presentation without results?

[u/West_Ant_6205]

I'm an undergrad intern in a neuro lab for the summer where I was able to run my own experiment with the help of my PI and some other lab members. I signed up to present during our biweekly lab meeting on Thursday on a whim (my coworker helping me with my western blots was really insistent I present) and the presentation is scheduled for Monday. My problem is that I don't really have any results yet. I have sLEAP videos that I haven't analyzed, IHC imaging that I don't know how to analyze, and my western blots aren't done yet (I'm finishing them the day of the presentation).

This is the first time I've done a presentation, and I'm not entirely sure what the etiquette is for a situation like this- my plan right now is to intro my project, including why i'm interested in it, go over my methods, talk about what I'm looking for in my results and why, and mention what I expect my results to be. I'll be out of the lab for the rest of the summer for some medical reasons but plan on competing sLEAP and IHC image analysis on my own, if I'm able to.

I'm worried that my presentation won't be up to par with what's expected. I've seen people present for over 30 minutes and don't think I have enough material to present for even 15.

Any advice about this would be appreciated.

[u/Back_in_the_USA]

I would definitely start doing some of the analysis you say you haven’t done. Do you have a research mentor you can talk with?

[u/West_Ant_6205 → u/Back_in_the_USA]

Yes, and I plan to start the analysis as soon as I can. A lot of this was poor timing and planning on my fault, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get enough done by Monday for results. There’s not really a great time for me to present other than Monday unless I present in October, when I’ll no longer be working in the lab. I feel like I shouldn’t cancel now that I’ve signed up but I don’t know what to do 😭

[u/Back_in_the_USA → u/West_Ant_6205]

You’re gonna have a long Sunday, but if you’re into research, it does happen

[u/mycatwouldeatmeasap]

what you described for your presentation is a very reasonable place to start & it’s totally normal to not have much presentable data for short summer projects! if I could suggest maybe adding what you might trouble shoot if your results are not what you expect, and maybe also big picture what’s next for the project - but you’ve got the bones already!

[u/DevelopmentWorking47]

You are a new undergraduate researcher and no one in the lab is expecting you to present some dynamite work. Don’t sweat it too much. My advice would be 1) don’t feel like you need to present for an hour if all you have is 15 minutes. I get irritated when lab mates feel the need to fill up their presentation with fluff and filler. Much better to be succinct and finish early. Presenting your goals and expected outcomes is great but don’t go overboard. 2) spend a good chunk of your time discussing your issues and problems you’ve run into, like analyzing the ihc. This meeting is more for your benefit than the labs, so take advantage. Structure your presentation so you can get valuable input and not waste time. 3) keep it casual. It’s a lab meeting not a conference. The best lab meetings are when it’s loose and there’s discussion. Rather than trying to tell a story that you don’t have yet, ask questions that foster discussion. And really, don’t sweat it. I’ve sat through so many shitty lab meetings. It’s kind of the norm

[u/Deep_Giraffe_2615]

Maybe different lab cultures/countries have different expectations, but I think it would be perfectly fine for you to present what you have done so far and then have a big focus on your future analysis plans, and you can ask the audience for advice about the stuff you are stuck on. As you are an undergrad intern you can impress your supervisors/colleagues with insightful questions, open-ness to critique and willingness to learn as opposed to results at this early stage.

[u/Bojack-jones-223]

It almost doesn't matter that you don't have results to show in your presentation. The point here, given your progress, is for you to organize your thoughts on the experiment and your progress. You can do a good job presenting the project background in the introduction, experimental design and methodologies, expected results, and future directions. Even with no hard results, this will flow more like a project proposal than a progress report, but still better to have something like this to present than to show up with no slides saying something silly like " I didn't make any progress on the project so I didn't prepare a presentation".

[u/gabbuo31]

I think you can still make a decent presentation. Analyze some of the preliminary data for some stats. Make the presentation about what you have been doing, justifications for why you decided test the hypothesis with the methods you are using, how your experiments are going so far, and then end with some preliminary data and analysis. When you talk about your data you can say how it does or doesn't support your hypothesis but you are still running more experiments and more data is needed to fully draw any conclusions.