Presentation requirement
Chem. 524, Spring 2013
(Modified
from Syllabus) PRESENTATION: Each team of two students will present a
"sales pitch", both presented orally with power point slides to the class and handed in as a written summary with an attached copy of the powerpoint presentation, to justify the purchase of a
currently available commercial instrument to solve a research or analytical
problem. They will detail its components and argue why those components are the
best possible (including cost-benefit trade-off) choices for some particular
experiment that will solve the problem chosen. Presentations will include
results of comparison
shopping to show why competing
instruments are not as good for the particular application. This is the kind of
presentation you will be required to make to your supervisors to gain funds for
new instrumentation in the "real world".
NOTE: This is decidedly not a
seminar or lecture or lesson.
Your presentation must be designed to convince
the listener about a specific targeted application, not educate in general. The
goal is to convince your
boss to get you the money to buy an
instrument. It needs to be focused and to the point, argue your point about how
to solve just the problem you have chosen, no peripheral pedagogy.
The evaluation depends on the appropriateness of the solution to the problem,
and its cost effectiveness. But it is not the best or fanciest instrument or even the cheapest solution
that wins; it is the most appropriate one for solving the
problem.
DO NOT try to teach a lesson about a certain kind of
spectroscopy
propose to solve the problem -- this is selling not teaching.
Selection of a problem. Students in pairs must
decide on a problem they wish to solve or attack with a spectroscopic tool. You
should choose something of intrinsic interest to you since working on that will
make the research easier and the presentation more compelling. For example this
might be a topic you have read about that catches interest, e.g. pollution
monitoring of
Select a Technique. Choosing a technique will depend on the
analyte, time scale, sensitivity level needed etc. You need to think this through
before settling on a problem and method. Any of the techniques that we cover in
class will be appropriate--see later chapters of the book or the syllabus.
However, your argument must establish that your technique will be the best
choice within some working constraints--e.g. there might be better ways to
analyze for a specific species but perhaps you might only need a certain level
of sensitivity or accuracy due to some realistic conditions, you must justify it. For example, perhaps you
want to monitor a process, so speed of sample throughput could be a more
important issue than sensitivity or perhaps sensitivity is more important than
selectivity, you must decide what is important and
sell it to us, i.e.convince us. You may propose simple or
complex approaches, the point is to defend your choice.
Select an instrument. Choose a vendor and specific instrument
that can solve the problem at hand. The important issue is fit to the problem, not quality
in some absolute sense. The choice could be cheap or expensive, it depends on
the problem and what is needed to solve it--you must defend the choice. I can give you
leads for vendors, and many are already linked on the various notes pages of
our course Web Site, but Analytical Chemistry publishes instrumentation issue
each year, as does Physics Today, Spectroscopy, and several other magazines.
Previous students have found that Web sites of companies often offer the best
detailed information, if available. If all else fails, direct contact via
e-mail or telephone can get you answers. In the end you need the answers, must get them and
communicate them to us.
Get competing vendors. You must have at least two alternate
instruments (3 total, minimum,
more are useful), preferably from other vendors that you show are not as
good as your choice--for the problem you propose.
Make a summary of the strengths of your choice and the weaknesses
of the competition. Charts or tables work well for this. Remember to include
specifications. Price is an
important variable--after all you are asking for part of your group or
division budget to be spent on your idea, you must defend it! (However,
getting approximate prices is fine, do not harass sales people.)
Prepare presentation, (aim for ~20 min., brief but directly on
target will be rewarded) using an organized selection of PowerPoint slides that
are useful for communication and for keeping you on track. These must succinctly
convey your idea, your main points, not just lift items from web sites or
present long tables. All members of the team must share in the oral
presentation (divide up your time by topic/section/instrument, whatever works)
and contribute to the written one. Use of Power Point to prepare professional
looking slides is an important skill for a scientist, and you will eventually
need to master this since it reflects approaches you will take in the outside
world. (The
Department has a projector if you need practice.) Keep it interesting and on target -- succinct
justifications get a reward.
Write up a summary (4-6 pages) of your problem, the
solution technique, justification for the best instrument and detailed
comparison to its competition. Data from companies can copied from brochures or
the Web and be submitted as an appendix (no need to retype them), but in addition
a compact/tabular summary of the main points of comparison on these data sheets
is required. Above all, a carefully written but succinct discussion is required for a top grade.
Due: hand in written summary plus a copy of your
presentation at the
next lecture after your presentation.
Timing:
Presentations start in mid April, depending on
volunteers. We may need extra sessions. E-mail (tak@uic.edu) me a list of partners
and your topic by Feb.18, 2013, in the morning.
Bottom line: Focus on something specific and tell us how to solve
it efficiently and economically for the situation you have chosen.