Hot Topics for Tech Talks? 28
HCIGuy asks: "A few of us are working within a local school of engineering and technology to set up a seminar series unique to the area. We envision a sequence of monthly seminars that focus on bleeding edge technology, presented by vendors' engineers, and attended by students, faculty, and industry folk. No marketing hype allowed; we want only the facts. We obviously want this to be of high interest to everyone, so we're asking for input on what topics would be of sky-high fascination right now. What would it be? We're leaning toward wireless for our first program, but all comments gratefully received. What topic would make you rush out and drive across town to hear it? We have only an hour and a half to commit to this, so the material has to be narrowly focused. We plan on holding up to six per school year, and we don't intend to hold over subjects from one time to the next."
High Speed Development using Python (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:High Speed Development using Python (Score:1)
my absolute favorite (Score:3, Funny)
Really, it's a special circle of hell.
suggested topics (Score:5, Funny)
Sex? (Score:2, Funny)
a few ideas (Score:4, Interesting)
Some companies provide loaner equipment to universities. It would be interesting to find something that is of interest/use on your campus and then get some hardware to play with. Videoconferencing equipment (end point stations and MCUs) might be a good start.
SIP and VOIP. This is something that is cool, fun and fairly accessible to folks with a decent network connection. And, if you have the energy, the administration on your campus might be interested to hear that it could save them money.
Games [gameai.com]. Games are an interesting and fun topic. With a bit of thought, a talk could be constructed that mixed fun with learning (grin).
Internet2 Days [internet2.edu]. Advanced Networking. If you are at a school that is involved in Internet2, there are resources that are available.
Microsoft Resrach Group [microsoft.com]. Evil blah blah yes, whatever. Say what you will, but they are still smart people. Your login indicates that you might be interested in HCI, so Dumais's [microsoft.com] site might be a good start. Other companies [hcibib.org] are also listed in various places.
GRID [gridforum.org]. buzz buzz buzz. You say that no marketing hype is allowed. Well, for all the buzz about GRIDs, the folks [gridforum.org] that can give you the skinny are prob to be found here. Depending on your location, asking one of them might just get a visit.
As you are at a university (and I am assuming you are in the U.S.), you might find that someone from the NSF would be able to give you some interesting insights into what they consider to be important, interesting and fundable. Again, not sure how successful you would be at getting anyone to visit, but it is a a starter for ideas.
Lastly, many of the folks that you might want to have present will be busy. It might be worth considering an interactive presentation over video. Sounds cheezy, but many folks are used to this type of presentation.
Grid Forum AntiHypp (Score:2)
Here's a one sentence description of Globus: It let's you execute programs on systems in different (virtual) organizations. The interaction between virtual organizations is where globus becomes useful. If you are only staying within your or
Some More Ideas (Score:2)
Electronic surveillance of citizens and of foriegn locations. The IEEE Spectrum magazine had a big article on this in a recent issue.
Computer Vision and Graphic analysis.. I have heard of faculty at various canadian universities creating computer vision programs to analyze traffic and spot abberant patterns (i.e. drunk drivers.) I have also seen demos of 3D models of sunken ships created using videos shot by divers who swimming over
Should be Buzz Word Driven (Score:2)
Sales Engineers or Nerdier Only (Score:3, Informative)
One good way to approach this is to invite local CTO's to come speak. Start by contacting the marketing group at a company -- they have the power to arrange for speaking engagements that the strong techs can speak at. Frame it as a way to get local students/engineers familiar with the company and for a chance to have the CTO to get a look at what recent grads are doing. Companies, during any market climate, are always looking for extraordinary talent and welcome opportunities to peek inside the local university. Note that if you do get someone with hiring power to show up, make it clear that unless okayed in advance, don't drop a 100 resumes on the person.
Another source to look at is the school's graduate program. Talk to the faculty about researchers that are comfortable with presenting and have some interesting research going on. You're bound to have a grad student or PhD candidate that would love to talk about what they do and you're certain to get a truly technical talk from someone who can answer real questions.
Being an electronic book fan (Score:3, Interesting)
wireless topic (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong I think this is a great idea. I'd drive across town for some thing like this. As long as the speaker had a clue and with others attending that would be interested in various topics worth discussing. And to meet that really hot geek chick that I know
What seminar would you drive for? VR (Score:1, Interesting)
1. Virtual Reality -- with a chance to get inside yourself. 3D goggles...
2. High End Graphics, e.g. wall of pixels.
3. Seeing and maybe trying on Wearable Computers.
Suggest mixing some academic project presentations with the industrial presentations. Import someone from the http://www.hitl.washington.edu/ or from Univ. North Carolina, where they do some cool VR work.
Fun talks (Score:2, Interesting)
Segway - it's sortof becoming a joke, but they are fun to ride. Find someone local who has one. Talk about the control system, give people rides. A local electronics distributor who wanted our business conned us into letting them give a short seminar on their line card by bringing 2 segways for us all to ride.
Robots - Any cool robot researchers in the area? Have them talk & make sure they bring
Bleeding Edge? (Score:1)
Re:Bleeding Edge? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not really a
Re:Bleeding Edge? (Score:1)
Possible topics (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure from the original article whether you're looking for mainly physical things, mainly software, or some combination of both, but here are a few ideas:
Content Management Systems (CMS's) (Score:1)
I cannot think of any topic of greater current interest to the average, non-technical person (ANP) than CMS. The interest in CMS's is soaring right now because ANP's want to be able to create & maintain a website without the intervention of a web professional. That's just one of the benefits of a good CMS. Others include the handling of workflow (e.g., ensuring that Editor B receives the article/document from Editor A o
Word of Advice.... (Score:2)
My advice would be:
1) Don't make it an open-ended seminar series. By that I mean, don't say "We're doing them from now on". The reason I say this is that sooner or later you're going to run into a roadblock to where either you can't figure out a topic, or you won't have someone to do it, or both. If you're starting off, do about four topics, then end it. T
What the BBC does... (Score:2)
NO FORMULAS, try and see if the talk is still interesting.
Faculty Research (Score:2)
Tackle the problem from the other end (Score:2)
You'll be lucky, with this kind of approach. The fact is that 98% of companies approached for this sort of thing will send out a salesman armed with the companies standard spiel. He may chuck in a bit of industry-wide background, but since all he knows how to do is to sell his companies kit, that is all he will do.
I would go the other way round. Find someone interesting and let him talk about whatever he wants to. One approach would be to write to the Ch
Re:Tackle the problem from the other end (Score:2)
Sometimes it is a good idea to allow a little compromise and tell the reps that you'd be okay with two or three company marketing slides, but no more.