as possible. focus on the big picture rather than technical details; make sure you use simple language to explain your methods and results. your committee has read your dissertation before your defense, but others have not. , dr. cook and dr. velibeyoglu did a good job explaining their research to everyone. the introduction sessions in their presentations are well designed for this purpose. .

• Laren M. Cook Defense Slides with Notes
• Irem Velibeyoglu Defense with Notes

5. Transition, transition, transition

Use transition slides to connect projects , it's a long presentation with different research projects. you want to use some sort of transition to remind your audience what you have been talking about and what is next. you may use a slide that is designed for this purpose throughout your presentation. , below are two examples. these slides were presented after the introduction section. the presenters used the same slides and highlighted the items for project one to indicate that they were moving on to the first project. throughout the presentation, they used these slides and highlighted different sections to indicate how these projects fit into the whole dissertation. .

You can also use some other indications on your slides, but remember not to make your slides too busy.  Below are two examples. In the first example, the presenter used chapter numbers to indicate what he was talking about. In the second example, the presenter used a progress bar with keywords for each chapter as the indicator. 

Use transition sentences to connect slides 

Remember transition sentences are also important; use them to summarize what you have said and tell your audience what they will expect next. if you keep forgetting the transition sentence, write a note on your presentation. you can either write down a full sentence of what you want to say or some keywords., 6. be brief, put details in backup slides , you won't have time to explain all of the details. if your defense presentation is scheduled for 45 minutes, you can only spend around 10 minutes for each project - that's shorter than a normal research conference presentation focus on the big picture and leave details behind. you can put the details in your backup slides, so you might find them useful when your committee (and other members of the audience) ask questions regarding these details., 7. show your presentation to your advisor and colleagues, make sure to ask your advisor(s) for their comments. they might have a different view on what should be emphasized and what should be elaborated. , you also want to practice at least once in front of your colleagues. they can be your lab mates, people who work in your research group, and/or your friends. they do not have to be experts in your field. ask them to give you some feedback - their comments can be extremely helpful to improve your presentation. , below are some other tips and resources to design your defense presentation. .

• Tips for designing your defense presentation

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas How To Do a Proper Thesis Defense Using the Right PowerPoint Presentation

How To Do a Proper Thesis Defense Using the Right PowerPoint Presentation

Writing a thesis is stressful, but preparing an oral defense can be even more painful. But it doesn’t have to be; with proper preparation and a good presentation, you will be able to better equip yourself comes time to present your thesis defense.

But what makes a good thesis defense?

A proper presentation helps you with your thesis defense because it helps you capture the panels’ attention and gives you cues and reminders on what to say as well.

It also helps keep your data organized while visually looking good and provides a flow structure for the rest of your presentation.

In today’s article, we will be giving you The Right PowerPoint Templates for Your Thesis Defense and a powerful outline composed of best practices and layouts specifically designed to help you defend your thesis in both written and oral presentations.

In the next segments of this article, we’ll walk you through the most feasible process on how to ace this kind of presentation.

Let’s dive into the outline of what makes a great thesis defense.

Thesis Defense Overview

Similarities.

• Type of Degree

Thesis and Dissertation Distinction Varies on Location

Three most common thesis defense myths, how to use chatgpt to structure your thesis.

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Acknowledgements
• Questions and Answers
• Contact Information
• Tips During Your Oral Defense
• More Quick Tips on How to Present

A thesis defense is composed of two parts – a thesis and a defense.

The thesis, according to Grad School Hub , represents a student’s collective understanding of his or her program and major.

Universities often include a thesis in every course as one of the final requirements to earn a particular graduate or postgraduate degree.

The thesis, however, isn’t just a mere requirement.

It helps the students to grow out of their shell from their respective discipline and give them the opportunity to present all the findings of their study.

Moreover, some people think a thesis is just a long essay, but it’s not. Unlike an essay, a thesis needs to assert something.

This can be considered one of the most crucial research documents that a student makes during their academic schooling .

On the other hand, defense is the presentation of the pieces of evidence to support and prove your research.

It’s the most essential part of the thesis process.

Your presentation has to be prepared to answer questions from members of the committee and any other panel present, and it’s your job to convince them and defend your thesis with ample proof.

Prior to presenting, you have to carefully determine what appropriate evidence should be presented before the panel, depending on what thesis you have to defend.

Thesis and Dissertation Distinguished

A thesis or dissertation is usually required to complete a particular graduate degree. These two words are often used interchangeably by most students when referring to research studies.

But while being almost similar in format or structure, it’s worth noting that they have significant differences that set them apart from each other.

The very reason why thesis and dissertation are treated the same is that these two are both extensive papers. Not just merely long essays like what others are claiming.

Both of these papers are extensive. This is why students are given ample time, usually the entire last semester of the last year of study, to complete all the requirements and finally acquire their degree.

With regards to structure, both papers are very similar with few differences.

Differences Between Thesis and Dissertation

One of the significant differences between the two is to whom the paper is assigned. A thesis is usually required for those students earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree. While a dissertation is for those, who want to obtain a doctorate degree.

However, not all students taking a master’s degree are required to make a thesis. Prior to their enrollment, they have been given a choice of whether they’ll go for a non-thesis program or with a thesis.

Those who have a plan to escalate their degree to a doctorate eventually should take the path of a thesis. This is to prepare themselves for a more extensive dissertation requirement as doctorate students. Otherwise, they will be only limited to earning a master’s degree.

But above all, the most significant difference between the two papers is the purpose for which it is written.

A thesis, like what has been mentioned above, is being done by students obtaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree and has the purpose of testing their understanding of the discipline they’re engaged with.

A thesis is focused on obtaining technical expertise.

On the other hand, a dissertation is made for students to come up with an original study that other researchers haven’t already studied.

USA: In the United States of America, they consider a thesis shorter than a dissertation. In fact, aside from being a requirement to graduate in college, a thesis is now also inculcated in master’s degree programs. And since the dissertation is more extensive, the thesis is treated as preliminary in gaining a doctorate degree.

Europe: The distinction between the two papers is almost opposite to that of the USA. In Europe, a dissertation is only a broader research study from a post-graduate program and not the making of original research. Instead, educational systems in the said continent treat the doctoral thesis as a more elaborate paper writing.

The difference between a thesis and a dissertation might not seem that big, but it’s important that we know what makes them different.

If your upcoming defense gives you pressure and uneasiness, it could be cause you are not sure what to expect. Today we will dispel three common thesis defense myths that will help you be more confident in your presentation.

“Answer all the questions correctly. Otherwise, your thesis won’t get approved.”

You are expected to have a focus on your research.

That being said, you have to study each part of your thesis, every detail, and even your sources.

You have to study and practice how to effectively deliver your presentation.

But don’t overthink to the extent that you’re stressing yourself to know everything perfectly.

Don’t overstress if you can’t answer one of the questions, this doesn’t necessarily mean the committee won’t approve your thesis.

You should know that research is a continuous study.

So you should expect that your committee will always be able to find a gap in your study to fill in future related research .

So in times you don’t exactly know the answer, admit it, and you’ll learn as they give their sides or suggestions.

Making up an answer will only displease your committee, so it’s to be upfront, honest, and transparent.

“The committee is just there to find holes in your study. They don’t care about you.”

One of the typical descriptions students have of the committee is that they are just there to poke holes in your thesis.

Going in with this perspective makes standing before them a nerve-wracking experience.

They’re not your enemy.

In fact, they are there to help you polish your study.

They might challenge you with difficult suggestions and tricky questions.

In the end, they will walk you through the process to come up with better results that won’t only benefit you but also your research.

They care about you and your study, and they’re ultimately there to make your thesis and the research better.  Separate yourself from your work look at it objectively, and don’t take their comments personally .

“If your thesis defense isn’t successful, you have to start your thesis all over again”

An unsuccessful defense is one of the worst-case fears most students have.

One thing that you should be aware of is when you aren’t able to please your committee, you don’t need to start a new thesis again or go back to square one with your existing paper.

It’s unusual that your committee will ask you to change your topic and start from scratch again.

The fact that you’ve been permitted to defend your study means your research is almost complete.

They might suggest further details or ask you for minor revisions, and that’s normal.

But overall, you need to go into this defense thinking that your presentation will be successful. Otherwise, you are already setting yourself up for failure with the wrong mindset.

Remember that positive thoughts attract positive results.

Thesis Defense Presentation Structure and Slides Content

We can use language learning models like ChatGPT to help us curate the structure of our thesis presentation. Let’s see a step-by-step solution on how to apply this.

Step 1: Define the thesis topic and research questions

You can set the environment for ChatGPT to work by explaining what your thesis is going to cover and which specific questions you aim to address through the course of that document. This gives ChatGPT the context from which it shall formulate the structure. A prompt can be written like this:

“Take the role of an academic professional who shall help me to write my thesis. This thesis is going to cover the topic of (insert topic), and through its course, I want to answer these questions: Question 1 – Question 2 – Question 3 – Consider this information as the starting point for this chat.”

Step 2: Ask for an outline

With the previously provided information, ask ChatGPT to generate an outline for your presentation. If some of the points listed in the output don’t convince you, then chat with the interface until you reach a final outline. Then, ask to elaborate on each specific point for information or cues you may have overlooked.

Step 3: Ask ChatGPT which content should you place per slide

Instead of debating how are you going to trim your thesis into a presentation format, ask ChatGPT to do the decision process for you. You can be as specific as asking how many words per slide, how many slides should the presentation have, if you need any visual element, etc.

N.B.: We don’t recommend using ChatGPT to retrieve academic references as, in some cases, it can provide faulty results. You can ask if any facts on this presentation need to be checked or similar questions. ChatGPT is a powerful tool, but it shouldn’t be considered a bible, so be extra cautious about grabbing content directly from its outputs.

1. Title Page

This slide should contain the information that is provided on the title page of your hard copy . Here is an example of title page or cover slide for your title defense or thesis presentation.

• The title of your research paper
• Where you are studying
• Name and details of your course
• Name of Adviser

2. Introduction Slide

Your introduction slide should provide the committee with an idea of the following:

• What is the topic area that you are investigating ?
• What are the specific research questions that you set out to answer?
• Why is this question important to answer?
• What were the objectives of your research?

3. Literature Review Slide

It’s not necessary to cover everything that’s currently understood in the available literature. You may want to present the following content under a Literature Review slide:

• Relevant current research that is close to your topic
• Different theories that may apply to your specific area of research
• Areas of weakness that are currently highlighted

4. Methodology Slide

Make sure to touch the factors below within your process, and include the following in the Methodology slide:

• The type of study you have conducted: qualitative, quantitative, or mixed
• The methods that you chose and why
• Details of the population, sampling methods, and other information
• Provide information regarding how you have analyzed the data that you have collected

5. Results Slide

This part should give the committee/audience a good understanding of what you’ve discovered during your research. The statistics & results slide could include the final results of your analysis, here is an example:

• An overall description of the data that you collected during your research
• The results of the analysis that you have done on that data
• What were the most significant findings from your data

6. Discussion Slide

Highlight here the meaning of the findings in relation to your discipline program and the research that you have done:

• What are the major findings, and what do they mean with regard to your research
• How do these findings relate to what others have found in the past
• How can you explain any unusual or surprising result

7. Conclusions Slide

You have to end your presentation with a conclusion summarizing all that you have found within your research. Here is an example of a Conclusion slide in a Thesis presentation:

• Restate your research questions
• Show how your results answer these questions
• Show what contribution you have made
• State any limitations to the work you have done
• Suggest future research
• Make any recommendations

See Also: How to Create a Great Investors Pitch Deck and Close the Deal

8. Acknowledgements Slide

Express gratitude to your advisor, committee members, peers, and others who supported your research journey. This slide provides a moment to acknowledge the collaborative nature of academic work.

9. Questions and Answers Slide

Dedicate a slide for audience questions at the end of your presentation.

Encourage engagement by inviting questions from the audience.

Be prepared to provide clear and concise responses to inquiries.

10. References Slide

Include a slide listing your cited sources throughout your presentation.

Use a consistent citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

The References slide demonstrates your thorough engagement with existing literature.

11. Contact Information Slide

If you’re open to further inquiries or collaborations, consider adding your contact information.

Include your email address or relevant professional social media handles.

How to use SlideModel AI Presentation Maker for your Thesis Presentation

If you want to save hours of manual time, you can leverage AI tools to make your thesis presentation. The best part of integrating AI tools into our workflow is that we can pair them to get even better results than we expected. With SlideModel’s AI presentation maker , users can create an entire slide deck by introducing these variables:

• Topic of your thesis
• Number of slides to include in your thesis presentation
• Outline checkup

And that’s it! Download the AI-generated presentation in PPTX format or for Google Slides, and edit it if you require adding some extra content. The core elements are already done, and you can save countless hours of hard work.

Tips During Your Oral Defense!

Review your materials.

Even if you already feel confident with your upcoming presentation, you still need to review your materials.

You can bring the hard copy of your thesis with you during the defense, but you don’t want to get lost in your presentation when you forget some specific details and have to scan your papers.

You should know your paper in and out.

Rehearse Your Presentation

It’s not wrong if it sounds like a script when you speak in your oral defense. It’s expected and understandable.

You need to practice your presentation, especially when there’s a time restriction given to every presenter.

You only need to prepare enough slides that would fit your time limit. A hundred slides aren’t suitable for a 15 to 20-minute presentation, nor 10 slides for an hour of defense.

Your rehearsal will be more effective if you practice it in front of an audience.

Note: You will experience complete silence in the defense room. You might feel awkward because, most of the time, you’re the only one speaking out loud.  This is completely fine, and it’s something you should practice in rehearsal should you be afraid.

Narrow the Presentation of Ideas

Regarding your slides, you don’t have to include everything that’s in your paper. You should narrow down your ideas to the main points and the most important details, such as the statistics and findings.

If the members of your committee think you lack details or they want to hear a further explanation, they won’t hesitate to ask you.

Prepare for the Unexpected Questions

The panel tends to challenge the presenters, usually through some hard questions.

Its aim is how well do you you have done your research and how prepared you are.

But as long as you know the ins and outs of your paper, you shouldn’t lose your confidence regardless of which questions they ask.

Just keep in mind that what you’re saying in your oral defense is not in conflict with what is written on the hard copy you provided them.

What To Do When You Don’t Know the Answer

If the committee asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, don’t make up a baseless answer.

Baseless means out-of-context answers or something without proof or backup.

How To Deal With The Nervousness

The committee expects you to be nervous. Of course, it’s normal.

However, one effect of being nervous is the changes in your behavior.

There’s a tendency for you’ll talk fast, which will make it hard for the committee to understand you.

It might also cause you to have a mental block.

So try to slow down. Take a deep breath.

Inhale, exhale.  Remember to breathe!

It’s OK to pause, and it’s OK to take your time; it’s more important that the committee clearly understands what you are trying to articulate.

More Quick Tips on How to Present!

• Introduce yourself at the beginning
• Introduce the title of the presentation
• Don’t read your notes if possible
• Don’t speak too fast
• Put an emphasis on what you’re saying so you don’t sound monotonous
• Look at your adviser once in a while for possible signs
• Stand on the right of the white screen if you are right-handed so you can easily refer to the slide without giving your back to the committee
• Face the audience when you talk
• Keep an eye contact
• Make sure to keep attention to the reactions of the committee and don’t forget to react in turn

We hope you enjoyed this article on how to do a proper thesis defense and how to best prepare for one using proven tips and techniques to help you get through this.  Hopefully, after your defense, you will be set as the one in your class to deliver an inspiring graduation speech for your peers. If you have value, please remember to share this article. We also recommend you read these Thesis Statement Examples for inspiration to create your own professionally.

1. MasterDoc PowerPoint Template

Creating a Thesis presentation should be a straight forward task; based on your thesis document and following the tips described above you have a high level structure already outlined. The MasterDoc PowerPoint template provides professional layouts with texts and image placeholders; so you can create document like slides using your thesis defense as your content. This template is ideal for a highly detailed documents, where visuals and words unite to illustrate one concept per page. The result is an asset that can be read and digested more quickly than either your thesis document or a presentation created for assisting a speech. A document created with the MasterDoc PowerPoint templates is meant to be printed or distributed, read on screen without the accompaniment of a presenter or used in an e-learning platform as pure learning content.

Use This Template

2. Thesis Presentation PowerPoint Template

You had invested a considerable time researching, testing hypothesis and confirming your thesis. Craft your thesis presentation with the same level of detail you applied in your work. Using the Thesis Presentation PowerPoint Template you will focus only in your content and your message. The layouts, images,design and structure will be taken care by the template.

3. Master Thesis PowerPoint Template

The Master Thesis PowerPoint Template is a professional document designed for postgraduate degrees presentations. It provides simple sections that follow  the structure and best practices of traditional research thesis presentations. Starting with the introduction to the theory and state of the art scenario; following with hypothesis research and its findings and concluding with the confirmation or negation of the initial thesis statement.

4. Essay Outline PowerPoint Template

Your thesis defense can be accompanied by an essay, that states your thesis and argues about it using several supporting paragraphs. This kind of document is ideal to be an intermediate step between reading assisting to the thesis presentation and reading the complete thesis documentation. It has more information that your thesis defense abstract, but does summarizes the supporting evidence and examples that allows the argument of each idea behind the thesis. You can use the Essay Outline Template to present your Essay outline and create an essay linked to your thesis defense documentation.

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36 Responses to “How To Do a Proper Thesis Defense Using the Right PowerPoint Presentation”

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How to Pull Off Your Thesis Defense With a Great Presentation

You’ve reached the home stretch in your journey toward your post-graduate degree. You’ve diligently studied, researched and performed for years, and all that’s left is your master thesis or doctorate dissertation. 

“ All that’s left,” however, might be the understatement of the century. There’s nothing simple about orally defending your thesis, and this final stage often means the difference between a degree and a program that remains incomplete.

Even after you’ve dedicated months filled with blood, sweat and tears defining your argument, researching your support and writing your defense, you aren’t ready to address the academic panel. You still have to design an effective visual presentation, and the slide deck can make or break your entire thesis.

Unsure how to design a stellar slide deck to visually present your thesis or dissertation? Check out the following tips to pull off your master thesis defense with a great presentation:

1.   Properly structure your slide deck

Every master thesis defense presentation is unique, but most effective slide decks will follow a similar structure, including:  

• Title - Just like a research paper, your thesis presentation must include a title slide. This should include the same information as any other title page: the title, your name, your academic institution, course name and the name of the academic advisor to your thesis or dissertation. That doesn’t mean your title slide needs to look like the start of any other Frankendeck . Instead, add your text atop a relative image, and adjust the brightness to ensure your text pops.
• Introduction - Your thesis presentation should also include an introduction slide, which details the topic of your thesis, the question your research will seek to answer and any additional objectives to your research, as well as the answer or solution you will be defending.
• Literature review - Following your thesis introduction, design one or more slides that review the literature you researched. This shouldn’t be a full bibliography (although that should be included in the accompanying written account of your research), but instead, the slides should list your most relevant research sources. If the information is featured on a slide, make sure you include its source. 
• Methodology - Your thesis presentation slide deck should also include a slide (or slides) detailing the methodology of your research and argument. Here you want to describe the type of study— whether it’s quantitative, qualitative or a combination of the two, as well as an explanation of why you chose the method or methods you used. If you conducted original research, you will want to detail the study population, sampling methods and other details pertinent to your studies, while you’ll also want to detail how you analyzed your data.
• Results - No thesis presentation slide deck is complete without dedicating slides to illustrate the results of your research. Be sure to include a description of any data you collected through your research, as well as the results of your analysis of the data. What were your most significant findings?
• Discussion - How do the results of your research support your overall thesis argument? Be sure to include slides that discuss your overall findings and how they relate to your original question.
• Conclusion - Concluding slides should restate your original research questions, represent the results of your research, suggest future research and make any final recommendations.
• Ending slide – Close your thesis presentation with a concluding slide that offers an interesting quote or trivia that makes your audience further ponder your topic, a GIF or animation that recaptures the audience’s attention or even a hypothetical question that opens additional discussion from the academic panel. This is your opportunity to make your presentation memorable.

Thesis Presentation vs. Dissertation

Thesis presentation and dissertation are two terms often used in academic settings related to upper education. While they are related, there are distinct differences between the two, which is important to understand as you begin to structure your thesis defense.

‍ A thesis presentation typically refers to the final oral presentation that a student gives to defend their thesis or research project. It is a formal presentation to explain their findings, methodology, and conclusions to a panel of faculty members or experts in the field. The purpose of a thesis defense presentation is to demonstrate the student's knowledge and understanding of the subject matter and to defend the validity of their research.

On the other hand, a dissertation refers to a lengthy and comprehensive research project that is typically required for the completion of a doctoral degree. It involves in-depth research, analysis, and the development of original ideas in a particular field of study. A dissertation is usually written over an extended period and is expected to contribute new knowledge or insights to the field. Unlike a thesis presentation, a dissertation is submitted in written form and is typically evaluated by a committee of faculty members or experts in the field.

2.   Choose which ideas to illustrate

Unless you have an hour to fill with your master thesis defense or doctorate dissertation, you won’t be able to include every idea from your overall research documentation in your slide show. Choose the most important ideas to illustrate on slides, while also keeping in mind what aspects of your research you’ll be able to visually represent.

3.   Define your presentation’s theme

A stellar thesis or dissertation presentation will be professional in appearance, and a cohesive design is an absolute must. Choose what types of typography and color schemes best support your topic. 

Instead of adjusting these settings on each individual slide— a tedious task at best— choose a PowerPoint-alternative presentation software like Beautiful.ai that allows you to customize a theme for your entire slide deck. Choose your fonts and other typography, your color palette, margins, footers, logos, transitions and more, and the cloud-based tool will automatically apply those design specifications to every slide you add to the master thesis defense presentation.

4.   Design simple and focused slides

You might have a lot of information to present, but when it comes to your thesis presentation— or almost any slide deck for that matter— less is more. Be sure every slide counts by focusing on your main points. 

Then, whatever you do, keep your slides simple. Not even an academic panel is going to dedicate much time deciphering a cluttered slide with all too many details. Try to avoid presenting more than one or two ideas on each slide.

5.   Include data visualizations

The whole point of your presentation is to illustrate the concepts included in your thesis. Humans are visual creatures and react strongly to imagery, and the panel evaluating your thesis or dissertation is no exception— regardless of how studious and formal the academics might seem. Illustrate the results of your research with colorful and engaging infographics . You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create them, either. 

Beautiful.ai users can choose from a host of smart slide templates with data visualizations — including favorites like bar graphs and pie charts , as well as less common options like scattergraphs , flow charts and pictograms . Just input your data and watch as our special brand of artificial intelligence creates the infographic for you.  

6.   Practice makes perfect

After spending months researching your thesis or dissertation, writing about your findings and designing a stellar master thesis defense presentation, you would hate to see all your hard work be for naught. That’s still a distinct possibility, however, if you don’t also practice your delivery. 

Practice, practice and practice some more until you know your master thesis defense like the back of your hand. No academic panel will be impressed by a graduate candidate who stumbles through their presentation or appears to be reading from their notes. Know the contents of every slide, as well as exactly what parts of your overall defense you want to deliver during its display. 

Things to keep in mind to help you nail your presentation

The golden rule of any presentation is to keep your audience engaged. You can ensure a more engaging presentation by maintaining eye contact, using appropriate gestures, and speaking clearly. You can also choose to include the audience in your presentation with interactive questions, polls, and slides.

To help boost audience retention, utilize storytelling. Studies show that when facts are presented in the form of a story, people are 22 times more likely to remember them. Talk about powerful.

Last but not least, plan for questions— and not simply by allowing time for them. Watch other thesis defenses delivered at your institution, and consider what types of questions the academic panel might ask, so you can prepare the best possible answer.

Extra credit:

Get started with our PhD Defense Thesis presentation template here .

Samantha Pratt Lile

Samantha is an independent journalist, editor, blogger and content manager. Examples of her published work can be found at sites including the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Buzzfeed.

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Computer Science Master Thesis Defense Presentation Template

Master thesis defense

Transcript: Master thesis defense How to Our company Our company The team The team By the numbers By the numbers Global sales Global sales Interaction Interaction History History Today Expanded First major product Established Testimonials Testimonials Products & services Products & services

Defense Presentation - Master Thesis

Transcript: Introduction Developments in Labor Governance Approaches to the Study of Compliance with International Labor Standards Literature Review state hybrid Theory and Hypotheses Institute for Labor Studies Fostering Voluntary Compliance: An Assessment of the Labor Laws Compliance System 2015 Theory: Performance Assessment of Labor Governance Regimes Historical Comparison Research problem and objectives Relevance and importance of the study Summary and Conclusions "Why do firms comply (or do not comply) with international labor standards?" Developments in Labor Governance Findings and Analysis Approaches to the Study of Compliance with International Labor Standards Normative Framework on Workers' Rights and Labor Standards Methodology SINGLE CASE STUDY The operation of the normative framework tightens the network of rules and reduces labor laws circumvention... However, it has not yet fully pushed enforcement of ILS to a regime that goes beyond self and voluntary regulatory strategies as typified in the Philippines... The Changing Behavior of Firms Findings and Analysis self Literature Review Limitations Anke Hassel and Nicole Helmerich Institutional Change in Transnational Labor Governance: Implementing Social Standards in Public Procurement and Export Credit Guarantees 2016 Performance Assessment of Labor Governance Regimes Research hypotheses Rationale (Relevance and Importance of the Study) How the behavior of firms changed in the points of transition to a new labor governance regime despite the existence of international labor standards... even with sophistication of compliance systems... the horrors of the Kentex tragedy still continue to haunt workers under precarious working conditions... Hypotheses Research Design Hypothesis 2 The Philippine government transitioned to a voluntary labor governance regime because of the increasing pressure from transnational standard-setting institutions. This served as a window of opportunity for the ruling administration at the time of transition to re-establish its credibility and relevance in labor governance. Further, contrary to theory (Hurd 2003, Hassel 2008), firms comply more with the traditional regime of labor regulation than the private regime. Further Research Further research should look at the use of other methods Observational methods can be used to establish a causal link on the effect or impact of labor governance regime (mandatory, voluntary or hybrid) to the behavior of firms A transition to another regime may provide the opportunity to use econometric tools such as difference-in-differences to establish the effect of transnational regime (treatment) to the behavior of firms versus the effect of voluntary regime (control/counterfactual). Researchers can also look at the aspect of corruption in analyzing why labor laws compliance systems fail to protect the rights of workers. Rapid evolution of the labor market due to technological change and the consequent increase of non-standards forms of employment (worthwhile field of further research: labor laws compliance) THANK YOU Hypothesis 1 The normative framework on workers’ rights and labor standards demands different levels of commitment from firms addressed at so many levels – global, national and firm – that tightens the web of rules and reduces the possibility of circumventing labor laws. However, this normative framework did not push state enforcement to a regime that goes beyond self and voluntary regulatory strategies. Contributions Different factors induced the transition from one labor governance regime to another. Firms comply more with the traditional regime of labor regulation than the private labor governance regime. Literature Review How do international and domestic level standards, rules and regulations affect labor governance at the level of state enforcement? Anke Hassel The Evolution of a Global Labor Governance Regime 2008 Case Selection 1. The extent the country has mainstreamed ILS to the national level 2. Prevalence of work-related accidents 3. Transition from a mandatory to a voluntary labor governance regime How international and domestic level standards, rules and regulations affect labor governance at the level of state enforcement Summative Assessment of Firms' Compliance with International Labor Standards Normative Framework on Workers' Rights and Labor Standards The Evolution of Labor Governance and the Changing Behavior of Firms Mechanisms of Enforcement and Compliance with International Labor Standards: What Do They Demand from and Offer to Firms? Summative Assessment of Firms' Compliance with International Labor Standards Miguel Luis U. Arias Why do firms comply with international labor standards? How the mechanisms induced compliance with ILS Theory and Hypotheses Case Selection and Limitations How the demands of the mechanisms correspond with the behavior of firms Unit(s) of Analysis: Labor governance regimes (VEF, LSEF and LLCS) Research Design The Evolution of Labor

Transcript: Master thesis defense Pricing process of other works of art How do specialists working at auction houses determine the price estimates of paintings? General conclusion Method Qualitative research method Semi-structured interview Interview questions Collection of data Empirical research Velthuis (2002, 2005) Hypotheses Hypothesis one: specialists working at auction houses use pricing scripts to determine the estimates of paintings. Hypothesis two: specialists pay attention to different price determinants to determine the price estimates of paintings. Hypothesis three: specialists pay attention to different price determinants when they need to determine the price estimates of Old Master paintings and Contemporary paintings. Hypothesis four: specialists pay more attention to artist- or artwork or market- or macro level factors. Hypothesis five: the personal taste of specialists has an influence on the price estimates of paintings. Hypothesis six: potential buyers have the biggest influence on the hammer prices fetched at auction. 'a set of routines which function as a cognitive manual for the variety of pricing decisions that a dealer needs to make in different stages of an artist’s career’ (Velthuis, 2002, p.52). Research questions Confirmed: Pricing scripts are helpful tools to determine price estimates, but potential buyers will always have the final word when it comes to the hammer prices fetched at auction. Hypothesis two: specialists pay attention to different price determinants to determine the price estimates of paintings. Hypothesis three: specialists pay attention to different price determinants when they need to determine the price estimates of Old Master paintings and Contemporary paintings. 1. Do specialists working at auction houses use pricing scripts when they determine the price estimates of paintings? 2. Do experts pay attention to different price determinants when they determine the price estimates of paintings? 3. Do specialists pay attention to different price determinants when they determine the price estimates of Old Master paintings and Contemporary paintings? 4. Which factor has the most influence on the price estimates of paintings according to the specialists? 5. Does the taste of experts has an influence on the price estimates of paintings? 6. How is it possible that hammer prices are not always in line with the price estimates stated by art specialists? Hypothesis one: specialists working at auction houses use pricing scripts to determine the estimates of paintings. Hypothesis five: the personal taste of specialists has an influence on the price estimates of paintings. Hypothesis six: potential buyers have the biggest influence on the hammer prices fetched at auction. Pricing scripts Primary art market versus secondary art market Limitations and recommendations for further research Socially and academically relevant Find out if these experts use ‘pricing scripts’ and if differences can be found in the decision-making process between specialists working at different auction houses. Hypothesis four: specialists pay more attention to artist- or artwork or market- or macro level factors. Determine estimates during the interview Limitation of the research Inspiration and motivation Not entirely confirmed: Priceless or worthless? A qualitative research on how price estimates are determined in the secondary art market Aim and relevance Manou Lourens 319142 Conclusion empirical research Provide a better insight in the pricing process that specialists run through to determine the price estimates, before a painting is put up for auction. Rejected: How do specialists working at auction houses determine the price estimates of paintings? Auction houses in the Netherlands Specialists Interviews Auction houses operating in the UK or China Thank you for your attention!

Defense Master Thesis

Transcript: Master Thesis Project "A master thesis focused on discovering balanced scorecard categories to be implemented within the elderly/home care organizational context to foster business process innovation" 1. Introduction Introduction A research within MeanderGroep Trends Trends & Developments Elderly/home care organization Shift to more care at home Technology & Innovation Small sclare care giving environments Trends up to 2020 E-health solution Effects Business process restructuring Manage employees Higher effiency in use of resources Implment innovation and many more... Effects BPM Business Process management BPM & Innovation BPM Performance Measures Enabler of Business Process Innovation Strategic management tool Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Significant part within is... Specific context Elderly/home care organization context Non-profit & additional characteristics Non - Profit Different purpose Different ownership Different control Accountability Additional characteristics Non-standard B2C situation Stakeholders Research question Main research question & sub research questions “Which balanced scorecard categories have to be implemented within the business pro-cess landscape of the elderly/home care organization MeanderGroep to foster business process innovation?” 1. “What is the current business maturity level of MeanderGroep” 2. “Which performance measures are desired by MeanderGroep” 3. “Which BSC categories substantiates the desired performance measures” 4. “Which issues have to be concerned when implementing these BSC categories” 5. “How are these BSC categories implemented within current or new business pro-cesses to create innovative practices?” Business relevant sub-research questions; 2. Literature Literature General BPM Business process management Business process management contextual factors & Six core elements Goal-dimension Process-Dimension Organization-dimension Enviroment-dimension BPM contextual factors** **"Schmiedel, Vom Brocke, & Recker, 2013" Six core elements*** 1. Stretgic allignment 2. Governance 3. Methods 4. Information Technology 5. People 6. Culture ***"Schmiedel, Vom Brocke, & Recker, 2013" BPM lifecycle* **"Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling, & Reijers, 2013" BPMM Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM) Context + core elements = BPMM *"Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM), (OMG, 2008)" Level 5: Innovating Level 4: Predictable Level 3: Standardized Level 2: Managed Level 1: Initial Innovation management Capability management Process management Work-Unit management Inconsistentmanagement Innovative practices Optimized practices Standardized practices Repeatable practices BSC Process identification Process discovery Process analysis Process redesign Process implementation Process monitoring and controlling Process architecture A-is process model Insigth on weakenesses and their impact To-be process model Executable process model Conformance and performance insigths BSC combi-nation Balanced Scorecard Combination 3. Methodology Finance Results Results Upcoming Events Upcoming Events 4. Results HR New Faces New Faces Upcoming Events Upcoming Events 5. Advice for Implmentation Other... Results Results PHASE 1: PHASE 2: PHASE 3: Upcoming Events Upcoming Events 6. Discussion Other... Results Results PHASE 1: PHASE 2: PHASE 3: Upcoming Events Upcoming Events 7. Future research & Limitations Other... Results Results PHASE 1: PHASE 2: PHASE 3: Upcoming Events Upcoming Events

Master Thesis Defense

Transcript: 10 ' 5 putative lipolytic clones 10E2, 12C11, 14G2, 16G7 and 35H9 http://www.iml.rwth-aachen.de/index.php?id=rotes-meer A A p-nitrophenol 348 nm Thank You Introduction Materials and Methods Results and Discussion Conclusion and Future prospects Acknowledgements Inactive A p-nitrophenylbutyrate (C4) Culture supernatant Tris-HCL (pH 8.0) Sequencing and ORF detection Mining for novel biocatalysts from metagenomes Screening Metagenomic Library for Lipolytic Activity Further characterization of EstATII is required to understand its full potential as a biocatalyst (solvents, heavy metals, enantio- and regioselectivity, expand on substrate specificity). Cloning into an expression vector, followed by over-expression and purification. By Yasmine M. Mohamed Under the supervision of Dr. Rania Siam A Tributyrin agar 37°C 3 days Based on BLASTP analysis and domain search: EstATII is a putative novel lipolytic enzyme p-nitrophenol 410 nm End-repair and A tailing Dr. Rania Siam Dr. Mohamed Ghazy Dr. Ahmed Sayed Mr. Amged Ouf Mr. Hazem Sharaf Dr. Ari Ferreira Dr. Felipe Chambergo Dr. Hamza Al Dorry KAUST Al Alfi Foundation Friends from the Biotechnology Program and specially Rehab Abdallah Lamyaa Shaban Sara Al-alawi Ibrahim Farag Tamer Said Ayman Yehya Applications Atlantis II Deep Hydrolysis Leather Manufacture Waste Treatment Detergents Pulp and Paper Industry Ester Synthesis Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics Biopolymers Biodiesel Transformation 10 minutes Effect of NaCl on EstATII activity Traditionally, biocatalysts were obtained from pure microbial isolates. Less than 1% of microorganisms can be accessed through culture-dependant approaches. A huge potential lies within the majority of the prokaryotic community that is unculturable. p-nitrophenylbutyrate Signal Peptide Detection p-nitrophenylbutyrate Manually placed into 96-well plates Temperature pH NaCl Substrate Specificity p-nitrophenyl palmitate (C16) p-nitrophenylpalmitate (C16) Sample collection and DNA isolation 0.78 0.713 0.72 Mean= 0.737 Dedication Effect of pH on EstATII activity My Family Mohamed Abouelsoud Confirmed by PCR and Sequencing http://www.chemnet.com/dict/dict--1492-30-4--jp.html Pyrosequencing and ORF detection The largest brine pool in the Red Sea and has a maximum depth of 2,194 m and has the highest temperature. Stratified into several layers; the brine-seawater interface, upper convective (UCL), middle convective (MCL) and lower convective layers (LCL). A Continuous demand for novel biocatalysts 10 minutes Culture supernatant Tris-HCl (pH= 8.0) Construction of Phylogenetic Tree 1. Exploring the diversity of microbial communities 2. Discovering novel genes, bioactive compounds and biocatalysts. Characterization of EstATII Substrate Specificity of EstATII MATERIALS AND METHODS Conserved three- dimensional structure A A EstATII Enantio- selectivity Sequence Analysis of EstATII Culture supernatant Tris-HCl (ph=8.0) http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/SignalP/ Metagenomics p-nitrophenyl butyrate (C4) The LCL is characterized by Temperature of 68.2°C. pH value of 5.3. Salinity of 270 psu Anoxia. High concentrations of heavy metals. Conserved motifs in the HSL Family Characterization of EstATII revealed: Its thermophilic and halophilic properties which reflect the environment from which it was isolated. It is an esterase not a lipase. Characterization of EstATII Phylogenetic Analysis of EstATII 3'- TC TGG CTG AGC CAT TCG ACT -5' (EstR) Functional Screening for Lipolytic Clones Construction and Screening of Metagenomic Fosmid Library Visualization of Phylogenetic Tree A p-nitrophenol 410 nm http://commonfund.nih.gov/hmp/ Molar concentrations tested: 0M, 0.5M, 1M, 2M, 3M and 4M Ligation Active p-nitrophenol 410 nm http://www.genome.jp/tools-bin/clustalw#clustalw.dnd Substrate Specificity http://asgpb.mhpcc.hawaii.edu/sequence/ http://krse.kaust.edu.sa/mission.html Effect of NaCl Concentration on EstATII Activity Multiple Sequence Alignment http://www.megasoftware.net/ Mining the Atlantis II Deep for Lipolytic Enzymes Effect of pH on EstATII Activity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Structure/cdd/wrpsb.cgi A Family IV: HSL EstATII is a novel esterase isolated from the Atlantis II brine pool. It has thermophilic and halophilic properties. Extreme environments hold great potential for the discovery of novel biocatalysts. Catalytic triad p-nitrophenylbutyrate http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:DNA_ORF.gif 10 minutes Shearing (cc) image by anemoneprojectors on Flickr A Identification and Characterization of a novel thermohalophilic esterase from the Red Sea; the Atlantis II brine pool 0.013 0.015 0.008 Mean= 0.012 A http://www.chemnet.com/dict/dict--1492-30-4--jp.html Identification and Subcloning of Fosmid Harboring EstATII Classification of bacterial lipolytic enzymes into eight families by Arpigny and Jaeger, 1999. Regio- selectivity http://itol.embl.de/ 111 96-well plates 10,656 clones Sequence and Phylogentic Analysis A

Transcript: Identification of Optimized Variant Calling Pipeline for ONT PCR-Enriched Data Breast Cancer Panel Illumina Report Assessment of Hypotheses Validation Samples: VS 3- Enrichment with PCR ONT Recommended Analysis Pipeline Report 1- Internal Validation (B6) 2- External Validation (GIAB) 1 BRCA1 and BRCA2 Assets Step 4 Step 5 Validation Enrichment with PCR 2 4- Library Preparation and Sequencing 5- Analysis and Comparison 3 Oxford Nanopore How Did We Notice? What are We Doing in a Genetic Cancer Panel? Answer: VARIANTS! A gene variant is a permanent change in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene. These variants CAN cause diseases like CANCER. 3 1 2 Variant-Calling Pipeline Optimization Pipeline Optimization Propositions Branch 1 Targeted Sequencing With Nanopore False Negatives Branch 2 Fast High Depth Long Read 2- Base Quality Score Recalibration 3- Variant Calling Tools 1- PCR Duplication Removal Step 3 Challenge DeepVariant Our Work Cliar3 PEPPER-MARGIN DeepVariant Throughput Cheap Data Handling NanoCaller Medaka TOOLS False Positives Scalability Simple Accuracy 4- Population Allele Frequency Filtering What Has ONT Done for these Errors? Introduction 5- Annotation Tools Section 1 Section 2 ONT Recommended Piplines 2 1 3 ANNOVAR VEP SnpEff Story Step 2 Methods Proposed Steps and Tools to be Tested Final Recommended Pipeline Sequencing Platforms Genome Sequencing Platforms Comparison Where is the Source of Error? 1- First Generation: Sanger Sequencing 2- Next Generation: Illumina Sequencing Polymerase Error and Nanopore Systematic Error Reading and storing the genome as strings. Putting and assembling these strings together by aligning to the reference genome. Step 1 Main Sections Branch 2 3- Third Generation: Nanopore Sequencing Sequencing Applications Wang, Y., Zhao, Y., Bollas, A., Wang, Y., & Au, K. F. (2021). Nanopore sequencing technology, bioinformatics and applications. In Nature Biotechnology (Vol. 39, Issue 11, pp. 1348–1365). Nature Research. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01108-x PCR Duplication Removal Population Allele Frequency True Positives False Positives Section 4 Section 3 Acknowledgements! Results Recomme- ndations Key point Key point False Positives Codon Change Amino-Acid Change Base Quality Score Recalibration Variant-Callers Comparison Pipeline Comparison: B1 to B5 True Positives Classifier! Codon Change Amino-Acid Change Mohamad Mahdi Fazlkhani - Winter 1402 - Master Thesis Defense 1- Research Story 2- Research Methodology 3- Research Results 4- Research Recommendations

Master Thesis - Defense Presentation

Transcript: Findings H1: 'Playing a game' (X) fosters co-creation (Y) in an artwork-event H2: Participant-centered approach in Gamified Interaction (X) is a necessary condition to the occurrence of a gamified artwork-event (Y) Connection to art Dominique Vinckenbosch "How does Gamified Interaction allow participants to co-create digital artworks?" Thank you Results Media Arts: contexts of games, HCI and interactive art Qualitative analysis: comparative method, within-case method of analysis and embedded multiple-case study August 29, 2019 H1 confirmed H2 rejected Master Thesis Defense Presentation Analysis Gamified Interaction How does Gamified Interaction allow participants to co-create digital artworks? "The deliberate application of game design elements to interaction (or interaction-passing reaction or tricked interaction) taking place between two parties (respectively a human audience and the other one being of digital nature), and from which will result an artwork-event. The implementation process is made according to the audience's personal expectations of a successful interaction (art) experience"

Transcript: Introduction: What is the puzzle? Public Goods Good Performance of Local Governance Without Democracy? A Case Study of A Farmers’ Specialized Cooperatives and Public Goods Provision in Rural China ---By Yi Liu

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Final Exam (Thesis Defense)

The Final Exam represents the last significant opportunity for the Ph.D. committee to ask questions and provide comments on the thesis work. It also serves to disseminate the work to the public (including faculty, students, colleagues, friends, and family) . In many ways it represents a celebration of the completion of the work. Unlike the Preliminary Exam, which is closed, the Final Exam is open to the public and announced along with other public seminars.

Exam Policies

• The Thesis Defense must be taken at least four months after passing the Preliminary Exam. It is recommended that there be at least a 12 month gap between the Preliminary Exam and the Final Exam.
• The student and the final committee may participate in the exam in person, or via teleconference or other electronic communication media.   Synchronous remote participation of the student or committee member(s) is permitted on the final examination committees under the guidelines approved by the Graduate College.  Please see the Graduate College Handbook for current guidelines on synchronous remote participation.
• The Ph.D. committee guidelines in the Ph.D. Committees section must be followed. The committee for the Final Exam does not have to be the same as for the Preliminary Exam, although it often is. Any changes due to circumstances that may occur must meet all Department and Graduate College requirements.
• A full thesis draft must be submitted to the Ph.D. committee at least three weeks prior to the scheduled defense to allow committee members a reasonable amount of time to review the thesis.
• The proposed committee and exam date must be submitted to the Graduate College at least 3 weeks prior to the exam through the Graduate College Student Portal .  ( Note: The process to submit the .Ph.D Preliminary and Final Examination committee requests has been revised effective Spring 2022. ) The Graduate College requires this time to approve the committee and officially appoint it.  Upon approval of the committee, CS Academic Advisers will communicate with the Exam Committee Chair to ensure the necessary documentation is sent to the Committee Chair, to receive the Final Examination results from the Committee, and to report the final results to the Graduate College.
• The student's presentation is publicly advertised so that all who are interested in the research may attend.
• After the presentation and questions are concluded, the public is asked to leave to so that the committee can privately pass judgment on the work.
• All students must be registered for the term in which the Final Examination occurs. Students who have completed all required coursework and the credit hours can register for zero hours of CS599 if there do not hold a graduate assistantship for the term.  Students who are on a graduate assistantship must register for nine credit hours in Fall and Spring terms. Please keep in mind that all of the fees including McKinley, transportation, campus rec facilities, clean air technology and Krannert will not be automatically assessed if a student registers below six hours for Spring or Fall terms. Student health insurance fees will be assessed. Students who require the additional services will need to pay for them separately when registering for less than six hours in Spring or Fall and less than three hours for Summer term.

The defense itself usually proceeds as follows:

• a few minutes of private discussion by the committee;
• a public presentation presented by the Ph.D. candidate, typically lasting for 45 minutes;
• questions from the committee, in front of the public;
• questions from the public;
• questions from the committee without the public present;
• private discussion by the committee; and
• outcome decided and announced to the candidate.

Contact Jennifer Comstock (or at 333-3527) in the Academic Office with any questions.

Guidance on How to Prepare

• You should not rush to schedule a Final Exam if the work is not completely finished or the thesis is not completely written.
• It is common for the committee to suggest some minor improvements or corrections to the manuscript; however, it is usually not the case that substantial new work is expected. If there is any risk of the committee requesting further work, be prepared to allot the time necessary to make the recommended changes or enhancements to the thesis. Consult your advisor on this point.
• It is important to attend other defenses to understand the whole Ph.D. process and to learn valuable skills from other students' defenses.

Graduate Advising

The Graduate Academic Office, a guiding hand for CS graduate students, assistance is available every weekday.

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After months or even years of researching about art and a lot of hard work, you’ve at last finished your master’s thesis. Now it’s time for the crucial part: the defense. Impress the committee and get that degree with the help of Slidesgo!

Basic Customizable PhD Dissertation

Being formal and creative can be your main highlights when presenting your phD if you use this modern presentation template for your defense. The design is like a canvas you can use to give life to your investigation and your results because it’s completely editable. Adapt the slides to the...

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Free thesis defense presentation templates

Bring your research to life and impress the examining committee with a professional Thesis Defense Presentation template. Defend your final year project, Master’s thesis, or PhD dissertation with the help of free slides designed especially for students and academics. 

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What’s a thesis defense presentation?

As you approach the end of grad or postgrad studies, you’ll probably be required to deliver a thesis defense presentation. This takes place during the final semester and involves speaking about your thesis or dissertation in front of a committee of professors. 

The word “defend” might sound intimidating, but it simply means answering questions about your work. Examiners want to see how knowledgeable you are about your field and if you can back up your arguments with solid and original research. Some departments invite students to a pre-defense, which is like a dress rehearsal for the main event. 

If you’re defending your doctoral thesis or dissertation, the event will be more formal than at Master’s level. In some universities, this is called a PhD viva, which comes from the Latin viva voce, meaning “by live voice”. Basically, it’s time to speak about the 80 thousand words you’ve written! As well as your supervisor, the panel will usually include visiting academics from other institutions. If it’s an “open defense” it will be open to other students and members of the public.

The format varies between different universities, but a thesis defense usually starts with the candidate delivering a short presentation accompanied by slides. This is followed by a question and answer session with the panel. 

How do I design slides for my thesis defense?

The secret to a good thesis defense presentation is a well-designed slide deck. This will act as a visual aid and starting point for the conversation. Structuring your points and illustrating them on the screen will help you present more confidently. 

If the prospect of creating a thesis presentation from scratch is daunting, check out Genially’s free thesis defense templates. Each design has been created by professional graphic designers in collaboration with students and academic experts. 

Choose from hundreds of examples with preset color palettes and easy-to-edit slides. In a few minutes you can outline the content of your thesis in an impressive visual format. No artistic skills required!

How should I structure a thesis presentation?

When you create a thesis defense presentation, the first thing to remember is that it should be short and concise. There’s no need to rewrite your thesis on the slides. Members of the committee will already be familiar with your work, having read the document prior to the event. 

A thesis defense is a conversational, person-to-person event. Examiners don’t want to read large blocks of text on the screen. They want to hear you talking about your research with passion and insight.

With this in mind, your presentation should serve as a starting point or prompt for discussion. Think of your slides as cue cards: use short titles and keywords to remind you of what you want to say. 

Make a good first impression by using a professional thesis defense presentation template with a consistent theme and attractive visuals. Go for a calm color palette and neutral style. The aim is to illustrate your points while keeping the committee focused on what you’re saying. 

A thesis defense usually begins with an introductory presentation lasting 15 to 20 minutes, followed by discussion time. For a 20 minute presentation we recommend a series of about 10 slides. 

Make sure to include an introduction slide or title page that lays out what you’re going to talk about. Next, move on to each part of your thesis. Outline the problem, background and literature review, your research question, methodology and objectives, findings, conclusions, and areas for future research. 

A great thesis presentation should provide the panel with a summary of your research. For that reason, try to avoid dumping too much data or information onto your slides. Use Genially’s interactive infographics, diagrams and charts to highlight the most important points in an eye-catching visual format.

When it comes to the big day and defending your thesis, try to keep calm. Take a deep breath, introduce yourself to the committee and let your slides guide you. Your examiners will come armed with a list of questions, so the formal presentation will flow naturally into a Q&A.

How do I make a good final year project presentation?

If you’re an undergrad, you might be required to deliver a final year project presentation or dissertation presentation. It’s less formal than a graduate degree thesis defense, but the format is similar. You will be asked to present your research findings to faculty and peers with the help of slides. Your performance may count towards your final grade when you’re awarded your Bachelor’s degree.

A good presentation for a final year project should start with a title slide. At this point you should introduce your research question and explain why you chose the topic. If it’s a collaborative project, include a slide that introduces your teammates. 

The core part of your presentation should cover your methodology, findings, conclusions, and scope for future research. Wrap things up by thanking your contributors and invite your audience to ask questions.   

If you’re not sure how to make a final year project presentation, check out Genially’s free presentation slides for students. Choose from hundreds of professional templates that can be customized to any undergraduate or graduate project. With animated graphics and beautiful data visualizations, you can make standout slides in a matter of minutes.

If you’re submitting your presentation to your professor, try including interactive elements. Genially’s presentation builder allows you to embed online data, videos, audio, maps, PDFs, and hyperlinks in your slides. This can be a useful way to provide supporting evidence, sources, and additional documentation. 

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Thesis Defense

As part of the requirements for the Master of Science degree in computer science or computer engineering, students must pass a final examination given by their advisory committee as described in the graduate catalog. The part of the exam that is related to the presentation of the student's research is public (the thesis defense). The final examination may not be administered before the thesis is available to all members of the student's advisory committee in substantially final form, and all members have had adequate time to review the document. Final corrected copies of the thesis must be accepted by the thesis clerk no later than one year after the final examination or within the seven-year time limit, whichever occurs first. Failure to do so will result in the degree not being awarded.

Listed below are the procedures that should be followed for Master of Science thesis defenses in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Much of this information is taken from the  graduate advisor handbook , Graduate and Professional School website  and the department's graduate brochure.

Requirements

Final exam deadlines are listed on the  Graduate and Professional School calendar  (usually about eight weeks before graduation).

To be eligible to schedule the final examination, the student must meet the following requirements:

An approved thesis proposal must have been submitted to the Graduate and Professional School at least 15 days before the request to hold the final examination (thesis defense) is submitted to the Graduate and Professional School (or about four weeks before the defense). (This is a decrease - it used to be 14 weeks before the defense.)

All coursework on the degree plan must be completed with the exception of those hours for which the student is registered. This means all petitions to change the courses on the degree plan must be filed and approved before the exam can be scheduled.

The cumulative and degree plan grade point ratios (GPR) must both be at least 3.00. There cannot be any unabsolved grades of D, F, or U for any course listed on the degree plan. To absolve a deficient grade, the student must have repeated the course at Texas A&M University and have achieved a grade of C or better.

All English proficiency requirements must be satisfied prior to scheduling the examination.

Students must be registered in the university in the semester or summer term in which the final examination is taken.

Steps for Final Examinations

Listed below are the steps that should be followed in scheduling and administering final examinations (thesis defenses) for Master of Science degrees in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering:

The student and the chair of the advisory committee should review the eligibility requirements for the final exam and ensure that the student has satisfied them all. If different courses were taken than are listed on the degree plan, then the appropriate petitions should be filed to make the necessary changes; all such petitions must be approved by the Graduate and Professional School before the exam can be scheduled.

Deadline: several weeks before exam.

The student should consult with their advisory committee and select a mutually agreeable date and time for the defense. All advisory committee members should attend the final examination. If one of the members cannot attend the examination, he or she must find an appropriate substitute. The committee chair may not be substituted (note that the committee member and not the substitute should sign the thesis approval pages). Normally two hours should be reserved for the defense. The student is responsible for ensuring that a room is reserved for the defense; the advising office can help with this if needed. If it is available, defenses should be scheduled in Room 302 HRBB to enable a larger attendance.

Deadline: Several weeks before the exam.

The  Request for Final Examination  must be received by the Graduate and Professional School at least 10 working days before the exam. An electronic copy in plain text (ASCII) of the title and abstract of the thesis must be emailed to the advising office ( [email protected] ) before the student brings the Request for Final Examination, already signed by the chair(s), to the advising office for the department approval signature. The advising office will submit the request to the Graduate and Professional School and they will announce and publicize the defense.

Deadline: At least 15 working days before the exam.

The student should distribute a complete draft ("nearly final form'') of the thesis to the advisory committee.

Deadline: Approximately two weeks before the exam.

The Graduate and Professional School will send the advising office a report of final exam before the exam. It should be completed and signed by the advisory committee at the defense (if the advisory committee has co-chairs, the Graduate and Professional School sends the report to the first listed co-chair). The student's chair should return the Report of Final Exam to the advising office and they will submit it to the Graduate and Professional School. If the Report of Final Exam is not submitted to the Graduate and Professional School within 10 working days of the scheduled examination, then a failing grade will be recorded.

Deadline: Immediately after the exam (at the latest, within 10 working days of the exam).

DAVID STUTZ

Phd defense slides and lessons learned.

In July this year I finally defended my PhD which mainly focused on (adversarial) robustness and uncertainty estimation in deep learning. In my case, the defense consisted of a (public) 30 minute talk about my work, followed by questions from the thesis committee and audience. In this article, I want to share the slides and some lessons learned in preparing for my defense.

My PhD defense marks the successdful end of a four year journey in machine learning and computer vision research. While defense vary widely across institutions and universities, I had to prepare a 30 minute talk that is followed by questions from the committee and audience. In addition to the difficulty of squeezing several papers into a 30 minute polished talk, there was also a significant delay between submitting and defending my PhD — roughly 4 months. While I can't share the final thesis yet, you can find my defense slides below, followed by some lessons learned in preparing for my defense.

The slides include some GIFs, so with 27MB the download might take a second. Also, make sure to view them in a PDF viewer supporting animations:

Lessons Learned

Preparing for my defense took significantly longer than I initially estimated. I thought it could not be too hard to put together slides of all my projects, given that I already gave a few talks and had slides for most of my papers ready. However, preparing a polished talk that highlights achievements, giving a good high-level intuition while at the same time demonstrating technical knowledge, was incredibly difficult and took multiple iterations. Besides, I wanted to talk to steer the committee's questions to some extent and make sure I will stick to the 30 minute limit. Here are some lessons I learned surrounding the preparation:

• Start preparing early enough: Even though I thought the preparation to take less time, I took some long weekends roughly one and a half months before the defense to start preparing the slides. Looking back, this was a great decision as I ended up working on my slides until the last couple of days before the defense.
• Schedule a practice talk: In my case, a practice talk really made a huge difference. Initially, I included too much content in my slides and it was good to get objective feedback on what to focus on, where more details and time is required and which topics can be covered with less details. I had the practice talk two weeks before the defense and I really used these two weeks to improve my presentation.
• Practice: Before the practice talk, I practiced the talk and timed it to the minute. This really came in handy in the end because it reduced stress as I knew exactly how to start or get back into the talk on each slide. During the talk this was also helpful as interruptions didn't break the flow of my presentation.
• Backup slides: Even though I did not end up using most of my backup slides, preparing them helped me to think about potential questions that the committee might ask.
• Test the setup: A day before the defense, I tested the technical setup. As my defense was hybrid, there was a lot that could go wrong — the virtual meeting room, the microphone etc. It really reduced stress to have it tested once before the defense. Some things that are important to keep in mind is that the setup should also take into account discussion and questions of the committee/audience which are sometimes difficult to handle in a hybrid setting.

Regarding the content of the talk, I found the following to work well — and I found a similar scheme can be found in many other defenses, as well:

• Fuse motivation with the outline: I ended up putting a lot of effort into a good motivation of my talk that also happened to reflect the outline of my talk. This really helped to tell a consistent high-level story throughout the talk.
• Highligh achievements: I feel that it was important to highlight the papers that I have published over the years — even those not included in the talk.
• Technical detail: For two projects, I decided to go into technical detail. While I did not have many technical questions, I got the impression that this was expected by the commitee. Of course, it was tricky to decide which projects to highlight in detail as this usually means that all other projects can only be covered on a higher level.
• Ignore some projects: In order to go into technical detail for few projects, I decided to not talk about three of my papers. I just mentioned this line of work in my conclusion and the introduction. Initially, I found it difficult to let go of these parts, but it helped to improve the focus of the talk.
• Have some slides on future work: An easy way to steer the discussion/questions after the defense talk are future work topics. Also, I found that these slides can be used to end the talk on a positive note by expressing your excitement about future research — note that I had these slides after the conclusion.

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Dissertation & Defense

Each graduate student must write a doctoral dissertation that includes significant original research in Computer Science. The student must successfully defend their thesis in a public forum before an Examination Committee and any other interested parties. The Examination Committee will decide the format for the defense. Typically, the student gives a 45-50 minute talk about their work followed by a public question period and then a private question period. All faculty are invited to stay for the private part of the exam.

Each student must present their work at a public dissertation defense. Please read the rules that apply to all oral examinations .

All dissertations must meet certain formatting standards and be filed with the University dissertation office. For details, look  here . For additional information contact the  dissertation office .

You can find recently completed dissertations  here .

Back to PhD program overview.

PhD Thesis Defence

Exploiting the interplay between visual and textual data for scene interpretation.

I successfully defended my PhD the 08/10/2020 and got an excellent Cum Laude. In this page the thesis pdf, the presentation slides, and a video of the presentation are made available.

Thesis     Slides

Dr. Josep Lladós (Centre de Visió per Computador, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Dr. Diane Larlus (Naver Labs Europe)

Dr. Francesc Moreno (Universitat Politècnica de Cataunya, Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial)

Thesis Director:

Dr. Dimosthenis Karatzas (Centre de Visió per Computador, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Thesis Co-Directors:

Dr. Lluis Gómez (Centre de Visió per Computador, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Dr. Jaume Gibert (Eurecat)

Machine learning experimentation under controlled scenarios and standard datasets is necessary to compare algorithms performance by evaluating all of them in the same setup. However, experimentation on how those algorithms perform on unconstrained data and applied tasks to solve real world problems is also a must to ascertain how that research can contribute to our society.

In this dissertation we experiment with the latest computer vision and natural language processing algorithms applying them to multimodal scene interpretation. Particularly, we research on how image and text understanding can be jointly exploited to address real world problems, focusing on learning from Social Media data.

We address several tasks that involve image and textual information, discuss their characteristics and offer our experimentation conclusions. First, we work on detection of scene text in images. Then, we work with Social Media posts, exploiting the captions associated to images as supervision to learn visual features, which we apply to multimodal semantic image retrieval. Subsequently, we work with geolocated Social Media images with associated tags, experimenting on how to use the tags as supervision, on location sensitive image retrieval and on exploiting location information for image tagging. Finally, we work on a specific classification problem of Social Media publications consisting on an image and a text: Multimodal hate speech classification.

• MyU : For Students, Faculty, and Staff

Final dissertation and thesis defense

Once a computer science doctoral student has completed their thesis, they may proceed to step #8 on the  graduation checklist  and assign their doctoral examination committee. Members should be updated to reflect who will serve as  committee  chair and who will serve in a reviewing capacity. Students should remember that an advisor cannot be the chair of the Final Defense Committee. 

The final oral examination committees must consist of at least four qualified individuals to include:

• At least three members (including the advisor) must be from your major field; in almost all cases, this will be someone whose home department is Computer Science & Engineering.
• At least one member must represent a field outside the major.

Things to consider:

• You must select a committee chair, the faculty advisor can not serve as chair.
• If you have declared a minor, at least one member must represent the minor field. This counts for the outside the major representative.
• Members cannot satisfy the requirement with respect to more than one field.

All members of the committees and the candidate must participate live either in-person or remotely, the presentation can not be recorded and viewed later by one or more committee members. The final oral examination committee is not required to include the same members who served on the prelim oral committee.

Thesis reviewers for final oral examination

• A minimum of three major field reviewers and one minor/outside reviewer are required. In the case of multiple minors, there must be a reviewer for each minor.  
• Advisor(s) must serve as reviewers.
• Every designated reviewer on the doctoral dissertation reviewer’s report must certify that the dissertation is ready for defense before the doctoral final oral examination may take place.
• Must represent the major on the final oral committees.
• The chair of the doctoral final oral examination committee may not be the candidate’s advisor.

Co-advisor (if any)

• May represent the major or the minor/outside field on the preliminary oral and final oral committees.
• May serve as chair for the preliminary oral examination.
• The chair of the doctoral final oral examination committee may not be the candidate’s co-advisor.

Copies of a student's thesis should be given to all members of the committee. It is important to note that all members of a student's committee read his or her thesis; although only those designated as thesis reviewers sign the form indicating that the thesis is ready for defense. Student's must notify their advisor and the other members of the committee at least two weeks in advance that the thesis will be delivered on a particular date. All members of the examining committee must then have at least two weeks to read the thesis after it has been delivered. The reviewers must decide unanimously that the thesis is ready for defense.  Upon completion of the review, designated committee members complete the Reviewer's Report form to certify that a student is ready for defense. All Reviewer's Report forms should be submitted to the Graduate Student Services and Progress Office at minimum one week before the date of a student's Final Oral Examination. 

Once a student's thesis is complete with all requested changes made, the thesis along with a cover page signed by the student and advisor must be submitted to  GSSP . In signing the cover page, the advisor is certifying that all requested changes have been made. Students will then be requested to submit a thesis online. The Computer Science and Engineering department also requests that students submit one bound copy of the final thesis to the department. Directions for thesis submission along with thesis formatting instructions can be found  here.

Final Oral Examination Procedure

Students are responsible for scheduling their thesis defense with the Graduate Student Services and Progress office via the  Final Oral Examination Scheduling  system at least one week prior to their defense. The student's thesis must be reviewed by his or her committee and the Thesis Reviewer Report form must be turned in prior to the student's defense.  The Graduate Student Services and Progress office will send a "Final Oral Examination Report Doctoral Degree" form to the chair of the Final Examination Committee, please note that this will not be a student's advisor. Students should verify that this form had been received by the Committee Chair.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering requires all Ph.D. students to hold their final thesis defense within ninety days of obtaining all committee member signatures on the " Reviewers Report on the Ph.D. Thesis" form which states that the thesis is ready for defense. This form is available in the  Graduation Packet  available for download at the Graduate School webpage.   Those who fail to take their thesis defense due to scheduling conflicts must resubmit this form to restart the 90-day clock.

To be awarded the degree students must receive no more than one dissenting vote from the total examining committee. Students must make all the necessary changes in the text of the thesis before it is bound. Students must observe all requirements, including submitting one unbound copy of the thesis with the signature of an advisor to the Graduate Student Services and Progress Office, before a degree can be awarded.

Graduate Education policy requires that all thesis defense presentations for doctoral candidates be made open to the public. To ensure transparency, the Computer Science Department requires doctoral candidates to make their full dissertation available to the public prior to the final oral defense. The availability of this copy, along with the time and place of your thesis defense must be communicated to  [email protected]  for dissemination through electronic mail to current graduate faculty and students, at least one week prior to your defense date. This announcement must contain a one-page descriptive abstract of the thesis to be defended, the name of the thesis advisor, the names of any co-advisors, and the URL of your thesis. To schedule the Final Oral Examination, the student must notify the Graduate school through the online system. The Computer Science front desk staff can assist with reserving a room if needed. to notify the faculty, peers and the general public of the Thesis Defense.    

After passing the final oral exam, students must turn in the signed  Thesis Defense Report Form to the GSSP office within 24 hours. Upon your departure, please remember to submit to the department a change of address, the name of your first employer (after graduation) and return keys you have for your office and/or the labs.

For questions about the final dissertation and thesis defense, contact the Graduate Program Coordinator: Current students:  [email protected] Prospective students:  [email protected]

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