Passed the exit seminar

Before they let students submit their thesis at my uni they require the students give a half-hour talk about their research. It's attended by as many big-wigs as they can get, and the student is evaluated on how well they have done the research and on a piece of writing the student submitted (usually a chapter of the thesis).

I had my exit seminar on Wednesday and was very nervous about it. The main issue that was bothering me was that I had about 40 minutes of powerpoint slides to get through in 30 minutes.

What really happened was much worse! I arrived about 20 minutes before the seminar and tried to get set up. The technician that was hooking everything up found that my laptop wouldn't connect to the projector. So we tried two other computers which failed as well. Finally the tech went back to his desk and got his laptop which seemed to work. So, one problem solved.

The talk was being video-conferenced to Cairns. We could see the room, but there was no-one in it. For quite a long time. As it turned out, my other supervisor was locked out. She called security to come and let her in, but there was an emergency nearby that required an ambulance so no one came to unlock the door until the seminar was nearly over.

Meanwhile I started my talk but the laptop I was using wouldn't show the same thing on the screen as the projector was showing. So there I sat at one end of the room trying to squint near-sightedly at the screen at the other end of the room. And try to act cool and collected. And try to sound smart enough to be getting a PhD.

At the end I got a lot of good comments from my friends and colleagues, and some advice from the bigwigs about how to finish the writing up of the thesis. Whew!

Now, back to the writing!