So, what's the story?

Back in Japan, I used to assist in Technical Presentation and Technical Writing courses. Students were taught how to make their presentations/papers better. Topics covered range from grammar to powerpoints to proper pronunciation; they learned details of how to produce good materials. At the end of the semester though, most of them still delivered mind-numbing presentations and undecipherable papers. I thought the students were struggling with the language as they were mostly Japanese, but then when I moved to Singapore, where the medium of instruction is English, I still encountered the same drudging presentations and papers. It's not the language and it's not the technique. It's even simpler than that. In most of those materials, there is no story.

I've sat through a couple of presentations this week and reviewed two papers for an international conference. In all instances, I was bored to death. I almost fell asleep at one of the presentations and it took me two days to get through a 6-page paper as I couldn't get past the first two incomprehensible pages. While listening/reading, I kept asking myself, what's the story? Tell me a story instead of giving a bunch of technical mambo-jumbos.

Why is it too difficult to make a presentation that presents a technical topic in a story format? I realized presentations and papers can even follow the fairy-tale format, something that even young kids will understand. Consider these parallels between a fairy-tale and a technical presentation as a complete story arc:

• In a land far far away... >> Current situational context (social, technical, etc)
• Then an evil witch suddenly appears... >> The problem to be solved (technical, social)
• But there's a reluctant hero who can save the land... >> State of the art but with gaps
• The reluctant hero needs to get a magic sword... >> The proposed method that can improve state-of-the-art and solve the problem
• The reluctant hero battles the witch... >> Experimental or simulation details/results
• The hero prevails and the witch is vanquished... >> Discussion
• And they live happily ever after... >> Conclusion

If that seems too many to follow, consider these:

• What's the current situation and what seems to be the problem?
• Why do you want to solve it and what's your solution?
• Convince me with your result.

Dear students, please heed this advice. The next time you write a paper or prepare a presentation, ask yourself, what's the story that you want to share? And then write/tell it like a fairy tale.

As I strongly believe, proper story-telling is fundamental to sharing, discussing, and discovering ideas, which is what research is all about.

It’s more fun in the Philippines and unfinished websites

A new slogan by the Department of Tourism — “It’s more fun in the Philippines” has become viral among Filipino netizens. Unfortunately, a similar campaign slogan had been used by Switzerland in the 1960′s. If it worked for them then, it might work for us now. Some people even say that the slogan is not catchy enough, or that it doesn’t really capture what travel to the Philippines is all about.

Regardless all of the brouhaha, my only concern (actually, pet peeve) is the website for the slogan: http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/

Check it out and you’ll realize that there’s nothing in there but a couple of photos and a contact form. It seems that the website had been launched prematurely. Doing so makes me think that DOT is not yet ready with their campaign slogan, that this whole project is actually half-baked.

I had a similar experience with another website run by a start-up company. I was eager to do business with them but their half-finished website made me think twice.

If a website is the face of the company to the outside world, and especially if it is the primary point of contact between the company and its customers, then what does it say about the company and it’s products when it’s unfinished and unpolished? Would you do business with them? I won’t.

DOT better do their best with updating their campaign website.

Update: a couple of months after I wrote this, the website was revamped and now it looks nice and cozy. You would want to visit the Philippines after seeing this website.

Germany for graduate school

NAIST (My Graduate School Alma Mater in Japan)

For those looking for a good place to pursue graduate studies (in any field), Germany should be an option as shown by a survey by the British Council (read the article in BBC).

Language is not a problem in Germany as people speak English as well. Of course, to get the most of your stay, learning German is the best way to go.

OVERSEAS-STUDENT FRIENDLY COUNTRIES
1. Germany
2. Australia
3. UK
4. China
5. Malaysia
6. US
7. Japan
8. Russia
9. Nigeria
10. Brazil
11. India

In the list, I'm aware that Malaysia is a popular destination for students from the middle east, especially Muslims. I'm thinking that Brazil and Nigeria are destinations for students from Central America and Africa, respectively.

Despite the language and cultural barriers (for some people this is precisely the reason why they come), I believe that Japan is an excellent destination for grad studies: most labs do cutting-edge research, funding sources are abundant, and scholarships are readily available to interested students.

Update: It's 2014, I'm not sure if the ranking has changed.