Capstone Presentation

A lot of people are amazed when I tell them that I get nervous speaking in front of people. I guess it depends on the situation. I love to talk, that is true. I just don't like to give presentations. If I'm not prepared for it, I choke and then I freeze. It's pretty bad. I usually have to practice at least 5 times on my slides to feel somewhat comfortable.

On Thursday my group presented our Capstone project to our design advisor. We met an hour before hand and practiced as a group. During the first two rehearsals, I just messed up and couldn't think of something to say. Actually, I just couldn't start the slides. So I wrote down what I would like to say and practiced hitting the key points. The guys took a break, but I knew I had work to do. I asked Bryan, one of my team members, to read the previous slide before mine and introduce my section. I practiced my slides three more times by myself and each time it was a bit better.

I managed to calm down and focus on what I need to present. Our advisor finally showed up and I was glad it was just him. It was originally planned that we were going to present to him and his graduate students. My part of the presentation was great. I didn't stumble and I spoke loud and clear. I made eye contact and delivered my section with ease. I breathed a sigh of relief after it was over. I did it.

My teammates all have different techniques for presenting and they were telling me to "wing it." If you know me just a bit, you'll understand that I don't do that. I prepare and I practice. I memorize a lot of things and that's how I learn. I remembered that back in 11th grade, my English teacher had us memorize all 40 prepositions. In order to do so I wrote them out in alphabetical order 5 or 6 times. When I took the quiz, I pretty much wrote it out from memory. That's the same technique I used to memorize my "lines." If I say it a few times, it'll eventually stick.

That was only the draft presentation. Our real midterm presentation is right before Spring Break. Then the final presentation is mid-April. I believe it'll be on the last day of classes or the reading day after that. Okay. I need to do some research on Robotic curriculums. (My independent research assignment.)

(Taken from my blog - My So-Called Engineering Life)