Expert: Dan Smith - 8/16/2004

Question
 Hi,
    Iam a student from India doing my engineering. Iam planning to present a paper on Artificial Intelligence but I dont know much about presenting a paper. What is the process involved? And is my job over with submitting the paper or do I have to answer questions on that subject.
     Will be very glad if u reply.
 sam.

Answer
What you will have to do depends on where the paper is to be presented. If you are presenting a paper at a conference of academicians, for example, the conference itself will have guidelines that you should inquire about and follow. Your fits step, of course, will be to submit the paper, usually the full paper and an abstract. It will be reviewed. If it is accepted, you will generally be asked to prepare a reduced oral presentation, perhaps with visual aids of some sort, that you will give. At some conferences, papers are also presented by preparing a set of posterboards summarizing the study that are placed during a specified time in a gathering area (perhaps a  hallway in the convention center) near where people interested in that topic are gathered. In such cases, the authors of the study are expected to be on hand to discuss their work, but there is no formal, spoken presentation as a rule.

You should check with the organization hosting the meeting or convention to learn the guidelines for submission and presentation. I can't answer you for a specific event with much specificity.

If you are planning this for class you are taking or perhaps as a presentation of your graduate thesis, you should ask your instructor or graduate committee what will be expected of you. Again, those things are highly individual, and the only way to know for sure is to just ask the people in charge.

In either case, if you are preparing a spoken presentation, you should prepare a summary of your research and conclusions to present in that manner. Practice it before some of your friends to get comfortable with it.

Sorry not to be of more help.