BE graduate students are each expected to give a presentation at the Bioengineering and Toxicology Seminar (BATS) during the fall of their third and spring of their fourth years. This seminar series is intended to provide graduate students in the Department of Biological Engineering with a valuable experience in public speaking and in the presentation of research findings. As such, all students in BE must register for 20.200 for the fall and spring terms each year (1-0-2 units credit; P/D/F) and attend all of the weekly seminars. Faculty and students are reminded that no BE graduate student will be excused from speaking in the seminar series for any reason; missed presentations must be rescheduled.
BATS Objectives:
As a speaker:
- Practice giving a science talk
- Develop your communication skills
- Connect with the BE department
- Gather feedback on projects
As a listener:
- Develop the ability to critique scientific talks
- Practice asking critical questions
- Exposure to science outside of your field
- Learn from the challenges and success of other projects
BATS Expectations:
As a speaker:
- Prepare a well-developed talk that fits the guidelines
- Engage with your audience to present something they can comprehend
- Interact with the Comm Lab to improve your talk
As a listener:
- Attend all BATS talks
- Ask questions and evaluate their work
- Develop your skills at evaluating talks
General guidelines:
- Speaking assignments are made by online submission form at the beginning of each semester; students will receive information from BE-IT regarding sign-ups
- Coordinate with your advisor to make sure they can attend your talk
- Each presentation should be 15 minutes, with a question period afterwards
- 2 weeks prior, speakers will receive a request to submit a title, abstract and photo by Monday 8am the week of their talk. This information is used in email promotion, flyer creation, and posting to be.mit.edu/bats
- Presentations are loaded onto a single laptop, coordinated and provided by BE-IT who will be on hand to setup
- Please show up at 11:50AM, 10min before the start of BATS, to join BE-IT and get set up your presentation
- A good BATS talk should be more than a data presentation. It should tell an interesting story and keep the audience engaged and intrigued.
- A BATS talk should have the following components:
- Introduction (background, knowledge gap, main message)
- Methods and results (what you did, your results and what they mean)
- Summary/conclusion