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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

PowerPoint Tutorials
Presentation Design
January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Example of the six slides you'll learn how to create in this tutorial

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

Change the slide order
Reset your layout
Change the slide dimensions
Use PowerPoint Designer
Format text
Format objects
Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the Blank Presentation (1) thumbnail.

In the backstage view of PowerPoint you can create a new blank presentation, use a template, or open a recent file

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Picture of the different parts of the PowerPoint layout, including the Ribbon, thumbnail view, quick access toolbar, notes pane, etc.

Here is how the program is laid out:

The Application Header
The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Example of the Shape Format tab in PowerPoint and all of the subsequent commands assoicated with that tab

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

Online Pictures
Screenshots
Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as Duplicate Slide , Delete Slide , and Hide Slide .

Right clicking a PowerPoint slide in the thumbnail view gives you a variety of options like adding new slides, adding sections, changing the layout, etc.

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by right-clicking anywhere in this Pane and selecting Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

Content added to your PowerPoint slides will only display if it's on the slide area, marked here by the letter A

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The notes pane in PowerPoint is located at the bottom of your screen and is where you can type your speaker notes

The Notes Pane is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can click and drag to resize the notes pane at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen

You can resize the Notes Pane by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note: Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called Placeholders and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

Click into your content placeholders and start typing text, just as the prompt suggests

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Example of typing text into a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Note: For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the Autofit Options icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the Paragraph area of the Home tab of the Ribbon.

Use the formatting options on the Home tab to choose the formatting of your text

The Reset Command: If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Hitting the reset command on the home tab resets your slide formatting to match your template

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the Home tab and click on New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

To insert a new slide in PowerPoint, on the home tab click the New Slide command

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

Opening the new slide dropdown you can see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

Example of a number of different blank slide layouts inserting in a PowerPoint presentation

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

Title Slide
Title and Content
Section Header
Two Content
Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

Use the icons within a content placeholder to insert things like tables, charts, SmartArt, Pictures, etc.

On slide 2 we have a Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

A SmartArt graphic,
A 3D object,
A picture from the web,
Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit Ctrl+C to Copy and Ctrl+V to Paste from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Example typing bulleted text in a content placeholder in PowerPoint

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

Examples of text typed into a divider slide and a title and content slide in PowerPoint

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

A picture from the web

A picture placeholder in PowerPoint can only take an image or an icon

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

Click on the Picture icon
Find a picture on your computer and select it
Click on Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

To insert a picture into a picture placeholder, click the picture icon, find your picture on your computer and click insert

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only or the Blank slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

Example slides using PowerPoint icons and background pictures

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command: Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the Reset button up in the Home tab won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

Using graphics in PowerPoint
Inserting icons onto slides
Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
How to embed a video in PowerPoint
How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the Design tab in your Ribbon, and click on Design Ideas .

To use Designer on your slides, click the

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation, read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To change your slide size, click the Design tab, open the slide size dropdown and choose a size or custom slide size

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation, read my guide here .

B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it, read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

All PowerPoint presentations start with the default Microsoft Office theme

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the Design tab in the Ribbon, and click on the dropdown arrow in the Themes section .

On the Design tab you will find all of the default PowerPoint templates that come with the Microsoft Office Suite

For this tutorial, let’s select the Frame theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Example choosing the Frame PowerPoint theme and the third variant of this powerpoint presentation

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the Variants area, you can see four background options.

To change the background style of your presentation, on the Design tab, find the Background Styles options and choose a style

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

The background color automatically changes across all slides
The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

What our PowerPoint presentation looks like now that we have selected a theme, a variant, and a background style

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

You can either right-click a PowerPoint slide and select format background or navigate to the design tab and click the format background command

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

Gradient fill
Picture or texture fill
Pattern fill
Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Example of the theme colors we are currently using with this presentation

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

To change the theme color for your presentation, select the Design tab, open the Colors options and choose the colors you want to use

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

Go to the Design tab in the Ribbon
In the Variants area, click on the dropdown arrow and select Colors
Select the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Example of custom theme fonts that might come with a powerpoint template

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

To change the default fonts for your presentation, from the design tab, find the fonts dropdown and select the pair of fonts you want to use

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

Go to the Design tab in the Ribbon
Click on the dropdown arrow in the Variants area
Select Fonts
Select the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add an animation to an object in PowerPoint, first select the object and then use the Animations tab to select an animation type

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

Select the element
Go to the Animations tab in the Ribbon
Click on the dropdown arrow to view your options
Select the animation you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
Click on the little star next to the slide
Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the Effect Options , Advanced Animation and the Timing areas of the Animation tab .

The Animations tab allows you to adjust the effects and timings of your animations in PowerPoint

Note: To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button, read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

You can see the animations applied to your objects by the little numbers in the upper right-hand corner of the objects

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

Navigate to the Animations tab
Select the Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a slide, select the slide, navigate to the transitions tab in PowerPoint and select your transition

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

Select the slide
Go to the Transitions tab in the Ribbon
In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the dropdown arrow to view your options
Select the transition you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the Timing area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the Slides Pane and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

Click on the Preview button in the Transitions tab
Click on the little star beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note: In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition, see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

Click the file tab, select Save As, choose where you want to save your presentation and then click save

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

Navigate to the File tab
Select Save As on the left
Choose where you want to save your presentation
Name your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
Click Save

You can alternatively use the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

The save shortcut is control plus s in PowerPoint

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

The print shortcut is control plus P in PowerPoint

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

In the Print dialog box, make your selections for how you want to print your PowerPoint presentation, then click print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

How to print multiple slides per page
How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by visiting us here .

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20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+ Templates]

Published: January 17, 2024

When it comes to PowerPoint presentation design, there's no shortage of avenues you can take.

PowerPoint presentation examples graphic with computer monitor, person holding a megaphone, and a plant to signify growth.

While all that choice — colors, formats, visuals, fonts — can feel liberating, it‘s important that you’re careful in your selection as not all design combinations add up to success.

In this blog post, I’m sharing some of my favorite PowerPoint tips and templates to help you nail your next presentation.

Table of Contents

What makes a good PowerPoint presentation?

Powerpoint design ideas, best powerpoint presentation slides, good examples of powerpoint presentation design.

In my opinion, a great PowerPoint presentation gets the point across succinctly while using a design that doesn't detract from it.

Here are some of the elements I like to keep in mind when I’m building my own.

1. Minimal Animations and Transitions

Believe it or not, animations and transitions can take away from your PowerPoint presentation. Why? Well, they distract from the content you worked so hard on.

A good PowerPoint presentation keeps the focus on your argument by keeping animations and transitions to a minimum. I suggest using them tastefully and sparingly to emphasize a point or bring attention to a certain part of an image.

2. Cohesive Color Palette

I like to refresh my memory on color theory when creating a new PowerPoint presentation.

A cohesive color palette uses complementary and analogous colors to draw the audience’s attention and help emphasize certain aspects at the right time.

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It‘s impossible for me to tell you the specific design ideas you should go after in your next PowerPoint, because, well, I don’t know what the goal of your presentation is.

Luckily, new versions of PowerPoint actually suggest ideas for you based on the content you're presenting. This can help you keep up with the latest trends in presentation design .

PowerPoint is filled with interesting boilerplate designs you can start with. To find these suggestions, open PowerPoint and click the “Design” tab in your top navigation bar. Then, on the far right side, you'll see the following choices:

This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.

What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.

10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon

This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.

What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)

11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social

Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.

What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.

12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk

This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?

What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .

13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design

We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.

Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.

What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.

14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo

This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.

15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3

Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.

What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.

16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd

This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.

What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.

17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet

When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.

What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.

18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt

Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.

What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.

19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds

Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.

What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.

20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash

This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.

What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation

Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.

Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

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17 PowerPoint Presentation Examples That Show Style and Professionalism

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By Iveta Pavlova

in Inspiration

6 years ago

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17 PowerPoint Presentation Examples That Show Style and Professionalism

There are way too many bad PowerPoint presentation examples that can bore you to death. Well, today’s post is not about them. We believe that it’s always important to show the good examples out there and follow their lead. We admit it, it was pretty hard to dig out the good PowerPoint presentation examples from the mass. We’ve added our opinion on each piece and why we believe it’s worthy of being included in this collection. Let’s begin!

You may be interested in The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022

1. The Sketchnote Mini-Workshop by Mike Rohde

An eye-catchy PowerPoint presentation example whose content is fully hand-written. What we love about this design, is the high personalization level that is achieved via handwriting. It almost feels like the author is drawing and writing in front of the viewers’ eyes. A digital presentation that conveys a physical feeling.

2. 10 Ways to Spread The Love in The Office by Elodie A.

The following presentation is a real eye candy. We can’t help it, the cartoon style lives in our hearts. An incredibly appealing PowerPoint presentation that brings positive vibes and a good mood through vibrant cartoon illustrations. It gets bonus points for the usage of bullet points and little text.

3. The Great State of Design with CSS Grid Layout and Friends by Stacy Kvernmo

A presentation that tells a story is always a good example that everyone should follow. This PowerPoint presentation has a lot of slides that tell different mini-stories. The way they are depicted is really engaging – they almost look like a sequence of frames that make up a video. This technique really nails the viewers’ attention.

4. We live in a VUCA world by Little Dragon Films

A classy design of a PowerPoint presentation example – a dark theme and white font on top with just a single color accent – red. Such designs are really suitable for serious topics like this one. To soften the contrast between the black background and white font, the author has used a gradient on the background which gives the illusion of soft light in the middle of the design.

5. 2017 Marketing Predictions—Marketo by Marketo

A design that was made over a year ago but it’s still really trendy. In the following PowerPoint presentation example, we can see the combination of 3D shapes, beautiful hand-written fonts, negative space techniques, and more. The overall feeling is of futuristic design. Moreover, they used the color of 2018 – Ultra Violet for their color scheme. Maybe, they did predict the future after all.

6. 10 Ways Your Boss Kills Employee Motivation by Officevibe

Who doesn’t like to see a familiar face? We know your audience does! It’s proven that if you show a familiar face to your viewers, you nail their attention and boost their engagement level. This is the technique used in the following PowePoint presentation. Moreover, the inner slides of the presentation are also cartoons with big conceptual illustrations and little text. The formula for a really good presentation.

7. How to Successfully Run a Remote Team from Weekdone.com

We haven’t really seen many PowerPoint presentation examples with top-view illustrations. The following presentation really reminded us that when presenting to an audience, you should always think: How to make your design stand out from the rest? Well, this one really caught our eye. In addition, we love the bright colors, geometric shapes, and overall flat feeling, all of which are among the graphic design trends for 2022 .

8. SXSW 2018 – Top Trends by Matteo Sarzana

People love visuals and this is an undeniable fact. The whole PowerPoint presentation is built on high-quality photos, each including a little tagline in the middle. We love the consistency, we love the factor of surprise, and we love the high engagement level this presentation creates. Just make sure to back up such presentation type with a good speech!

9. How to study effectively? by sadraus

Semi-transparent overlays, geometric shapes, a video inside… Everything about this PowerPoint presentation screams “modern”. The grayscale coloring is accompanied by a fresh green color accent. The choice of images clearly suggests that the target audience is young people. The overall feeling that we get from this PowerPoint presentation – is youthful and modern.

10. Study: The Future of VR, AR, and Self-Driving Cars by LinkedIn

A presentation about the future should look futuristic, right? The following PowerPoint presentation example is proof that you should always connect the subject of your presentation to its design. Everything in this presentation speaks of futuristic: the choice of fonts, colors, effects, and even some elements look like holograms from the future.

11. 9 things I’ve learned about SaaS by Christoph Janz

A PowerPoint presentation example created in a consistent style by using a blue theme. Why did we include this presentation? We love the fact that the author has shown an alternation of text and visuals (from slides 7 to 22). This technique is proven to hold the attention of the viewer. Moreover, the way the graphics are presented (on a napkin) draws the interest even more.

12. How To Achieve Something Extraordinary In Life by Sultan Suleman Chaudhry

A PowerPoint presentation example that shows consistency and style by using a strict color scheme: orange, beige, and deep blue. Orange and blue are one of the most popular contrasting combinations widely used in all kinds of designs. If you are not sure what colors to go with, simply choose a tested color scheme.

13. New trends to look out for 2018 winter season by FemmeConnection

Geometric shapes and negative space techniques are among the graphic design trends for 2018 which is why we see them often in PowerPoint presentation examples and other designs. In the following presentation, we can see a collection of women’s clothes presented in a very engaging way with the help of rounded geometric shapes, negative space technique, and the color pink.

14. Fear of Failure by Sultan Suleman Chaudhry

Speaking of the usage of geometric elements in the presentation’s design, let’s see another example. An elegant design decorated with circles, triangles, and more geometric details. What else we love about this presentation is that it only has one color accent – light yellow which looks classy and pleasant for the eye.

15. The Three Lies About Your Age by Sean Si

A great choice of fonts, beautiful semi-transparent geometric elements, and trendy futuristic colors. This is one of the PowerPoint presentation examples that we absolutely love. The story is engaging and the design is extremely appealing – a combination that keeps the viewers’ eyes on the screen from the beginning till the end.

16. Secrets to a Great Team by Elodie A.

Bright, fun, using lots of illustrations and cartoon characters – definitely our kind of PowerPoint presentation. Why do we love it so much? Well, cartoons are real ice-breakers between you and your audience. Moreover, cartoon characters are easier to relate to than a real human face. If you need to connect on a deeper level with your audience, this is your kind of presentation!

You’d probably like to learn 4 Invaluable Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier

17. How to Build a Dynamic Social Media Plan by Post Planner

A great presentation PowerPoint example with watercolor illustrations and backgrounds that look hand-drawn. We also see semi-transparent colorful overlays, high-quality conceptual photos, and great, useful content. What more would you want from a presentation, right?

We always love to hear your opinion about stuff. So, what do you think of these PowerPoint presentation examples? Do you think that you’ve created a presentation better than these? We’d love to see your own creations in the comments below if you want to share them with us.

You may also be interested to read these related articles:

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Iveta Pavlova

Iveta is a passionate writer at GraphicMama who has been writing for the brand ever since the blog was launched. She keeps her focus on inspiring people and giving insight on topics like graphic design, illustrations, education, business, marketing, and more.

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Create and open

Create and open a powerpoint presentation.

Start collaborating with these quick instructions on how to create, share, and edit presentations on your own or with your team.

To convert your Google Slides to PowerPoint, go to File > Download > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx). Then open the file in PowerPoint. See more at Get started with Sheets .

Note: Features and information in this guide apply to PowerPoint as available through Microsoft 365.

Create a new presentation

Open PowerPoint.

Select Blank presentation , or select one of the themes.

Select More themes to view the gallery and search for more.

Add a slide

Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

Select Home > New Slide .

Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

When you save your files to the cloud, you can share and collaborate with others.

Select File > Save As .

Select a OneDrive folder and name the file.

After you save once to OneDrive, AutoSave is enabled that saves your file automatically, every few seconds, as you work.

Rename a presentation

Select the file name on the title bar.

In the menu that appears you can rename the file, select a new location to move it to, or see the version history for the file.

The drop-down menu from the document title in Word for Office 365

When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.

At the top of your Microsoft Office apps on Windows you'll find the Search box. This powerful tool helps you look up PowerPoint commands, get Help, or search the Web.

The Search box in action in PowerPoint with pictures being searched for,

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Blog Education How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

Written by: Aditya Rana May 14, 2024

What if I told you PowerPoint was not built for presentations but as a tool to brainstorm ideas? I know it sounds crazy now, but that’s exactly what Microsoft intended in 1987.

Fortunately, professionals saw a better use case — a way to make attention-grabbing presentations that effectively communicates information with employees, clients, and stakeholders.

A well-made (and well-delivered) presentation is key to organizational success as it informs, persuades, and facilitates decision-making.

In this post, I’ll show you how to create a PowerPoint presentation (for a better alternative to PowerPoint, use our Presentation Maker and presentation templates to make more effective slide decks).

Click to jump ahead:

How to create a PowerPoint presentation

How to create a PowerPoint presentation step-by-step

To create a PowerPoint presentation, follow these steps.

Open PowerPoint

Create a blank slide

Select a template

Choose your theme
Add a header and sub-header
Add your contact information (optional)
Insert additional slides
Add text to each slide

Add images and videos

Insert graphs and charts , add transitions and animations.

Use presenter notes
Arrange your slides
Save your presentation:
Deliver your presentation

The make a PowerPoint presentation, you first need to open the program.

To do this, click on the Start menu on your desktop and scroll through the list of apps until you find PowerPoint (hint: you can search for it and pin for faster access in the future).

If you’re using a Mac, click the Spotlight search bar on the top right of your screen and type PowerPoint.

Create a blank presentation

In PowerPoint, you can design presentations from scratch for maximum control over layout, color scheme, icons, and graphics.

If you don’t have time or lack design skills to design a presentation from scratch, PowerPoint offers presentation templates for a quick start.

To find presentation templates, click on the New tab on the welcome screen and type in a keyword that relates to the style or theme of your presentation such as “business” or “education”.

Choose a theme

Make sure you pick a template that reflects the theme of your presentation to standardize appearance of slides in terms of fonts, colors, and layout.

To pick a theme for your presentation, consider the audience and the context of the presentation.

For example, a formal theme is apt for business presentations while something more colorful would suit educational presentations like this nature-themed template.

Add a title and subtitle

The title and subtitle of your presentation is crucial to set the right tone and influence engagement.

Here’s how to optimize your presentation title and subtitle.

Title : A good title is concise (under 10 words) and grabs attention with powerful, action-oriented words or intriguing phrases.
Subtitle : The subtitle should provide additional information that clarifies or expands on the title.

Add your contact information (optional):

Though not always necessary, adding contact details to presentations is a good strategy when follow-up is anticipated or necessary.

Some types of presentations where you can include contact details include business, academic or research, and sales and marketing presentations.

Typically, contact details should be placed on the last slide of your presentation but you can also add it to your open slide.

Insert slides

If you’re editing a presentation template, you should already have multiple professionally-designed slides ready to edit.

If you want to replicate these slides, go to the Home tab and click New Slide (the top part of the button).

But if you’re creating a presentation from scratch or want to add a slide with a different layout for text, images, and charts, here’s what you need to do.

Go to the Home tab and click on New Slide but this time click the bottom section of the button (small arrow) to see different slide layouts options.

Add text to your slides

Though presentations are generally visual, text is crucial for communicating your message effectively.

To add text to your slides, click on a text placeholder and begin typing. If you need to add a new text box, go to the Insert tab, select Text Box, and then click where you want the text box to appear.

To format text, go to Home tab and look for the Font group. This is where you can change the font style, size and color which is important to ensure your text is attractive and legible.

Tip: Use bullet points and numbered lists to organize your text. Bullet points are great for listing items and making the slide look neat and organized, while numbered lists are ideal for steps or processes.

Here’s a great example of a slide deck that uses bullet points to great effect.

Visuals, such as images, graphs, charts, and graphics make presentations effective and engaging if they are relevant to the topic.

Here’s an example of a presentation that uses graphics to make slides more eye-catching to look at.

Inserting images in PowerPoint is a straightforward process. Simply click on Insert and then select Pictures to either add visuals from your computer or from the web.

PowerPoint also provides basic image formatting options such as resizing, repositioning, and ability to add style and effects such as brightness, contrast, effects, and borders.

You can image formatting options by selecting a visual and selecting the Picture Format option.

Adding charts and graphs to presentations is a great option when you want to present data, whether it be company data or results from a scientific study.

PowerPoint allows you to add several chart types , including common options such bar charts , line graphs , and pie charts .

To insert a chart in PowerPoint, click on Insert and select Chart. You will then be prompted to select a chart type that best suits the data you want to present.

Adding transitions in presentations is a powerful way to control movement between slides and enhance flow of information, maintain audience engagement, and emphasize key points.

When choosing a transition, keep the following points in mind.

Define your audience: Consider your audience and the context of your presentation. For example, a professional presentation should use subtle transitions like fade or push as they are less distracting.
What purpose does it serve: Dynamic transitions such as 3D effects make sense when you want to highlight a major point or a shift in topic.

To add a transition between slides, click on the slide you want to apply it to and then click on the Transitions tab. The transition will affect how this slide appears as you move to it from the previous slide.

Besides transitions, you can also add animations to text and objects in your presentation to emphasize key points and keep the audience engaged.

Use presenter notes

Presenter notes allow creators to add information and reminders to slides but keep it hidden from the audience.

To add presenter notes, select the Click To Add Notes option on the bottom of a slide.

Arrange your slides (if needed)

Reordering slides in PowerPoint is straightforward and can be done via a drag-and-drop interface. This makes it easy to structure your presentation to suit your narrative.

Save your presentation

Once you’ve completed your presentation, it’s time to save it for future use. To do this, click on File and select Save As (Ctrl + S if you prefer to fast). If you have already saved the file and are updating it, click Save.

Make sure to use a clear and descriptive name that reflects the content of your presentation.

Deliver your presentation

Delivering a presentation is as important as its content and design. To ensure an engaging delivery, here are some essential tips to consider.

Maintain eye contact: There’s nothing wrong with using presenter notes but don’t become too reliant on a script.
Control the pace : Speak clearly and at a moderate pace to ensure the audience has time to absorb the information.
Use non-verbal cues: Body language can influence how your message is received so make sure to use gestures and movement to make your presentation more dynamic.

Conclusion: Make better presentations using Venngage templates and wow your audience

PowerPoint presentations, though great, are outdated. Everyone has seen the same templates thousands of times which makes it difficult to make presentations engaging.

To spice up your presentations, why not use a Presentation Maker that offers appealing presentation templates that require no design skills to edit. With Venngage, impactful presentations that inform, persuade, and help drive decisions are guaranteed!

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How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.

Quick Links

Add a QR code
Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
Embed a Live Web Page
Add Links and Menus
Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners

May 16, 2024

2024 Social Work Award Winners

The signature event of Undergraduate Research Week, the Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) has been held on the University of Illinois (U of I) campus since 2008. Over the course of the day, students present their work in concurrent oral and poster presentations (including creative performances), the breadth and scope of which reflect not only the wide range of academic disciplines at the University of Illinois, but also speak to the caliber of our undergraduates. Their projects demonstrate the ongoing institutional commitment to supporting and expanding research opportunities at the U of I and beyond.

Outstanding Performance:

An Examination of a Local Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA): Creating Accessible Resources for Schools (Outstanding) Fynn Levery, Junior, Social Work, SSW Noah Rawls, Sophomore, Social Work, SSW (Research Mentor(s): Rachel Garthe, Social Work)

Poster Presentations:

Impacts of Climate Change on Access to Healthcare among Vulnerable Populations: A Scoping Review of Health Disparities and Access Issues (Outstanding) Victoria Ferrara, Junior, Social Work, SSW Ainslee Wong, Senior, Psychology, LAS (Research Mentor(s): Tuyet-Mai Ha Hoang, Social Work)

Understanding the Narratives surrounding Guaranteed Income (Outstanding) Illakkia Ranjani, Junior, Econometrics & Quantitative Economics, LAS (Research Mentor(s): Christopher Larrison, Social Work & Chelsea Birchmier, Psychology)

Honorable Mentions:

Exploring Diverse Experiences with Anger among Incarcerated Women (Honorable Mention) Christine Kwon, Senior, Social Work, SSW (Research Mentor(s): Rachel Garthe, Social Work)

How Many School Social Workers Are in America? (Honorable Mention) Arielle Britten, Junior, Social Work, SSW Ethan Kye, Junior, Social Work, SSW Tracy Mason, Junior, Social Work, SSW Brandon Seidensticker, Junior, Social Work, SSW (Research Mentor(s): Brenda Lindsey, Social Work)

See the full list of Social Work presentations

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Students Impress in 2024 UREP Project Presentations

New York Tech students and Associate Professor Cecilia Dong in front of a poster at UREP

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May 14, 2024

Pictured from left: Angily Ally, Ishaan Singh, Isha Kaur, Associate Professor Cecilia Dong, Mekan Agahanov present their poster “A Study on the Current Effects of Flash Floods in NYC on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure.”

Undergraduate student research continues to thrive at New York Tech, with the 30 College of Engineering and Computing Sciences students showcasing their projects on May 9 as part of the Undergraduate Research and Entrepreneurship Program (UREP) providing the most recent evidence.

Presenting their projects on topics ranging from developing green roofing systems for urban agriculture and using AI in dentistry to building robots to mitigate unsolved home invasions, studying the impact of flash floods on electric vehicles in New York City, and much more, the eight teams comprising students from both New York campuses highlighted the findings of their group research or entrepreneurship projects conducted under the guidance of faculty mentors. UREP provides each team with $500 to cover the cost of supplies and materials; the projects can run for a single semester or extend to multiple semesters for teams pursuing further development.

Since the spring of 2018, more than 300 students have participated in this program established by Associate Professor Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D. , who welcomed faculty, staff, students, and other attendees to the seventh annual event.

Addressing the student participants, Dean Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D. , said, “All of you have had a chance to work closely with the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences faculty in an undergraduate research project, which is a really valuable experience for you personally and professionally, and an amazing thing to put on your résumé for whatever pursuit that you have in mind after graduation.”

Teams featured undergraduate students, ranging from first through fourth year, and from programs including computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. Most teams were co-ed. Presented projects included:

2024 UREP Projects and Teams

Comparative Study of Hydroponic Plant-Disease Detection Systems Team members: Joseann Boneo, Best Justus, Alysar Tabet Faculty mentor: Houwei Cao, Ph.D.
Identifying Dental Cavities from X-Ray Images Using Cnn Team members: Sarah Allrozamo, Tanuza Abdin, Hannah Ocampo Faculty mentor: Huanying (Helen) Gu, Ph.D.
Thermoacoustic Refrigeration Team members: Sheikh Ahmar, Jericho Lee, Ernesto Rosas Romero Faculty mentor: James Scire, Ph.D.
Home Invasion Detection and Preventio Team members: Shan Caballes, Dani Gulino, D’ron Strapp, T’ron Strapp Faculty mentor: Kirti Mishra, Ph.D.
Level Crossing Analog to Digital Converter Representation Using Chebyshev Polynomials Team members: Pavan Kanakkassery, Emilio Santana-Ferro, Damian Sarjudas Faculty mentor: N. Sertac Artan, Ph.D.
AI Detection in Creative Writing Team members: Elijah Ewers, Vighanesh Gaund, Cheuk Tung Ho, Wedad Mortada, Tanat Sahta Faculty mentor: Wenjia Li, Ph.D.
Interactive Visualization Tool for NYC Open Data Team members: Ali Elshehawi, Ali Khachab, Guang Wei Too, Alan Yuan Faculty mentor: Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D.
A Study on the Current Effects of Flash Floods in NYC on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Team members: Mekan Agahanov, Angily Ally, Isha Kaur, Ishaan Singh Faculty mentor: Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D.

Beheshti noted that the variety and depth of the projects speak to the hard work that the teams have put in. He recognized and thanked the faculty mentors and reiterated to the students the importance of this experience gained by “handling an open-ended problem, outside of your classroom, that you owned, and you managed to take from an idea to a concept” and beyond.

By Libby Sullivan

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