It's All in the Presentation

“The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires constantly to be wound up” -- William Hazlitt (British Writer, 1778-1830)
All of us are asked, from time to time, to make a presentation of some sort.  Today’s post aims to help you get started on preparing a presentation when the clock is ticking.

When you are presenting to an audience of colleagues who are conversant with the topic, you probably already have a good framework in mind when preparing the presentation.

Other times, however, you are presenting to an audience who has, at best, only a vague notion of basic concepts of your topic.  The audience may be composed of corporate executives, laypeople, or even scientists in other fields of research.

Preparing for such an audience requires a different strategy.  I suggest that you begin with two quick sources that will provide the parameters you need to begin organizing your thoughts.

Wikipedia
Google
Wikipedia is viewed askance by many in the technical community.  Push prejudice to one side … look at Wikipedia as a good source for helping you to frame the basic concepts you wish to convey, in a way that non-experts can understand.

Pretend, for the moment, that you have been asked to present on the topic of sulfur as it affects solid oxide fuel cells.
First, visit Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) and enter the search string “solid oxide fuel cell”

The result includes  …

///////
Result of Wikipedia search: “solid oxide fuel cell”
[EXCERPT]"
Introduction
“Solid oxide fuel cells are a class of fuel cell characterized by the use of a solid oxide material as the electrolyte. SOFCs use a solid oxide electrolyte to conduct negative oxygen ions from the cathode to the anode. The electrochemical oxidation of the oxygen ions with hydrogen or carbon monoxide thus occurs on the anode side. More recently, Proton Conducting SOFCs (PC-SOFC) are being developed which transport protons instead of oxygen ions through the electrolyte with the advantage of being able to be run at lower temperatures than traditional SOFCs.

“They operate at very high temperatures, typically between 500 and 1,000 °C. At these temperatures, SOFCs do not require expensive platinum catalyst material, as is currently necessary for lower temperature fuel cells such as PEMFCs, and are not vulnerable to carbon monoxide catalyst poisoning. However, vulnerability to sulfur poisoning has been widely observed and the sulfur must be removed before entering the cell through the use of adsorbent beds or other means.”///////

Second, visit Google©.  This is trickier than Wikipedia, because, as you know, you can spend days wandering in the Google desert until you stumble on that oasis of information that you can actually use.  Plus, since time is of the essence, you want to restrict results to full text.  Try this …

Google Search String tip: in the search box, enter the following search string …
sulfur "solid oxide fuel" pdf
Results will include only items that include the words sulfur and PDF, and the phrase “solid oxide fuel.”

One result, for example, is the following thesis.  Theses are excellent for this purpose.  They nearly always include a thorough discussion of the background of the thesis topic, and a sentence or two describing why the author thinks he can contribute to progress in the field.

///////
SULFUR-TOLERANT CATALYST FOR THE SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELLA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering

 Joe Frank Bozeman Iii (2010)Master of Science in Engineering (MSEgr), Wright State University, Renewable and Clean Energy, 2010
Abstract
JP-8 fuel is easily accessible, transportable, and has hydrogen content essential to solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) operation. However, this syngas has sulfur content which results in a poisonous hydrogen sulfide that degrades electrochemical activity and causes complete SOFC failure in some cases. The goal is to synthesize and verify a cost-effective, catalyst supported on cerium oxide that either stabilizes ionic conductivity in the presence of hydrogen sulfide and/or is highly sulfur-resistant. After thorough computational analysis, it was concluded that the platinum-copper skin catalyst was the most cost-effective, sulfur-resistant catalyst. Experimental synthesis of copper, platinum, and platinum-copper skin catalysts supported on cerium oxide was verified. Further experimentation must be performed to establish the platinum-copper skin catalyst supported on cerium oxide operational affects on the SOFC system in a sulfur environment.
Full Text Available At: http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Bozeman%20Joe%20Frank%20III.pdf?wright1276835949 ///////

So, the next time you are presented with a presentation project …

Visit Wikipedia
Explore Google (or Yahoo! or Bing) with a carefully crafted keyword search

And remember to bookmark the Desulfurization Blog (www.desulf.blogspot.com) for future time-saver tips on researching the technology of your choosing.  Better still, add a feed of the Blog to your organization’s Web.