Prepare your thesis defense with AI, from the thesis to the committee's questions.

The thesis says everything; the defense shows only what the committee needs to see. A session usually runs like this:

• The title, your name, the supervisor and the university.
• An outline of the parts.
• The problem and the aim: why this research was needed.
• The method: sample, data and tools, short and clear.
• The findings: the key figures and tables, each with one message.
• The conclusion, the contribution, the limits and next steps.
• Thanks.

Ask your faculty how long the talk is; it's usually about twenty minutes for a master's and more for a PhD. About one slide a minute is enough, and give most of the time to the findings:

• Introduction and problem: about a fifth.
• Method: about a quarter.
• Findings: about a third.
• Conclusion and next steps: the rest.

In Goftito you set the session from 8 to 45 minutes and each slide gets its own time, adding up to those minutes.

The slide is for the committee and the talk is for you. Have a few spoken sentences for each slide, not the thesis's written ones:

• Read the talk aloud and time it; reading silently is always shorter.
• Listen to the talk read aloud to learn its rhythm and where to pause.
• For each figure, say what it shows, not what it is.
• Learn the opening and the close by heart; carry the rest with the slides.

Most questions are about a few recurring subjects. Have a short answer for each, drawn from the thesis itself:

• Why this method and not another?
• How was the sample chosen, and how large was it?
• Where did the data come from, and how reliable is it?
• What were the work's limits?
• What does this research add to earlier work?
• What is the finding good for in practice?

1. 1

   Give the thesis

   Open the “Defense session” tab under “Papers & Thesis” and give up to five Word, PDF or text files, plus the university logo. Figures and tables come across better from Word.

2. 2

   Length and questions

   Choose the session's length, how many committee questions you want and the colour scheme, and see the cost estimate.

3. 3

   Read and edit

   Read the slides, the talk and the questions and answers, and change whatever needs it; editing costs nothing.

4. 4

   Download and practise

   Download the PowerPoint, the talk and the questions and answers, and make the talk's audio to practise with.

A page of the fourth chapter of a made-up thesis on solar cell efficiency, with one figure and one table. The slide made from it:

• Title: temperature and cell efficiency.
• Figure 4.2 as it is in the thesis.
• Three points: efficiency falls as it warms; from 18.4 to 16.1 per cent; the biggest drop above 45 degrees.
• The talk: forty-five seconds, with the table's own numbers.
• Examiner's question: why was nothing above 60 degrees tested? Answer from chapter three: the rig's top temperature was 60 degrees.

There is no number on the slide that isn't in the thesis, and the answer comes from the chapter that describes the method.