Source: Happy Monday

Why should a software developer engineer become a speaker and how to explain a complex technical subject accessibly in a short time? Experts from AMC Bridge IT company, which will hold the annual D3D—Demystifying 3D Development—IT conference online on October 23, are sharing their experience of public speeches and advice.

Kyrylo Nazarov, Technical Expert, AMC Bridge

I first spoke on a technical topic in 2015 while working at AMC Bridge. The director of my department invited me to tell colleagues about the technology we used: a library for geometric modeling in CAD. Nevertheless I was a junior at that time, the presentation was entrusted to me because I had been working with this library for almost a year and had a lot of experience and fresh examples. It seems like it went pretty calmy, as I think, due to my experience in this technology and non-technical speeches.

After that, I gave a few more in-house presentations at the company and one on splines at our first D3D conference, where I was considerably anxious: the audience was less familiar, and the responsibility was greater. Having received many questions during and after my speech, I understood that the best feedback is when the Q&A part continues during networking.

Despite all the anxiety, I like to perform. It is always an interesting experience, even when I do it over and over again.

Public speaking has many advantages. For example, it makes you prominent in your team, company, or the development community in general. You get motivation and opportunity to explore better and deepen in your work or study topic. In my opinion, this activity is a learning process for an attendee and speaker.

Understanding that speaking is yours. Trying is the best approach. I would advise you to start with matters that you know well and have examined in practice.

To have a positive first experience, discuss a topic of your choice with friends or teammates and research it slightly on forums. You will understand whether your problem is “hot” for a target audience. Is the subject interesting, and do people want to listen to it? This is a good sign for you to prepare a speech.

Talking about a technical matter accessibly

From my experience, most things can be explained in simple words. But we must admit that sometimes they work only for a superficial introduction to a complex topic. And yes, this is OK because the main point of most presentations is to provide general information on a subject and raise people’s interest in this subject. If so, my advice is to avoid complex technical details, substituting them with engaging examples and hints for the audience on what to do if they want to learn more.

A decision on which details to cut out is one of the biggest problems for me in this case because many technical matters are either impossible or very difficult to fit into one presentation. Therefore, you need to define the main parts about which you want to tell. If having too much information for a single presentation, you should tell about something simple or important at first. If the audience gets interested, the cutout material should become your subsequent presentation.

If you aim to explain complex technical details to the people who know the subject well, my advice is to concentrate on the material but not on the structure. The goal of this case is to answer as many questions that may arise as possible.

Preparing a presentation

Structure

My regular presentation includes around 40 slides divided into the following sections: introduction, main information, examples or demonstration, conclusion.

I determine the time that the simple points require and allocate the rest to more complicated matters. This process is always iterative. During working on each presentation, I delete or add something until a presentation satisfies me and fits in one hour.

Keeping attendees’ attention

Presentations should not be too complex because they will lead to loss of attention. My recommended solution is interesting examples and digressions from the main point. For example, you can show how some 3D graphics technology works in games when talking about this technology. Such a demonstration is more engaging than showing abstract examples.

During the preparation, I often search for the presentations of others on a similar topic. This practice helps me understand what to do and what not to do in my presentation.

Illustrations and demos

Professor Tadashi Tokieda once said that in mathematics, particularly in geometry and topology, the ability to visualize your thoughts by drawing is crucial. As almost all my presentations are on geometry and geometric modeling, illustrations are essential to me. One picture is better than any amount of words in most cases. I use demo code seldom; it helps me show how you can do a difficult thing.

Interacting with audience

During the preparation, I look at each slide, asking myself, “Can I make this information more interesting?” If there is an opportunity for interaction with the audience, most likely, I will use it. For example, if there is a good reason, I will ask the audience a question or their point of view. If there is no reason, I will not try to forcibly add the interaction where it is not worth it.

Rehearsals

You should hold several rehearsals alone and with your colleagues among your target audience. You will learn which points should be enhanced and, maybe, get ideas for add-ons. Believe me, every rehearsal levels you up as a speaker.

Oleksandr Syniakov, Director of the Engineering Department, AMC Bridge

Back in high school, I was fond of game development, and my first commercial software development experience was at the end of school and the start of university. I studied programming in applied mathematics and was interested in graphics, C++, and low-level programming. In 2009, I joined AMC Bridge as a C++ developer, where my knowledge proved to be very valuable for developing CAD systems. In general, I dealt with multiple tasks the company had at that time: physics-related and low-level development, architectural solutions, and so on.

I got my first experience of technical speaking in 2011 when the new C++ standard came out. I wanted to conduct a two-hour in-house seminar for our team to show how the update changed the code writing. Every slide was a two-column table showing the old code side by side with the new one. It was clear why the new standard was more efficient and safer than the previous one. I received great feedback from my colleagues, and the number of presentation views on SlideShare amazed me—over 30,000.

At some moment, the company generated the idea of a conference where all our colleagues could summarize their knowledge and present it to others. That was the beginning of the Demystifying 3D Development (D3D) conference. As AMC Bridge’s expertise is in engineering software development, the conference agenda was obvious—computer graphics. We extended the agenda later with adjacent subjects: solid-state physics, collision detection, robotics, AR/VR, 3D printing.

D3D conference in 2019

All our speakers have the same motivation—to summarize their knowledge and to share it with others.

To be honest, my desire to speak in public was and remains minimal. But, I immediately participated at the first conference and devoted my presentation to collision detection because of my strong desire to summarize my knowledge gained in the programming of solid-state physics.

Of course, it was just impossible to include everything I knew into one presentation. But, within an hour, I managed to share the most important things I’ve gained over many months and years if to look more broadly. So I was delighted. This presentation even inspired me to write a complete training course for the AMC Bridge trainee developers. Those are labs for beginners to write a mesh editor. After completing this course, a trainee becomes a junior.

D3D is like a mini version of the Siggraph® annual conference and exhibition in the field of computer graphics and interactive methods. There are still no such conferences in Ukrainian IT after all. At D3D, you can learn about tools and technologies for more effective creation of the engineering software for such industries as robotics, aircraft and mechanical engineering, architecture, and construction. They should also be useful for game development, financial, and healthcare projects and in general to anyone interested in technology and engineering.

This year’s D3D 2021 Live online conference will take place on October 23, starting at 10:30. The expert levels are middle, senior, technical expert, and technical project manager.

At the conference, you will:

• Learn how a multithreaded visual programming system for 3D modeling was developed from scratch.
• Have a look at the implicit-modeling technology, its features, and its usage in modern CAD.
• Listen to various approaches for creating a digital image of a real object and what kind of future awaits geometric modeling.
• Find out what improvements developers will get from the fifth version of the Unreal Engine® real-time 3D creation tool.
• Understand what PLC is, how it suits the simulation of industrial robots, and how to program it.
• Hear about modern web technologies that enable the creation of an application with performance capable of competing with desktop versions.

If interested, you can register at the conference website.