Deliverable: Final Demo

You do not have to present your work to other students at the end of the project period, but you do need to give a demonstration to your supervisor and second marker. A demo session is organised in one of the labs a few days after the submission deadline. Most students give their demo then, but if necessary you can negotiate an alternative time with your markers.

The main purpose of the demo is to show what you’ve achieved in addition to the dissertation itself, and the second marker is probably the most important member of the audience (since presumably your supervisor already knows what you’ve done). Don’t assume that the second marker has already read the dissertation; they may not yet have had time, and some people prefer to see the demo first anyway.

So you should think of the demo like an elevator pitch, focusing on the big picture of what you’ve done, and why it was an interesting problem to tackle. You should begin with a very short presentation, using 3 slides at maximum. This should not be longer than 5 minutes. If you’re not sure what to put on your slides, one approach would be 1) the problem, 2) your objectives, 3) results.

It’s then up to you to decide what aspects you want to demonstrate, and what you want the markers to remember/understand when they leave the session. Immediately after the demo you should submit your slides and other demo materials (if any) to the Materials from Final Demo slot on MMS, in PDF or zip format. The demo isn’t marked separately, but it provides the context for marking the dissertation itself.